NOVEMBER LEFTOVERS

No, not Turkey or dressing or giblet gravy (although I don’t think Jer’s side of the family go for giblet anything….chopped chicken liver, yes, but Turkey giblets, no.)  Instead, I’ve got just a few leftovers I’ve been thinking about and that should have already appeared here except for my laxity in wielding the pen….er, the keyboard.

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I took all the scarves and hats that I’ve been knitting all year down to the place in Riverside that provides services and things for the homeless.  It is a good feeling to walk in with a bag of pretty, usable goodies, hand them over, refuse a receipt and walk out empty handed.  Especially when it takes place on a cold, drizzly day in November and the place is being used at that moment for feeding a hot lunch to those same people. 

It is at that moment that my religious background kicks in and I am reminded that Jesus said, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.”   I believe we are not called on to judge whether or not one is deserving of our help but to provide it.

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I don’t know how many of you were touched, as I was, by the TV report of a smallish 14-year old girl who gave birth to a baby in her bathroom at home and then strangled the baby.  She had hidden her pregnancy from her parents, and when asked why she killed the baby she said, “I was afraid I would get into trouble with my parents.”  Such a sad, sad story. 

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On a lighter note, I have had a real hoot this last month making phone calls to members of Long Beach Poly High School’s Class of 1953 in preparation for our 60^th reunion.  I was handed a list of about 300 grads with some addresses and some phone numbers, charged with updating the list, and notifying those I talked to about the scheduled October 2013 reunion.   More detailed information will be sent based on the accuracy of my handiwork.  Let me tell you that I have had to put all my genealogical researching skills to work; names change, people die, people move, land lines disappear, cell phones appear and then there seem to be big plots afoot somewhere to keep me from finding absolutely everybody!  But I’m sure giving it a good try. 

Mostly when I get a “hit,” the conversations turn into one big laugh fest:  How could we possibly be 77 years old?  It was just yesterday that we girls were wearing Joyce and stepladder shoes, cashmere or Lanamere sweaters, poodle skirts and the guys were wearing hand-knit argyle socks made with angora yarn in the patterns, if they were lucky enough to have a girlfriend who knit.  How is it that we now find grandchildren and doctor appointments as main subjects of conversation?  We shake our collective heads and wonder just how it happened that we are now so old in our bodies but still feel so young in our minds?

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And just as I’ve eaten the last bite of Turkey, so I’m letting November go.  It was a good month: a little rain but which hopefully was a harbinger of more to come, a pretty heavy social schedule with lunches and birthday meals in abundance, and a paucity of doctor visits, which is always a nice thing to happen.  The cars have been running well (I say that with crossed fingers), projects were finished and decisions were made on Christmas gifts.  Old friends were contacted, new friends made, and everyone except the Turkey seems to be in a good place.  (Well, it is too, actually, but you know what I mean!)

It’ll be 2013 before we know it!