Unexpected Moments

I was planning on blogging a lot while I was in St. Louis for Thanksgiving the last few days, but the fates had decided otherwise. First, because I ended up coming down with a HORRENDOUS cold the day I left, which literally developed overnight. Second, because while I knew my grandparents are not of that "let's be hip and learn how to use (or even own) a computer" species of grandparent, I figured I'd have time to scope out some place with free wi-fi. I was with the Schramms--what was I thinking?

I wasn't expecting it to be a very fun Thanksgiving. My grandpa has been in the hospital for nearly three weeks now, having multiple surgeries for multiple ailments. Only one of my three out-of-town cousins was coming in, and my uncle's father died, so I knew that part of the family would be busy with sitting shiva and the funeral. For the most part, my predictions were correct. Everyone spent a lot of time at the hospital with my grandpa (I couldn't go due to the aformentioned cold-from-hell), and the rest of the time was spent shopping for clothes for my brother (who needed new jeans, decreed my mom) and my cousins (who needed something to wear to their grandfather's funeral), making a brief pit stop at World Market, and sitting around watching TV at home or just chit chatting. Usually we see a movie, go visit Hog Hollow (a fun old house that has been turned into a home interiors/crafts store), do something kind of Christmas-y (trekking out to St. Charles, a small little town that had all kinds of boutiques decorated for the season, or visiting a Christmas tree farm, which we did last year), play games, and other things of that nature. I don't think anyone was really in the mood this year.

Amid the blah-ness of the holiday, however, there were two bright spots. Last night I was digging around in my grandparents video cabinet to see if they had any good movies to watch, and I ended up unearthing a cassette tape with the name "Michael" (my brother) written on it. No one had any idea what it was. So, we ended up finding a tape player in the basement, and checking it out. It took us a few minutes to definitively decide that the voice on the tape was indeed Michael, circa about 1986-1987 (he was maybe five or six years old). We were able to make this determination after hearing several topics of extreme interest to the Michael of that era: cheetahs, Abraham Lincoln, German shepherds, and Batman. Apparently, Michael had decided (or Mom had decided for him) that he was going to make a tape of his stories to send to Grandma and Grandpa, since we lived far away from them. He had a title for each story, and after each one, he would say "And that's the end of my story: The Little Boy and the German Shepherd...[long pause]...by Michael." It was hilarious. I literally had tears rolling down my cheeks at one point.

The second fun archaeological find from my dig was a VHS tape that said "Family Movie Tape." Now, I had seen old film footage of the family from when my dad and his sisters were little kids, and I was hoping that what I had seen was on the tape I was holding. It turned out it was! And while there was plenty of fantastic video of my dad as a little boy, huge dimpled smile permanently affixed to his face, it seems that the Schramm family of old had a major preoccupation with water skiing. Intersperced between the videos of birthday parties, Hanukkah celebrations, and doing The Twist (no, really), there was an overabundance of water skiing videos. This would be ok if you could actually tell who was water skiing, but for the most part it's an educated guess as to who you're actually watching. "I'm pretty sure that's Grandpa." "Oh! Is that me?" "Wait, I think that's [insert Jewish name of neighbor or "aunt"/"uncle"-that's-not-really-your-aunt/uncle]!" It became a bit of a running joke: birthday party, water skiing; kids playing in the backyard; water skiing; trip to the zoo, water skiing. At one point, the video turned to a vacation in Mexico that the family took when my dad was about 12. The scenery was nice, and there was some video of the kids playing in the hotel pool. And then my aunt, who was watching this with us, said, "Wait a minute...I think there was water skiing on this trip..." and as if it had been choreographed, the video immediately turned to water skiing. We all had a good laugh at that one.

I guess the moral of the story is that even if the situation isn't ideal, there is always something good to focus on. Thanksgiving is, after all, about being appreciative of what you have, and for most of us, family is one of our most valuable assets. A long-lost childhood recording of a now-grown sibling, and video from upwards of 50 years ago are pretty great treasures. Despite a bad cold, a visit to St. Louis without seeing Grandpa, and your run-of-the-mill family irritations, that's what I'll choose to remember from Thanksgiving, 2008.