Outside Looking In

Thanks for the memory
Some people have fond memories of Thanksgiving with all the great food, conversation and football.
I have a not-so-fond memory that dates back many years that comes to the forefront of my memory bank about a week or so before Thanksgiving every year.
While growing up in Tracy, an elderly neighbor who lived directly across the street from my family had lost his wife and, feeling sorry for his loss, my parents invited him to our house for Thanksgiving dinner one year.
He was told to come over to our houue a little before noon to enjoy a feast with us. My mother always went overboard with every meal she cooked. There were only four of us in my family, but she cooked meat, potatoes, vegetables, salad, rolls and a dessert for every evening meal. When it came time for a holiday meal, she cooked like we were running a homeless shelter.
The neighbor came over an hour before we expected him to and stood in the kitchen and directed my mother on the correct way to cook certain foods.
"That's not the way my wife cooked that, or my wife used sour cream in her mashed potatoes, or my wife would use homemade bread for her stuffing," he would tell my mother.
It took a lot to make my mother mad, but I swear there was more steam coming out of her ears than out of the pots on the stove.
She would just smile and tell him if he didn't like the taste of something, there would be plenty of other food to eat.
When it was time to sit down for the meal, the neighbor told us that we shouldn't drink anything until we were completely done eating (I can't recall what his reason was, though), nor should we ever mix the food on our plate.
My folks asked the neighbor if he would say grace at the table, but as I got older, I realized that was probably to keep him from criticizing for a few moments more than anything.
Eating the meal went about the same way as the preparation work had gone: "This would be better with this ingredient, my wife made mashed potatoes that were fluffier, the gravy is a little too salty for my blood pressure" and on and on.
When the meal was over, my dad put the football game on the television and plopped down in his favorite chair.
The neighbor stayed through two football games, giving his commentary on every play: "They should have run the ball, they should have passed, they should have kicked" and on and on.
Finally, he decided it was time to leave. As he put his coat on, it was as if the governor was giving all of us a reprieve.
It's been over 50 years ago, but I can still remember the way my parents quickly turned their heads toward one another when the neighbor said "I look forward to doing this again next year."
As Thanksgiving rolled around the following year, the neighbor spotted my dad outside and told him how sorry he was that he wouldn't be able to make it to our house for Thanksgiving again that year because he was invited to a relative's home.
My dad nearly broke his leg racing into the house to tell my mom the news.
I doubt my sister or I got much sleep that night with all the dancing going on upstairs.

Gamble paid off
After the Minneota volleyball and football teams qualified for the state tournament again this year, local businesses purchase support ads for a section in the Mascot that includes photos of the tournament.
Because most tournaments are held on consecutive days, it's much easier to include the three-day tournament news and photos of volleyball, basketball or wrestling than it is for football, which is spread out several weeks. This year, the state football tournament is played over four weeks instead of three so as not to conflict with Thanksgiving.
The question I asked myself is should we run the football section after the semifinals in case the Vikings don't reach the championship? Because we had to print the paper a day earlier than normal due to Thanksgiving, I had to decide if the football section should run this week or hope they win so it can run after the championship game?
If they lose in the semifinals, the championship edition will feature local ads, but little about Minneota.
Odds are much greater to bet on Minneota to win than the alternative, so I decided to hold off on the edition.
Thanks for not letting me or the fans down again!!!