Happy Tuesday, my friend!
What a difference a week makes! As I wrote to you last week, I was simultaneously succumbing to covid! I’m feeling “almost normal” this week, so onward and upward we go!
Thank heavens, because my favorite holiday is nearly upon us: Thanksgiving! I think my favorite three hours of the entire year are from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm (eastern time) on Thanksgiving Day. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! Usually, my family indulges me by starting to watch with me, coffee in hand, but slowly they trickle away as the second Broadway number starts. As noon approaches, I run around like a border collie and corral everyone back to the TV to see Santa! And here I am admitting this immature behavior to you! Good Lord, you’d think I was five years old.
Thanksgiving has always been a memorable holiday for our family. When I was a kid, Thanksgiving week was (and I think still is) deer hunting season in Wisconsin. My dad and brother absolutely loved this sport and went hunting every year during this time. They’d be up in the wee hours of the morning, taking their packed lunches and blaze orange jackets, and heading into, what my dad used to call, The Forest Primaeval. They’d come home much later in the day, nearly frozen and tired and aching from head to toe. Many times there was no deer to show for their efforts. But they’d get up the next day and do it all again.
Well, the female members of my family decided to have their own fun. On the day after Thanksgiving, we’d make a pilgrimage to Minneapolis for a couple of days of shopping and fine dining!
My mom had lived in Minneapolis as a young, single gal and had fond memories of the city. She, my older sister, and I would board a Greyhound bus very early on Friday morning bound for Minneapolis (otherwise known as Nirvana to me).
Ah, Minneapolis! With its IDS Tower and Dayton’s and Mary Tyler Moore! Was there any place better in the entire world? Answer: No.
As soon as we stepped off that bus, I was a different person. I wasn’t a nerdy girl from a small town. No one knew who we were here, so I could be the Queen of Sheba if I wanted to be. And I wanted to be.
We stayed at the Radisson Hotel, which was connected to Dayton’s Department Store. Dayton’s was the absolute most fabulous place I ever wanted to go. And at Christmastime, there was always a Christmas-themed exhibit on the eighth floor.
You never knew who you might see shopping at Dayton’s. One year, we saw Judy Collins buying shoes there! Send in the clowns, Judy!
I remember the unique thrill of walking from our hotel room, down the various corridors, and directly into the store—WITHOUT OUR COATS! Come on! For a girl living in the frozen tundra, going shopping without one’s coat, and all the accouterments was a first-class thrill!
We always ate a fancy dinner at a restaurant called “Murray’s.” We did have to walk outdoors there, so coats were necessary. We ordered “The Duchess,” which was prime rib that would melt in our mouths. Now, mind you, my family did not frequent fancy restaurants and department stores regularly, so I loved life in downtown Minneapolis! There I was! The Queen of Sheba, eating something called “The Duchess.”
As the years went on, my sister eventually went away to college, but she’d always meet my mom and me in Minneapolis, taking a bus from her college town.
As life would have it, Sunday morning would eventually roll around, and it was time to ride that bus back up north. No more Queen of Sheba. No more prime rib. No more strutting around jacket-free in fancy department stores.
Those big city post-Thanksgiving trips will always bring me joy when I think about them. My sister and I love to reminisce about those excursions.
And now here it is, decades later, and I still love Thanksgiving. Dayton’s is long gone, my mom is in heaven, my sister is in North Dakota, and I’m down here dangling off the edge of the country in South Florida.
I suppose the common thread between all my Thanksgiving memories is being with “my people.” Man, I have been one lucky duck to have so many beautiful memories to ponder.
If you don’t have family nearby this Thanksgiving, I hope you still have “your people.” I hear of so many folks having “Friendsgiving” dinners. What a great idea!
Let me tell you how much I appreciate you, my friend. The fact that you are reading these words means the world to me.
Next week, I’ll have a houseful of my people, so I’m going to take the week off of writing to you. I hope that you will find something to be thankful for and someone to be grateful for.
I am thankful for you. And hey, that’s coming straight from the Queen of Sheba! 😉
Written with love – – – Patti XOXO💗
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends,
the old and new.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Good night! How old must I be if my favorite store is now a “museum”???
So, looking at this now, it doesn’t seem that “fancy.” But a teenage Queen of Sheba sure thought so!