A very Woodward 1986 Thanksgiving, Part 3

As the family trickled back into the house through the front and side doors, Tommy sat at the kitchen table, eating a mayonnaise and sliced cheese sandwich, the easiest items in the fridge. There was also a candy dish from the living room filled with mints, and he was eating both simultaneously with a glass of milk. It was an odd combination that slipped by almost no one, except maybe Regan, but he was outside with Charles.

Odie was the first to say, while creeped out a bit,

“Hi, Tommy. I didn’t see you come in.”

“I’ve been here for an hour, Mama,” said Tommy, without looking up at her and continuing to eat his odd mix of textures and tastes.

Odie stared at him oddly, as if he were a stray cat she would allow to graze. Dick walked by and put a 50-dollar bill on the table next to Tommy. He honestly had no idea what to do except to pay the ransom, so he did. Tommy picked the money up and put it into his pocket, again without looking up.

Tommy had a rare personality and look. He was not exactly unattractive, but perhaps more unkempt. He was somewhat of the “Alf” of the family—that is, if no one ever responded to Alf. He was 25, uninvolved with work or girls, and mostly ignored since Singer married and moved away. In fact, when she got married, Tommy cried at the reception and asked, “Who’s going to take care of me?” So here he was, at 25, living in his “Dad of record’s” house, and trying to figure out what to do with his life. Once you broke him out of his shell, he was lovely and fun to talk to. He knew everything about the song “Cat’s in the Cradle.” He didn’t seem to know yet that the reason was likely that he wanted his dad to want to spend time with him, and he was the only one who didn’t seem to know that his father was someone else. No one would dare tell him.

“Is there ketchup?” he asked.

No one knew why or how he would want to use ketchup, and they didn’t want to know, so everyone left the kitchen. If he got too much attention, he would latch hold and milk it for as long as he could hold on to it, so it was best just to leave him be.

“Kev,” asked Curt. “I know there’s a lot of dynamics, and I don’t have a large family, so there may be things that I won’t get, but it kinda feels like everyone hates each other.”

“Oh, well, ‘hate’ might be close, but not quite right. You’re picking up on the fact that everyone is jockeying for position.”

“Wha– what do you mean?”

“Okay, so who has the most influence and power in this family?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay, look around the room. Who is talking to the most people, and who is talking to the fewest?”

“I guess your grandfather is talking to the most, and Tommy and your Grandmother are talking to the fewest,” Curt answered.

“See? You said you didn’t get it, but you do. Cute AND smart.”

“So you only get love if you have something someone wants?”

“Remember when I said that all these people live off of him?”

“Yeah.”

[I shrugged.]

“Then why aren’t you talking to him?”

“First, I am not living off of him. I’m living in student housing. Second, there’s nothing that I want. I know how to work. My needs are my responsibility. Janey wants money to invest in her husband’s new business. June wants dental work for her horrible overbite. I doubt her family even has health insurance. Singer and Bess play the game out of habit, and my dad lives in his house for free, so he has to … butter the biscuit, so to speak. I don’t have to do that.”

Curt looked at me like he didn’t know what planet he was on.

“Look, I get it. I told you I don’t want to be like these people. I’m making alternate plans. I want to get out of here just like you do.”

I pulled Curt to the back of the parlor, where the piano was. Two chairs were near the baby grand. They each took a seat so that I could be clear with Curt.

“Why did you want me to see this?” Curt asked.

“Because this is the family I came from. It doesn’t mean it is who I am, but if you and I have a future, you have to know what I’m walking away from, so to speak.”

“Good, because even though there are pockets of good in this family, I want to be with who I think you are. I just don’t see the love here. Also, why do so many of them act like they despise you? They seem so mean-spirited and passive-aggressive.”

“So there’s something else we need to discuss regarding the family,” I said.

Curt gave Kevin a look like he might not be able to take much more.

“This family is deeply rooted in traditions. They hate me because they think I’m back. After all, it is tradition that the oldest male in the generation gets control of the farm.”

“And you’re the oldest. Do you want the farm? That would leave you in Saranac.”

“Nothing is set in stone yet, but I don’t care about being the next steward of the Woodward legacy farm. I have a younger brother who is very Woodward in how he thinks.”

“So what are you telling me?”

“The siblings hate me because if I weren’t around, it would go to my brother, and they think they can railroad him, mainly because they don’t know how catty he is. He doesn’t come around that much.”

Curt stared at me, hoping for a better explanation.

“It doesn’t matter. None of this applies to us. I'll never return once I’m out of here,” I said.

“Good. So we have the same plan,” Curt said, feeling relieved.

“It’s not because I don’t love Saranac. It brought us together, but these aren’t my people. I feel like an alien here when everyone here is freaky.. “

“Sorry if this is insulting, but…. Yeah,” said Curt.

A high-pitched sound appeared as Odie walked through to the front of the parlor.

“It’s her hearing aid,” I said.

“Oh,” Curt replied. “So I have met everyone now?”

“Except my great-grandmother, but she won’t be here for Thanksgiving.”

After dinner, Curt prepared to leave and left out the side door from the dining room, where he was parked on the west field side of the house. I walked him out. In the distance were Janey and June, facing away from the house with an oil barrel on fire. They held hands and chanted like they were summoning up an entity from the dark side. I had never seen this before, but wasn’t that phased by it. They were just so weird. Curt looked concerned but assumed my demeanor about it and didn’t let it faze him. June was holding a tiny doll.

“Are you sure your name was never Addams?” Curt asked.

“What?”

“The Addams Fam--...Never mind.”

Thanksgiving Day

November 27, 1986

In 1986, it was unusually warm for Thanksgiving in southern Michigan. The thermometer on the porch read 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The sweet smell of apples, for which some had already fallen below the orchard canopy to the ground, permeated the air as Bess and Tommy set the table. There had never been a more perfect opportunity to set up a long table outside on the edge of the west field, which had been recently harvested to reveal the horizon of the land.

Kevin could see all this setup from his bedroom window, which looked over the back of the house. It was odd to him that the family would all be there, as they rarely got together as a complete family. He had never known of them at the family farm since 1963, when they left so abruptly after a pregnancy was confirmed for Odie. The father was most likely her brother-in-law.

Kevin counted the people that would be present today to match them with the number of chairs while he was looking down at the table from the second floor. Dick, Odie, Charles, Singer, Bess, Janey, June, Tommy, four inlaws, Kevin, and Curt. Fourteen was the minimum number of chairs and place settings. Plus, they would need domes to protect the dishes from the dust of the farm, much less birds and animals, until the Woodwards were ready to eat.

Kevin made his way downstairs after putting on his jeans and a t-shirt to check in with Aunt Bess since there were more chairs than he knew of people being there. Everything appeared to be in check, perhaps the extra seats were for anyone who might show up unannounced? He did not know, and it didn’t matter.

Soon thereafter, a crew pulled up as kitchen help and servers. This was unusual because Dick didn’t like to spend money, but somehow this year felt different, and everything was being taken care of.

The closer you sat to Dick, the older you were in the family; therefore, Kevin and Curt were expected to be on the opposite end of the table. When everyone arrived to be seated and the servers poured wine, the traditions shifted unexpectedly. Kevin planned for he and Curt to be sitting next to Tommy, but Dick called them to take the seat where Charles and Singer were expected.

“Could I please have everyone on my left take a seat two seats down from where they are standing? Kevin, if you and Curt could sit to my left in those seats, that would be great.”

The siblings went completely silent. Kevin felt slightly embarrassed because his father could perceive this as taking his position. After all, your seat at the table represented your position in the family, and there was an entire generation ahead of Kevin.

Curt looked at Kevin like he wasn’t sure what was going on.

“I’ll explain later, when I know,” Kevin explained quietly.

Eventually, midway through the meal, the clatter of conversation in the middle of the table became louder, and Dick spoke intimately with Kevin.

“You are showing great potential, and we have talked about a business for you since you graduated from university, so it’s time you and I talked about your responsibilities as the oldest in the generation,” Dick said.

“Yes, sir.”

“You are sitting in that seat because you will be 18 next Thanksgiving, and the oldest boy in the generation gets respect as long as he can keep that respect. We will have a discussion later today, but I need you to start thinking like one of the leaders of the family. Eventually, you will be the head of the family, and I need you to take it seriously.”

“Okay,” Kevin said. He decided to be agreeable and see what conversations came up later.

After lunch, Sarah drove into the orchard and got out of her car to find Curt staring towards where Kevin and his grandfather were speaking.

“That looks like serious thinking going on there,” she told Curt.

“Maybe, yeah.”

She hugged Curt and said, “What’s going on? Did everything go well?”

“Yeah, very well. Kev hasn’t had the opportunity yet to tell me what is happening in that intense conversation.”

On the edge of the west field, but still in the house yard, Kevin and his grandfather were having a detailed discussion, but from a distance, no one could tell what it could be about.

“Oh yeah. That’s his grandfather, I guess?”

“Yes, and he’s been making gestures towards Kevin all day that may put him in an awkward position with his father.”

“I can’t wait to find out what that means,” Sarah said.