Having lived through 69 Thanksgiving Days, I have different memories from each. The earliest ones were held at Grandma Burky's. The kids were fed early, before the adults, and I don't even think we got the turkey. Then the dinner moved to Bucky's house, first being held downstairs. There was a fire going in the fireplace, all the tables lined up to make one long one and the food was brought down from the kitchen and up the street from Grandma Burky's. But Grandma still had one thing in mind, feed them and get them out. I remember once Grandma put a piece of pumpkin pie right on Uncle Jack's full plate, in fact maybe right on top of his turkey. Then we moved back upstairs into the dining room. The kids ate in the kitchen at the kids' table and that's when the Thanksgiving Day beatings started. The O'Leary's loved to put on a show for their cousins, John leading a contest to see who find the longest hair in their stuffing and other contests involving the dinner. Once, when they were suppose to do the dishes, John or Tom or both opened the kitchen window and jumped out with Uncle Jack following them down the street.

Oh, there are funny memories - the time Uncle Eddie put his hand in the sofa, looking for an earring that Aunt Muriel had lost and instead found a piece of lemon merinque pie that Pooh Bear, their dog, had hidden for a later treat. And the time that the grinder that Bucky used to mix the sausage into the stuffing broke and the stuffing was served full of nuts and bolts.

A sad memory of the Thanksgiving when Kennedy was shot, all eyes on the television watching the grief of the country for a president that was so full of life and vibrant.

But this Thanksgiving might be talked about for years, and I doubt if Liz or Zander will ever forget it. It's the Thanksgiving that Zander fell into the septic tank. The kids were playing kick ball outside, Jer and Liz were chatting on the deck when Zander screamed and they saw that he had been swallowed up with just his head peeking out of the earth. Liz pulled him out, got him into the house crying and whipped off the Buzz Lightyear outfit he had worn for Thanksgiving Day. The hole, we discovered, was the Bird's Nest septic tank, the top had collapsed and thus the sink hole that poor Zander discovered.

Later I thought how bad this could have been - Zander ending up in the septic and what if we had people upstairs in the B&B? "Hey honey, come and see some poor kid is up to his chin in the shitter." Well, as Bucky used to say, "All's well that ends well" (maybe Shakespeare said it too) and all I have to do is find somebody to fix that damn hole before we lose someone else in it. Happy Black Friday.