After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put us in the cell. Said, “Kid, I’m going to put you in the cell, I want your wallet and your belt.” And I said, “Obie, I can understand you wanting my wallet so I don’t have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you want my belt for?” And he said, “Kid, we don’t want any hangings.” I said, “Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?”

-Arlo Guthrie – “Alice’s Restaurant”

Baby Z’s kitted out in his American outfit today (purchased for him by his Irish aunt near her home in Goteborg, Sweden) in honor of his Papa’s favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. I think this particular outfit looks like he’s got a future in professional wrestling, but we’ve got to remind him that he’s part American.

I’ve already written about my love for Thanksgiving and since someone pointed out that I have written two posts about “Astral Weeks”, I shan’t wax romantic about the holiday lest I be labeled repetitive (that’s what happens when you get old, SSG). But if I could beg a bit of indulgence, I’ll share one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

There aren’t a lot of Thanksgiving songs, seems Thanksgiving gets the short end of the stick when it comes to holiday music. I’ve got to give my Dad credit for creativity when it comes to establishing a holiday tradition. For every Thanksgiving that I can remember he played us Arlo Guthrie’s musical tale of the catch 22 that was the military draft in 1960’s America. The story of the “Alice’s Restaurant Masacree”.

“Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on – two years ago on
Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the
restaurant…”

Listening to “Alice’s Restaurant” and singing along with my Dad to our favorite parts was and is one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions. For some strange reason, we don’t get Thanksgiving off in Britain so we’re not celebrating until Saturday. But I sang Alice’s Restaurant to Baby Z today – twice – to carry on this Thanksgiving tradition. If you’ve never heard this, you’re in luck as its linked to the bottom of this post. It’s a little long, but worth it. If you have heard it – enjoy another listen.

I don’t have as many photos from Thanksgiving as I should – we’ll begin rectifying that this year – but here are a few from the past along with snippets of Guthrie’s songs.

Thanksgiving 2002 – Columbia, Missouri with friends and family.

“And I went up there, I said, “Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.” And I started jumpin up and down yelling, “KILL, KILL,” and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, “KILL, KILL.” And the seargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, “You’re our boy.”

Thanksgiving 2003 – Columbia, Missouri – the international thanksgiving with Canadian, Indian and American friends.

“I went over to the seargent, said, “Seargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I’ve rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I’m sittin’ here on the bench, I mean I’m sittin here on the Group W bench ’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein’ a litterbug.”

Thanksgiving 2004 – Oxford – our first abroad in which Dr. O’C’s family’s good humor helped assuage my homesickness.
“And that’s what it is , the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacreed Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come’s around on the guitar. With feeling. So we’ll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and sing it when it does. Here it comes…”

Thanksgiving 2005 – Madeira – turkey-less.
“You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Walk right in it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant”

Happy Thanksgiving!

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