It appears that we had two Thanksgiving celebrations in 1985. This particular year, Thanksgiving fell on Thursday, November 28 in 1985. This was less than two weeks after Grandpa Murphy’s 62nd birthday which is November 15. Not long before, he had undergone open-heart surgery. This is one of those holidays that would have surely been assigned to memory oblivion had we not had these nice family photos of the event. I speculate that we had an early Thanksgiving celebration combined with Grandpa’s birthday so that Darlene could celebrate with us. I’m betting that she and Bob were able to make it home from Denver during the early part of November, but not Thanksgiving, so we had an additional celebration for her benefit. This makes sense because Bob was released from the army on November 30 and likely had to be back in Colorado in order to complete his service exit paperwork.
All of the pictures below were from Grandma and Grandpa’s collection. I remember nothing specific at all about either event, but certainly recall that the majority of Thanksgiving celebrations throughout the 80’s and 90’s were all held at Diana and Tom’s house in Bellbrook – as was the combined party held this year.
Diana, Tom, and Bob look on as Lori gets a leg up on Thanksgiving
Lori, Bob, Darlene, and Mom
Okay, now shift one postition to the right and get Grandma Murphy in the picture
Grandma and Grandpa Murphy stuff themselves with stuffing
The many reflections of Ed
Grandpa blows out his 62 candles
Grandpa flanked by grandkids Denise, Danny, Susan, Karen, and Chris
Grandpa begins to open his loot
Video tapes! Already obsolete
Future participants of the cousins’ parties: Susan, Denise, Karen, Cathy, Debby, Lori, Brad, Chris, and Danny
Thanksgiving day itself was then held at Bev’s house. As you can see from the existing photos below, it appears that Darlene was not here, solidifying my theory all the more. Anyone with a better memory care to step forward and either corroborate or refute my claims?
Tom and Grandpa relax in the Tangeman living room
Grandpa and Grandma
Lori and Cool Whip
Lori, me, Jim, and Mom relax post-pie
Debby, Diana, and Cathy chill out over wine. Debby looks uncharacteristically shy
Bev and Ed on post-Thankgiving cleanup duty
Susan, Karen, and Denise go berserk on their way downstairs
Once Thanksgiving ended, we headed into Christmas preparations. I actually wrote a Christmas story around this time called The Forgotten Christmas. This was an assignment in my English class from our prim teacher Mrs. Gardetto. My friend Jeff Flinn and I both had our sights set on getting out of this class by purposely failing our assignments. My story was actually rather good in its own way, a slapstick journey detailing the plight of the world’s clumsiest Santa Claus. Jeff’s however was simply off the hook. Naturally, I helped him with it.
It was set up in comic book form and detailed a family that had a car breakdown, was rescued by Santa Claus, and brought back to the North Pole in his sleigh. There they were systematically murdered in grisly fashion by an out-of-control elf. Having just seen the slasher film Happy Birthday to Me starring Melissa Sue Anderson, I had the idea of having one family member stabbed in the mouth with a shishkebob and another beheaded by barbells while working out on a weight bench. The title: Seven Merry Creatures. I can still remember Harry Knight attempting to read it out loud in class and not being able to keep a straight face. No one could…except for Mrs. Gardetto. The book later disappeared, never to be found again, and Jeff and I suspect that she may have been responsible.
Holy Christmas, Brad!
Here I am scrolling through your remembrances and then out of the blue dear “Harry Knight” jumps to my attention, so, of course, I just had to scroll back and read on.
Your account of Gardetto’s 1985 Honors English assignment had me busting out laughing. I still have my project, too! It, like yours, is actually rather good in its own way. I’m most proud of its publishing prowess. (Machine-stitched seams, etc. Was that the norm?)
If our master classmate database doesn’t fly, maybe we can dream of a Gardetto Assignment Anthology.
Merry Christmas!
trASH
Ashleigh Heath Armstrong
December 18th, 2008