Text Box: daughter brought her boyfriend over. She was smiling a lot and not complaining about anything really, other than she is back to work and working too many hours after being off for two years. Still she is way too happy. After dinner she surprises me with the message that she and her significant other are going to get married in the spring. I take a long hard gulp of Beaujoule and try to keep from falling on the floor, while nodding and smiling and trying to look nonchalant the whole time. Inside, my mind is racing and trying to figure it all out. Where are they going to live, what will he bring to the marriage, is he really a good guy? Can he handle her? She shows me the ring and says they want to get married in the spring in Hawaii, but not sure they can afford it. They also announce that they have been engaged since February. Ok, now I get it, they want some financial help to get to Hawaii. Life is now back to normal, it all makes sense to me, timing is everything. Regardless, Text Box: I’m so happy to see her happy, I wish them a long and wonderful life together. Meanwhile other groups are in dialectic conversation, such an eccentric crowd, what would the great grandparents say? They are responsible for all this you know. One, 3 member family group, decides to leave early, life has not been so kind to them and they express it in words and deeds. We somewhat feel sorry for them but also question their motives for putting themselves in the situations they get in. The father, on his own starts to help himself to leftovers, which is sort of ok, but my wife likes to plan and divvy out accordingly. Still there is forgiveness; til I found out he took my turkey stuffing…. All of it! Understand that my favorite food on Thanksgiving day is my homemade leftover stuffing that is in the bird. I always make extra for the bowl, but my personal treat is what is left in the bird at the end of the evening. He took Text Box: different shapes and sizes. What we feel like is two pecans in a can of mixed nuts. Families know certain things about each other that the outside world has not grown up with and doesn’t realize or care about. They just like you for the person that they met and that you are. The in-laws and out-laws on the other hand wonder about you. You say nothing but ponder in your mind “I’ve always been different from them.” Like their political views, or I don’t endlessly go on about how much I hate my job or co-workers, or my life, etc, etc. My eardrums plead and bleed for relief from their misery. So I ask myself, why do I listen to their diatribe? But I must, this is family, I must be nice to them. However I do have my own issues but no one asks, no one wants to listen to me, so I sit humbly, listening, nodding my head, secretly glancing at my watch, hoping the day passes swiftly. This year at Thanksgiving my Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: From The Editor (cont. from page 2) Text Box: The Holidays (cont. from page 2) Text Box: Text Box: Continued on page 4 Text Box: Tom and Anna Moots by the basement door. Hattie Moots is to the left. From what I have been told, Hattie lived in the basement. Her parents lived upstairs. Hattie never married. Tom and Anna lived next door (the house now owned by Larry Schultz?). Hattie and Tom where brother and sister. Text Box: My house when the Moots owned it. Text Box: Standing on the front porch of my house is Anna Moots holding the baby. Hattie Moots is in the middle and an unknown girl on the right.

The Maiden Rock Press

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