WE GATHER TOGETHER by Edward L. Woodyard

We Gather Together Chapter Sixty-One

Annie Drexler helped her mother spread a large lace tablecloth over the mahogany dining room table. Sam had added three leaves to accommodate the fourteen people who would be sitting around the table at Thanksgiving.

"Dad says that Ben's bringing a girl home for Thanksgiving."

"Yes. Her name is Alison. And I am sure she is very nice."

"He hasn't had a girlfriend since Lauren Abrams."

"He didn't say she was his girlfriend. And their relationship status is really none of our business."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"Jack will be joining us?" Julia asked her daughter.

"I think so. He lost his job."

"Not to worry. Every man loses at least one job in his life. Your father included."

"With two kids at home?"

"Try three. You and Drew were in diapers. It wasn't easy."

"How'd you do it?"

"Dad stayed home with you kids until things got sorted out at the plant. I had my certification and went back to teaching third grade."

"What was the secret?"

"We never let money come between us."

Julia's comment sent a shudder of recognition and realization through Annie.

Cara stood at the ironing board in the kitchen, having finished spraying, ironing and folding linen napkins which Courtney handed to her grandmother, "Here you go, Grammy."

Annie took crystal white wineglasses from a sideboard, "I'm going to rinse these, Mom."

She joined Cara in the kitchen.

Courtney stared at the lace tablecloth. "That's pretty, Grammy."

"It belonged to my great grandmother. It was made in France over a hundred and fifty years ago."

"That's a long time ago."

"When you get to be my age, it's not so long ago."

From the den, Sam had heard Julia's comment and recognized it in himself.

Annie smiled as she entered the kitchen. Cara collapsed the ironing board and put it away in the back-hall closet. "Here goes Mother with the family history lesson. I heard it every time I helped her set the table."

"It's wonderful. Courtney should learn all of it. Every time I asked my grandmother about Italy, she'd say 'You don't want to know what it was like.'"

"Instead Courtney gets to learn about Wasp traditions."

"Traditions give you a sense of self, Wasp or otherwise."

Annie retorted, "Let's just hope she doesn't become repressed."

"Don't worry," Cara answered, "Her Italian blood will take care of that."

Annie and Cara both nodded to each other as they saw Courtney watch Julia take the pair of silver candlesticks Sam had polished the day before and place them in the middle of the lace tablecloth. Julia then explained their significance to her eldest granddaughter. "When we sit down at the table for Thanksgiving, it isn't just us sitting in here and eating. There are also a lot of other people with us too. They're in this tablecloth and in the family china which my grandparents gave Grampy and me when we were married. And they're also in these candlesticks. They once belonged to Grampy's great grandmother, Sarah Harris McCulloch. She brought them from England before she became a bride. Her parents gave them to her. They had been in the Harris family for generations."

"So, they're all at our table too," Courtney said, "Not actually, but in our thoughts."

From the den, Sam had heard Courtney while he watched Jason and Kelly finish their handprint turkeys. He was realizing that it was the duty of older generations to light a path into the future for their families by illuminating these treasured memories of the soul. He then heard Courtney ask Julia, "Is everything old at Thanksgiving?"

"We like to add new things to the table when we can. Like when your mother and father were married, it was a tradition in your mother's home at Thanksgiving that lasagna was always served. So now we have lasagna too."

Overhearing the conversation in the kitchen, Cara turned to Annie, "My Lord, I forgot."

"Guess who's going shopping?" Annie said, rinsing wineglasses at the sink. Cara went into the living room to pull a blanket over a sleeping Lindsay on the couch.

Courtney turned to her grandmother, "I know what's new this year. My baby sister, Lindsay."

Julia hugged Courtney as Sam entered the living room with Jason and Kelly. They showed her their handprint turkeys. "Hey, Grammy," said Kelly, "gobble went the turkey."

"And I could gobble you up, Kelly. We'll decorate the serving table with them. Do you want to help me and Courtney?"

"Sure."

"And Jason and I will decorate the place cards," said Sam as he led his grandson back into the den, "Jason, did I ever tell you the story about the first Thanksgiving dinner my great grandmother Sarah Harris McCulloch ever cooked for my great grandfather, Old Jake?"

Annie and Cara watched Jason shake his head no. "Dad's been waiting years to tell him this story."

"I love this story," said Cara.

"You haven't heard it all your life," Annie observed.

Sam and Jason sat on the couch in front of the coffee table. "Jason, my grandfather told me this story when I was about your age."

"Sam," said Julia from the dining room, "why don't you concentrate on the place cards for now?"

Sam turned to Jason as he picked up the place cards and some small colored feathers, "I think we better listen to Grammy."

"Good idea, Grampy."

In the dining room, Kelly and Courtney watched Julia place a mahogany chest of silver flatware on the serving table next to their handprint turkeys. "Are we going to have Pilgrims and Native Americans at our Thanksgiving too?" Kelly asked.

"We're going to have Squanto and William Bradford," Julia said. She extracted two small child-made painted clay figurines from her "T-giving" box. "Your uncle Scott made these when he was a young boy and they're always on our table."

Courtney wondered aloud, "I know who Squanto and William Bradford are, Grammy. Who's Uncle Scott?"

From the den, Sam overheard Courtney's question and turned to look into the dining room. He saw Julia staring at him. They both turned away from each other. Sam then spread the stack of decorated place cards out in front of him and Jason on the coffee table.

Julia wrote "Scott," "Ben," and "Emma" on a yellow sticky note at her desk which she stuck to her cell phone as a reminder to call them.