Thanksgiving

Something about the holiday time got me to thinking about my old friends who used to live in this house.  We used to go in the back door and hang around in the kitchen and cook and drink beer and laugh.  There were always a lot of friends and an old black dog and later, a baby scooting around in a walker.
I remember once at Christmas time my friend's parents (or maybe it was in-laws) were going to come to town.  She was feeling all self-conscious about her housekeeping, the way you do in that situation when you are young and haven't been married very long.  I remember she was especially worried about not having any curtains or window coverings because her mother or mother-in-law would think going around without curtains was absolutely indecent. So, to solve the problem, my friend had scotch taped all this mismatched holiday wrapping paper to the lower half of the windows and we laughed about it and shrugged and hoped it would be good enough.
She and her husband had a baby boy, and I made my first ever crochet project for her as a gift.  Here is a picture of me back in 1992!

She always had a little ceramic rabbit that sat on the back of her stove.  I remember we used to go over on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and her sister might be inventing a tortilla soup, or her husband might be frying fresh calamari, or another friend might be stuffing peppers and we would all sample a bit of this and that and I would admire that little rabbit.  When I moved away, she gave it to me.

Isn't he the dearest little thing?  I have used it as a gravy dish, though I am not really sure that's exactly what it is.
When I moved back to the neighborhood, these friends had moved away.  At Thanksgiving though, I usually bring out the little rabbit and I think of Karen and her generosity--not just with the rabbit, but with her open back door and kitchen full of laughter.