Red, White and
Blue
Thanksgiving
John Dos Passos
There was the time Uncle Glenn and Aunt Harriet had come
to Thanksgiving Dinner. The sizzly smell of the turkey and the
spices in the stuffing filled the kitchen every time Mother had opened
the oven door to baste. Glenn had helped lay the table in the cramped
diningroom of the little apartment and had filled the two china swans
with red white and blue candies and, carefully, with only one or
two smudges, had printed out the names on the placecards.
Dad had been around the house all morning getting into
Mother's way in the kitchen and frowning as he sat bent almost
double reading with his green eyeshade on at
his
desk in the comer
of the livingroom. A letter had come from Tyler overseas that morning
that had upset Dad a good deal. The letter had said that Tyler wasn't
coming home with his outfit but that he had just gotten under the
line with his commission at Saumur before the armistice and was
going to be sent to Coblenz in the Army of Occupation. Glenn was
too excited about Thanksgiving and everybody coming to dinner
to pay much attention. He and Mother were attending to every–
thing and Dad was just mooning around now and then pulling at his
sandy mustache with that worried look and taking down first one big
book and then another from the top of his desk and setting them down
on chairs and forgetting to put them back.
Mother in her pink apron with her hair in curlers was leaning
ver the oven of the gasstove basting the turkey. Glenn was standing
ide her with his mouth watering as he watched the little splashes
f juice sizzle as they trickled off the kitchenspoon onto the brown
·ght skin of the turkey. Mother was out of breath. He said couldn't he
o that because she'd promised him and Dad she wouldn't do too
uch. She said never mind darling for him to run around the comer
get the icecream at Etienne's. It was all ordered but she was afraid
ey wouldn't bring it
in
time, and twenty-five cents worth of salted
onds, and to be sure to wear his muffier because it was a terribly
w
day.
Glenn had run down the three flights of steps two at a time and
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