Philothea
Life in the JVC

Montana Thanksgiving

November 27, 2004

I can't believe it's only Saturday! I like having four and a half days off. I wish I could have that every week. And what made it even better was that we didn't go anywhere. Usually when we get a break we're driving for hours to go to a national park, pow-wow, or just into a big town to go shopping. Not that I would want to miss that, but it's nice to be home, too.

Donna's parents and brother came on Wednesday, and brought us fresh vegetables and fruit. They took a wrong turn and went to Zortman instead. Everybody does that, because there are no signs for Hays on the highway. But they managed to knock on the door of the one person we know there, Rob, so he drew them a map to our house and they got there. It was my night to cook, and Donna wanted her parents to have buffalo meat, so I made tacos with Indian frybread and ground buffalo. I know that they're technically bison, not buffalo, but it seems wrong calling them anything else.

"Everyone thought it was so funny at Scranton when I told them I was having Thanksgiving with the Indians," Donna's brother said. That was the first time that occured to me. I really feel like a part of the community here. I remember the first pow-wow we went to, when I didn't know anybody and had never seen Indian dancing before. I felt so out of place and so obviously white and different. Now really I see our difference is more that I've had a suburban life so far and my students are living a very rural life.

Then we went to Theresa and Harold's 53rd wedding anniversary. It felt like I was with my own family, because I knew almost everybody there. And they had 11 children, so there were a lot of people. When they had the giveaway, they called us up to get some kitchen stuff. Little Don (he's almost 30 but his Dad is Big Don) said that we were a quiet group and he didn't have any blackmail on us, but they wanted to thank us.

Later I went to sit with our friends John and Cindy. John is always telling us tall tales, and stories about here, like its supposed to snow all the time in September, when it didn't. He said "You looked so serious up there,"

"I didn't expect to be given anything," I said. And I didn't. The giveaway is supposed to honor all the people who helped the people throwing the party, and what have I really done for Harold and Theresa in their 53 years of marriage?

John must have been in a rare sentimental mood, because he said "Well, you know, people here appreciate you girls. They might not say it too much, but we do."

We had our big Thanksgiving on Friday, and three of the JVs from St. Labre came up. They're our closest JV neighbors, and they're 5 hours away. We had so much turkey, because Sr. Laura gave us the leftovers from her church supper, Rob shot a wild turkey for us, and we had the 22 lb. one we bought. It was quite a full house. We had 16 people total. All the JVs put up pictures of their families up on the wall so they could be with us. All except Donna, since her fam was there with us. Then after dinner, the JVs, Tim, and our support person's little boy Frankie went over to use the roller skates at the rec center. Maureen and Barb came up with a whole routine that was quite cool. Next they're going to add strobe lights. Then we stayed up late with the St. Labreans playing "Oh, Hell" and telling ghost stories. Then today St. Labre made us brunch, and they brought bacon. I love bacon so much. Its probably healthier for me that it doesn't come in our commodities, though

So even though I was away from my family and Matthew, I had a very nice Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful that I'm living here and that I have such good friends in town. It will be hard to leave them in June.

5:47 p.m.
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