After Long Trip, It’s All Gravy Traveling, Volunteering All Part Of The Holiday To Give Thanks

The homemade yellow sign on the rear window of Jeff Clancy’s Toyota reads “Bellevue or Bust - or no turkey for me.”

To get to the family feast at his parents’ house in Western Washington by 3:30 p.m., Clancy, rolled out of his apartment in Missoula at 7 a.m.

Fueled by the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers and a 30-ounce thermos of coffee, the 23-year-old made a pit stop in Spokane three hours later.

Stretching his road-weary back on the hood of his car and smoking a cigarette, he shook his head.

“This is kooky,” Clancy said as he searched his tape collection for new road music. “You never know, people do strange things on holidays like Thanksgiving.”

Here’s what a few other people did in Spokane on the holiday.

Clinkerdagger’s general manager Attila Szabo expects the community to kick in a little extra every Thanksgiving.

Each year, his employees, food suppliers and even relatives help the restaurant give residents of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery and their parents a free gourmet dinner and the kind of service offered at a restaurant like Clinkerdagger’s.

But Lisa Fishel and Sarah Cooper caught the staff by surprise when they showed up off the street to help serve the meal. Fishel heard about the free dinner when she dined at the restaurant Monday.

The women - neighbors near Audubon Park - said they turned down the prospects of a Thanksgiving feast of calzones to bus tables and serve drinks.

“We knew we wanted to volunteer, we just didn’t know in what capacity,” said Fishel. “We talked about homeless shelters. There’s just so much need out there.”

Their generosity was appreciated.

“One gentleman told me, ‘This is what royalty feels like,”’ said Fishel, who worked her way through Eastern Washington University as a waitress.

Another man wrote Fishel, Cooper and the staff a thank-you note. His three children illustrated the note, drawing a pot of jelly and a fish.

Jeremy and Trish Acker said the meal was the best they had in a year. Without the dinner, the couple and their 2-year-old daughter Heather would have been “sitting at home thinking about Thanksgiving instead of having Thanksgiving,” Trish Acker said.

Szabo said Clinkerdaggers served about 250 meals and sent home a second, boxed meal with many of them.

Those who couldn’t get a real slice of bird reached for a substitute - a cold turkey sandwich.

Pre-made turkey sandwiches wrapped in plastic were long gone at dinner time at the 7-11 store on Indiana Avenue, and several customers had ordered fresh deli sandwiches from store employee Leona Pecnick.

To wash down the sandwiches, beer sales were “crazy” last night and brisk this morning, said Pecnick, who has worked at the store every Thanksgiving for seven years.

Other hot sellers were “breakfast bites,” essentially a sausage hotdog, and lottery tickets.

For her gesture of good will, Pecnick worked a couple of hours later, giving her replacement more time with his family.

“I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving,” said Peter VanBakken, tossing back a beer in a Spokane tavern as the church bells outside chimed noon.

But he admitted he lied, just a little. He bought himself a fresh pack of Marlboros in honor of the holiday.

VanBakken said he has boycotted Thanksgiving since an ex-wife hit him over the head with a cast iron frying pan during a holiday fight several years ago. He spent a week in the hospital; he hasn’t seen her since.

“It’s just a spot on the calendar to me,” said VanBakken, ordering another Rainier.

Mike and Julie Rounds were thankful for rain. Sitting on the tarmac at Sea-Tac International Airport early Thursday, the Seattle couple heard that fog could delay their flight to see relatives in Spokane.

But rain chased the fog away, and the Rounds had a traditional turkey dinner with Mike Rounds’s mother and brother.

The family went to a service at Central Lutheran Church.

“We wanted to start the day by giving thanks to God,” said Julie Rounds.

Like any other family, theirs has peculiar traditions. Mike’s aunt, Bev Falkenberg, made a pineapple cream pie.

“If it was Christmas, I’d tell you we were going to eat lutefisk and lefse,” said Isabelle Round, Mike’s mother. “Thanksgiving, we do traditional.”

, DataTimes