thanksgiving blues

No, I am not sad about yesterday being Thanksgiving and I spent it alone. But it does remind me of the loneliest day of my life. A chance to reflect...

It was 1991, a year to remember indeed. My grades were awful and I dropped out of college in June. I decided to join the US Navy and did so on August 1st. I had my 21st birthday a week before I left for boot camp and then spent the next three months wondering what in the hell I had gotten myself into. After boot, my orders were to report to Nuclear Field "A" School on November 14th with my classes starting on December 2nd. Two weeks of 'smurfing' before school started up and Thanksgiving was right in the middle.

Since I had dropped out of school, I had managed to keep in touch with a friend from OU named Jessica Rabbit. No, its not her real name but its what we called her (for obvious reasons). Jessica had moved to Orlando, which is where I was now stationed and she told me to come have Thanksgiving dinner with her and her family/church group. How wonderful! While I couldn't be with my family for the holiday, I could be with a friend and her family/friends.

I gave Jessica a call on Tuesday to verify our plans. She said with regret that she was going to be celebrating Thanksgiving and her recent engagement with his parents in Pennsylvania. She was sorry for the late notice but he had just popped the question on Sunday night and they were heading out of town. From that point on, she sounded like a Charlie Brown school teacher - "Blah blah blah blah, blah blah-lah blah." To this day I have no idea what she said after that (and truth be told, I have never heard from her since).

So when Thanksgiving Thursday came just two days later, I decided to try my best to get out and do what I could to make the best of a lonely situation. The weather is beautiful in Florida during that time of year and I strolled off the base in search of something to do and a decent place to eat. Of course you can all see where this is going and as everyone knows, Thanksgiving in the US means that EVERYTHING closes up and people spend it with their families. Even the Chinese restaurants were closed.

I managed to find a diner open and serving their blue plate special (turkey with stuffing - go figure) where I ate with the other lost souls who had no one to eat with on Thanksgiving. There was not a table that had more than one person sitting at it, including mine. We all were alone and I wasn't going to go sit down with a total stranger and break the trend.

So I ate my dinner, paid the $9.95 (plus drinks) and wallowed my way back to the base. I was so glum that I called my parents collect to hear a friendly voice but got no answer - even they were out with others. I felt pretty crappy that day but every Thanksgiving since, I have been surrounded with family or friends. I say my own thanks on that day for never having gone through another Thanksgiving like that. While yesterday was the first time since 1991 that I was alone on the day of Thanksgiving, it wasn't a bad day. I am thankful for the family of expats that I ate with the day before, my adopted family since I have none over here.

Just a trip down memory lane...