Mother said to dress your very best for Thanksgiving.  The little girl chose her yellow print dress with 3 rows of ruffles from the waist down and a big sash. She could twirl in it by turning round and round and the ruffles would fly up in the air.

     The little girl set the table for Thanksgiving with mother’s shiny silverware that was only used for Thanksgiving or Christmas. She promised her three cousins she would play with them soon in the backyard after dinner. Aunt Christine was the boss in the tiny kitchen with the linoleum floors and did not allow anyone in there, except to get water.

     Aunt Christine’s grandchildren would be here soon, along with their parents.  Pam, Mike and Patrick had just returned from Japan because their Dad was in the Air Force and was stationed there for a few years. The little girl knew there would be plenty of red stuff to eat because that is all Mikey would eat. 

     Long after the little girl’s stomach was making funny noises and Mikey was asking what kind of red stuff were we having, finally, Mother and Aunt Christine began to bring big steamy bowls of dressing, sweet potatoes green beans, corn pudding and biscuits.  Then Daddy brought out the huge turkey and carefully placed it on the table.  Just as Mikey began to cry, Mother brought out the red things…cranberry sauce, strawberries, red jello and Crabapples. 

     Everyone sat down at the table and Daddy gave thanks. The first thing that happened was than Mikey got all of his red things delivered to his plate. The little girls watched and noted that Mickey’s dark red hair and freckles almost matched the red things. She wondered if she ate all red things if she would have red hair and freckles. 

 Her favorite red thing was the sweet, spicy crabapples. Mother only allowed her one so that there would be enough to go around.

     The next Thanksgiving Mikey wasn’t there. His Dad had to be in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Mother and Aunt Christine only had one red thing and that was crabapples. This year the little girl could have two because Mikey and his family were not there. The little girl missed Mikey, Patrick and Pam. She could play in the chinaberry tree in the back yard or run up and down between the orange trees and pick some sour lemons on one limb of the orange tree, but it would be too quite without her cousins, so she would sit and listen to the adults talk