I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week and parked in the empty lot beside the building. As I climbed out of the car, Jake stuck his head out the door and asked if I needed any gas. “What are you doing here?” I asked. The store was supposed to be closed as it was Thanksgiving Day and Jake had invited me over to his house for dinner. Jake grinned and said he had just come over from the house to pick up a can of cranberry for the wife. I stepped on inside the store with Jake so as to be out of the chill breeze that was sneaking up under my jacket. I heard a noise and little Ellie came racing into sight followed by a boy I had not seen before. Jake barked at the children to tone it down a bit or to go outside where their energy would not be hemmed in by shelves of canned goods and grocery items.
“Who’s the little boy?” I asked Jake as the kids raced off toward the back of the store. Ellie was, of course, Jake’s granddaughter, down from Jersey with her mother, Chrissy, and father, Paul, for the Thanksgiving weekend. Jake claims Ellie is the most beautiful grandchild in the world and he may be right. The boy, as it happened, was the Reverend Johnson’s grandson who had come down from New York City to stay over the weekend. His name is Jeremy Richard Evansford Johnson, which is quite a mouthful, so everyone just calls him Taterbug. I expressed my surprise. I had not known Reverend Johnson had a grandson. Jake looked at me with that accusing eye of his. “For someone who does so much writing about the folks of Soagie, there’s an awful lot about us you are ignorant of. Might do you good to get out of your studio on occasion and get to know your neighbors a little better.”
I got all defensive and explained I stay shut up in my studio because that is where I do the work that pays the bills and allows me to have money to come by the store and buy the expensive gas Jake sells and grab some of the fine barbecue Jake makes on weekends. Jake came back that the gas he sells was no more expensive than any place else around. In any case, I was getting out from my work today and having Thanksgiving with Jake and his family and I thanked Jake for inviting me over. Jake responded he and Maureen were glad to have me. They thought of it as a return favor for the business my Charlie’s articles in the paper brings into the store.
Jake called to the kids it was time to go and they came whooping up from the rear of the store and out the front door. Jake locked up and I followed him across the road to his modest brick house. Inside the air was crowded with the smell of food. Pail Jones came up to shake my hand and Chrissy stuck her head out of the kitchen to say she clipped my piece on the Wooly Bears and showed it to all her Jersey friends. None of them could believe anyone in this day would put any faith in little caterpillar worms to predict weather. The Reverend came back he has problems believing anyone could put any faith in the Weather Channel to predict the weather. That observation got a laugh from everyone. Maureen, Jake’s wife, called out if I wanted iced tea with my dinner or did I prefer something else and I told her tea would be just fine. Jake said that was a good choice because the supply of “something else” at this house was strictly limited.
Taterbug came into the room followed by Ellie who piped up for us all to be quiet as Taterbug was about to entertain us with a comedy show. We obediently quieted down and Taterbug stepped under a floor lamp to begin his performance. “Good afternoon," he said. “I am Jeremy Richard Evansford Johnson and I am here to entertain you with a show of wit and humor. Does anyone know what Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, said when he saw a dozen elephants come charging over the hill? He said, ‘Here come a dozen elephants over the hill!’ Now how many of you know how to tell an elephant from a blackbird? An elephant is gray and the bird is black, of course! How many of know what Jane, Tarzan’s wife, said when she saw a dozen elephants come charging over the hill? She said, ‘Here come a dozen blackbirds over the hill!’ Jane is color blind, you know. How do you get six elephants into a Volkswagen bug? You put three in the back and three in the front!”
The Reverend leaned over to me and whispered he had found an old book of elephant jokes in the attic and gave it to Taterbug when he arrived on Tuesday. The jokes were old and we had heard them as kids, but Taterbug’s energy and delivery mad for a right amusing show. The performance was brought to an abrupt end when Maureen called us to dinner. We trooped to the table loaded with turkey, dressing and all the other things that make for a traditional Thanksgiving, The Reverend said grace and we dug in. There was the silence of dedicated munching for a time, then some small talk began by fits and starts. Chrissy and Ellie were planning to stay in Soagie through Christmas, but Paul was returning to his job in Jersey by plane on Friday morning. He would have taken a longer holiday, but the man in charge of his department, a Richard Toggerson, was in the hospital and not expected to survive. Richard had been a smoker and overweight. He had gone to the doctor who told him to stop smoking, get rid of some weight and start exercising or he was going to die. Richard claimed to have cut back on the cigarettes and he dropped a couple pounds. His exercise remained walking from his car in the parking lot to his office in the newspaper building. He was struck by a heart attack this past Monday. Paul is certain he will miss his family, but he will be working long hours and will only be home to catch a few hours sleep. This is Ellie’s last year before she starts school, so it is the last opportunity for a month long Thanksgiving to Christmas visit with the Grandparents. Paul will stay in touch with Chrissy by phone and e-mail. After the meal, there was dessert and, after that we were all too miserable to move. We staggered back to the living room where Taterbug continued his elephant joke routine. It was after dark before I had the energy to stumble to my car and drive home.
END
