Thanksgiving Gone Wild by Deepak *Guest Blogger*

Thanksgiving Gone Wild

When I was 14, my father had to take an international trip for about 2 weeks and unfortunately over Thanksgiving. He pretty much laid down the law if any of my older cousins tried to manipulate my brother and me.

So my mother and brother and I traveled from San Francisco to another large city on our own to spend Thanksgiving at my aunt’s house. She was always good about taking care of us. She had three kids, two of which were married and with their own in-laws and the youngest one was visiting home from CAL during the break.

As soon as we arrived, my nutty cousin tried to make us slaves by doing yard work! What a way to treat your guests . . . .

Later that day around 4pm, I did not see a turkey or ham around the house so I politely asked my aunt if I could help cook the turkey. She then told me, "Your cousin has turned vegetarian and does not allow meat in the home."

I can’t describe what I was thinking inside at that moment. Back then I was 14 and was not in my own immediate family’s home so I had to stay tight lipped. That cousin started to give me a lecture about why eating meat is not right, when it’s perfectly okay at Berkeley for students to smoke joints, walk around campus nude, and the ladies do not shave themselves.

They offered pizza on a Boboli crust and boycotted eating that night in protest. Ever since that day, anytime someone invites me over for Thanksgiving, I run them through a rigorous process worse than the CIA. I even know what places are open in that zip code as back up.

In fact, when I was single, one of my screening questions to potential mates was how their family celebrates Thanksgiving as an open ended question. If I did not hear turkey, cranberry, ham or football, I never called back for a second date.

Now I am grown, married and have in-laws that are traditional. As for my cousin, he continues to alienate people but I am much bigger than him in height and biceps!