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The Slice: She wasn’t really right for the part
Holidays can be about making memories.
Betty Shanks remembers the Thanksgiving after her son who lived in New York City had gotten engaged to a young lady from Poland.
“He offered the Thanksgiving prayer in Polish. It sounded absolutely beautiful and I was so proud of him.”
But Betty noticed that the fiancé was trying not to laugh, which ticked Betty off.
As it turned out, though, her son wasn’t really saying grace. He was just listing all the Polish words he had learned – red car, little dog, white chair, et cetera.
“We all had a good laugh before the proper prayer was said.”
And years ago, Nancy Skellenger’s granddaughter, Austin, came home from kindergarten full of holiday spirit. She wanted to re-enact the first Thanksgiving.
So she said to her grandmother, “I’ll be the pilgrim and you can be the Republican.”
As casting goes, it was a political stretch for Skellenger. But she did her best.
Instructions for your memorial service (Part 1): “Don’t!” wrote Diane Newcomer, no fan of funerals. “Like me when I’m alive, move on when I pass.”
Jack Cady wrote, “I will insist that there be no references to an after-life, being with relatives who have died, being in ‘a better place’…”
“No ‘Amazing Grace,’ ” said Sheila Barnes. “Don’t get me wrong, I like the hymn.”
But its arguably over-the-top inclusion in one of the “Star Trek” movies became a private joke for Barnes and her husband. “We could never hear that song again without having to stifle a laugh.”
Re: Locals scaring newcomers about winter: Los Angeles native Steve Wells said sometimes the opposite is true, at least if the locals are trying to sell you a house before winter.
He moved to the South Hill just before a couple of our snowiest-ever winters. But he loves it, unlike his neighbor, a Spokane native who says 50 years of shoveling snow have tamped down her zeal for the season.
Today’s Slice question: Who controls the thermostats in your world?