037: Thanksgiving

[livingmyths]

Thanksgiving was always kind of the best holiday. The soup kitchens had the best food then and the store owners would sometimes sneak the kids a little something and people were a little nicer - you could sometimes even get someone to let you sleep in a warmish warehouse that weekend. For nothing, even.

Long as you were smart enough to be gone before things started up again that Monday.

Christmas was never so good because everyone was too busy with their own things and they'd already spent tons of money. And 'cause Dad always started drinking mid-December and usually ended up locked up somewhere off and on which meant I couldn't even try and stay at a shelter. Too many questions and it wasn't safe to be little and there alone.

No matter where we ended up though, there were always a handful of kids in the same boat. And you know, for a price you could usually get somebody to look the other way so you all could be a little bit out of the cold. Luckily, Dad never really went anywhere that was super cold. Snow... that would have been really bad.

But Thanksgiving... Thanksgiving could be pretty good.

Comments

[reginagloriae]

I think New Year is my favorite holiday.

[livingmyths.livejournal.com]

Too many people out on the streets and drunk on New Year's.

And they could be - well... I'm sure they thought they were funny.

It was dangerous. We mostly tried to hide.

[reginagloriae]

That stinks. Oshogatsu it's the most important holiday in Japan, it lasts three days and families reunite, go to the temple, watch the first sunrise together, and eat delicious dishes like otoso and ozoni.

[livingmyths.livejournal.com]

I didn't exactly have a family. Just my dad, but he didn't like me very much.

And New Year's wasn't a special day so much at the soup kitchens.

[reginagloriae]

My family wasn't perfect, we pretended to be, my father isn't a man you can easily get along either.

I'm sorry about your bad experiences.

[livingmyths.livejournal.com]

It's okay. It's just the way things were.

Some of the kids had it a lot worse.