We had a quiet day today. I ran out for a paper before the Macy's parade began and spent most of the time perusing the sales. There aren't any "I gotta haves" (but there usually aren't), although I wish I could afford one of those highly rebated computers right now. Lots of cute little useful gadgets, though: BrandsMart has a hair dryer that's only $4. I can tell you how old my hair dryer is: I bought it the day Alice and Ken got married, so it's 15 1/2 years now. :-) I'll probably go out early and go to JoAnn; the sales are better, and the Michael's 50 percent off coupon is actually for Saturday.

After the parade came the dog show, where we saw the cute little dog that was nearly Willow's twin. I entered Willow's picture in their dog contest.

We had dinner at Golden Corral: they had fried turkey "drummettes" which were larger than chicken legs. One and a couple of spoonsfuls of potatoes and stuffing (and some popcorn shrimp) satisfied for me. Of course had some pumpkin pie!

Then we took Wil to the house and also went by Ellis Farm so James could see the neat looking "hunting lodges." Then James retreated to his hobby room for a while while I watched The Thanksgiving Treasure. It was good to be alone because I had a nice little cry when Mr. Rhenquist died.

It's hard for me to see those houses with the radiators and the old-fashioned patterned wallpaper and the old stoves...even if the radiators and the "paramecium" patterned wallpaper was gone from our house by the time I was of school age, I still remember them (oh, how I remember Mom bleeding the radiators!), the homes I visited during the holidays were still "dressed" that way, and seeing it all makes me melancholy. I could walk into Addie's house and visit her school and feel perfectly at home because it looks like it used to and is comfortable and warm and safe.

Have the "lighting of the Great Tree" on now with mixed emotions (most of them bad). "The Great Tree" used to be at the old Richs department store in downtown Atlanta, but you'd never know it the way the commercial talk about the history of the event. They carefully skirt the name and the only "mention" of it I've seen is a photo of the Pink Pig children's ride that still had the Richs' name painted on it (and they panned quickly away from it). Looks like the people at Federated Department Stores want to make sure you forget that Richs (and not Macy's) used to be the Atlanta institution. I'm not a native Atlantan, but I think it sucks. Okay, so Macy's has absorbed places like Filene's and Marshall Field's and Richs (which swallowed up Davisons before it) and other places are out of business after many years of serving happy customers. It's the way of business.

But they don't have to work it as if it never happened. We were there. We went to Richs, and Marshall Field, and Filene's, and Jordan Marsh, and the Outlet Company and Shepards and Brodsky's and McCrory and Woolworths, and we loved them and we will not forget. And Federated can just stick it.

It's a boring show anyway. They used to have local singing groups and choirs, and now it's pop stars and the Rockettes and the newscasters blatting. (I wanted to bonk Matt Lauer and Katie Couric and Al Roker during the Macy's parade this morning; I don't give a fig what you think of the parade—I want to watch it. Tell me who's on the float and then shut up.)

The tree's still pretty.

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:26:00 PM

Comments:

Happy Thanksgiving, Linda! I also had a quiet Thanksgiving, mostly spent at home, either playing video and card games with my family or watching movies and reading by myself. It was just my family this year, but there's seven of us...and I'm thankful for each and every last one, from my dear baby nephew and his mother to my wonderful parents to my other sister and brother, and that, after everything that's gone on in the world this year, we're all together.

I'm thankful for good friends like you and James, too. I hope both of you, Pidge, and Willow had a wonderful day and are thankful, too - for dinner, for a new home going up quickly, for each other, for those no longer with us.

# posted by  Emma : 8:34:00 PM

 

Post a Comment