Thanksgiving Glutton Poem

by Robert McNeil
(Tyler, Texas, USA)

My fondest Thanksgiving memory is from 1988. I was in Coast Guard Basic Training in Cape May, New Jersey, and we had been in training for about three weeks. The combination of being away from my wife and child, the approaching holidays alone, and the sheer physical and mental exhaustion of training had me a bit depressed.

Our Company Commander told us a few days before Thanksgiving that we would be split into 2–4 person groups and would spend Thanksgiving with a family in the local community. He explained this had been a tradition on the base for many years.

Of course, there was also the obligatory 30-minute lecture on how we must behave (and the threat of LOTS of running if we did not behave).

I was not looking forward to this as I thought it would make me miss my family even more and worsen the depression I was fighting off. As it turns out, I could not have been more mistaken.

My little "group" of three recruits were guests at the home of an elderly couple whose son had died serving his country in Vietnam. Their home was decorated in a comfortable way that gave one the feeling of being "home."

I was a few years older than the other recruits, and I spent the day just sitting with this couple, talking and listening to stories about their son and family. I could have spent the weekend there, just sitting and listening.

Before I realized it, I was not depressed anymore. Though the day was spent with strangers, it will always be one of my fondest Thanksgiving memories.

Thanksgiving Glutton Poem

Here I sit waiting to be fed,
knowing later the feelings I dread.

For I shall eat until I fall,
wondering if the ER I should call.

The food is plenty and so full of taste,
not a morsel shall this glutton waste.

It matters not if there's room for more,
this fool is lucky if he fits through the door.