LOCATION: Shreveport, Louisiana.
PERIOD: Thanksgiving, 1950s-1984.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Lue Ellen Knox (1900-1979); Benjamin MacCrae (1896-1969); John Henry MacCrae (1937); Alice MacCrae (1931); Benjamin John “B.J.” MacCrae (1967); Margaret Casey MacCrae (1970); Stephen Baker MacCrae (1972); Ann Ellen Martin (1963); Sarah Meredith Martin (1965); Jason MacCrae Martin (1970).
Five years after the death of their mother her children, John Henry MacCrae (1937) and Alice MacCrae Martin (1931), are talking about Thanksgiving, 1984. They begin to reminisce about their parents and life growing up, and plan on making a meal just like the one their mother used to make when they were all at home.
This conversation is the first in which they confront the reality of their mother’s reclusive behavior after their father’s death from a sudden heart attack in 1969, her prescription pain medication addiction, and finally taking her own life in 1979.
MAMA’S THANKSGIVING
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
This year let’s make Thanksgiving,
Like Mama used to do:
Turkey and cornbread dressing,
And rice dressing too,
English peas with pearl onions,
Spiced peaches and candied yams,
Cranberry sauce on a plate,
With th’ outline of the can.
I loved Shreveport in November,
Clay pigeons at The Place with Daddy;
You would ride Big Red,
I’d do my best on Lady.
I remember playing catch with him,
In the soft glow of sunset;
The only sound you could hear,
Was th’ pop of th’ ball in’ th’ mitt.
After Daddy in died,
Mama wasn’t the same no more;
She complained of a back pain,
That she never had before.
She got some pills from Dr. Thomas,
And took to her bed;
She went into a haze and hardly came out,
No matter what we said.
But she loved her grandkids,
For them, she really tried;
They’re the only ones who could
Touch her right mind.
But even they could tell,
Somethin’ wasn’t right with gramaw;
They would get upset those times,
When she didn’t know ’em at all.
I spoke to mama that week,
But didn’t get a clue;
Where she was headin’,
Or what she would do.
Over those last ten years,
She lived in her memories.
Was in th’ kitchen when the phone rang;
It was Aunt Emmalee.
This year let’s make Thanksgiving,
Like Mama used to do:
Turkey and cornbread dressing,
And rice dressing too.
English peas with pearl onions,
Spiced peaches and candied yams,
Cranberry sauce on a plate,
With th’ outline of the can.
© 2023 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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