Today’s holiday is all about leftovers, so in honor of that I’m re-running a post I wrote last year on Thanksgiving. It’s also in honor of this being the first year that Birmingham and I won’t get to see each other on Thanksgiving morning and partake of our ritual of listening to “Alice’s Restaurant” together. This year, it will just be me and Micki as his family has kidnapped him and taken him to Rhode Island. Enjoy, and please take a moment to comment, if you don’t mind. No one did last year (shameless, I’ve become…)
Now it all started four Thanksgivings ago - four years ago on Thanksgiving when Birmingham was visiting me in my apartment, but Birmingham didn’t live in the apartment, he lived in Poughkeepsie, in a house with his parents, and his sister, the doctor. And livin’ all the way up north like that, it was a special occasion when he would come and visit the apartment I lived in. Havin’ all that time together, seein’ as how I wasn’t meeting my parents for dinner until the afternoon, we decided that we could sit and listen to Arlo Guthrie on the radio.
Now friends, being only three months since Birmingham and I starting dating, and being the consenting adults that we were, there was only a few things we coulda done at my apartment, and the first was we could have sat there quietly contemplating the brave honesty of the music, which wasn’t very likely, and it’s kind of a silly song anyway, and the other thing we could have done was fall asleep and miss most of the song in the vicinity of two minutes into the song, which is what I expect will happen this year, but there was a third possibility that I hadn’t counted upon, and that was spending the entirety of the song consenting. You know what I mean. And I said, “Birmingham, I don’t think I can meet my parents with this afterglow on.” He said, “Shut up, kid. Come back to bed.”
That’s what we did, and then I met my parents at the restaurant and we had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat. And when I think of them twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each was, I think of what I’m thankful for most, and that’s the time I get to spend with my friends and family and listening to that song on the radio every year at noon. And Alice. Remember Alice? It’s a post about Alice.
13 responses so far ↓
Gregory // November 22, 2007 at 9:26 am
No comment
Happy T-Day, CCT!
Aw, that’s comment enough. Have a happy, yourself!
nancypearlwannabe // November 22, 2007 at 10:20 am
Birmingham is with you in spirit!
Happy Thanksgiving, lady. Have some seitan for me.
He is, and on the phone, too. You better believe I’ll have double helpings of seitan!
stefanie // November 22, 2007 at 10:26 am
I read that post and I thought, “OK, there’s something I’m not getting. There’s more here than I realize, right?” Being the smart girl I am, I Googled the lyrics. I get it now.
Also, I should really brush up on my Arlo Guthrie, obviously.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I took a chance, and acknowledge that some people aren’t rabid Arlo Guthrie fans.
Allie // November 22, 2007 at 10:44 am
I love that post! It’s brilliant! And those are the kind of leftovers that are even better the second time around.
I heard a new(er) recording of Alice’s Restaurant on our local college station yesterday. It was awesome. It’s one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions too!
Thanks! I think I’ve heard the updated one once. It was with his daughter, right?
rdl // November 22, 2007 at 11:11 am
love Alice, hey it’s almost noon here, maybe Alice is on here. enjoyed yr. post
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Thanks, you too! I hope you find a good radio station that complies!
Allie // November 22, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I came in at the middle of it. I didn’t hear his daughter, but there was an awesome story about Chip Carter telling Arlo they found the Alice’s Restaurant record in some things Nixon left behind at the White House.
Arlo Guthrie makes me giggle. I saw him in concert about 10 years ago. He was awesome.
I don’t want a pickle . . .
I love him based on that one song alone…
Allie // November 22, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Oh! And Happy Thanksgiving!!!
You too!
Aaron // November 22, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I said I would comment on all thirty posts, and I do not disappoint. Happy Thanksgiving, Noelle/Christmas Tree/[name removed to protect identity]!
I still have the contest going! So happy Thanksgiving to you too!
stilettoheights // November 23, 2007 at 9:04 am
you sexy beast you!!!!
Loved that you said you were “consenting”
happy turkey 1 day late!
That’s about as risque as it gets at the Daily T!
Lara // November 23, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Awww - too cute. Happy Thanksgiving, Noelle! I hope you’ll get to do some consenting when Birmingham returns.
If we do, I’ll never tell…
mickey // November 26, 2007 at 8:47 am
And your parents read this?! I thought my family was understanding. Good post.
lizgwiz // November 26, 2007 at 11:03 am
Excellent!
I saw Arlo in concert a few years ago, and he’s added so much to the song, it’s about a half an hour long now. And hilarious.
Hope // November 29, 2007 at 10:23 am
Yeah, this song is the bane of my Thanksgiving morning and my fiance always tries to take over the radio so I can’t change it during the whole damn…what…twenty minutes? Maybe if I were uh…concenting…instead of driving in traffic I would appreciate it more.
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