I'm not one to generally go with the brand new fad because it seems like a great idea. I kinda like people to, you know, work at it and shake it out a little bit before I get involved, you know. Some of these, some of these things they just don't last, you know. Like leisure suits. You probably don't remember leisure suits. I almost bought one back in the seventies, I think it was. But, fortunately, the gentleman who was running the men's haberdashery here, who has since been deceased, very well knew his, his - he knew his work. And he gently talked me out of it. He said, “You don't - you really want one of those? You know, that's kind of a fad and how about a nice sport coat and slack combo instead? Which is a classic and, you know, it'll be a classic forever and there's a reason why they're classics.” You know, and so he kinda, kind of like I said gently directed me in that, in that direction. So that was a, that was a - almost, almost missed out and that was a close one.

So when I was growing up, my aunt had - always had Thanksgiving at her house, and I don't know how it started, but it became this thing that every year at Thanksgiving, we would have a piñata for some reason. And I don't know how it started that. But yeah, every year we had a piñata and it got to the point where it - the - what the pinata was every year was a surprise, so we would take turns just kinda guessing what it would be. One year it was like a toucan, one year it was, I think, a mermaid. And then another year it was like this big spiky ball thing. But yeah, it became like a huge thing. We even had like a special stick that we'd all use and we'd all get one shot at it. And they'd like rig it up on this like pulley contraption, and my uncle would be holding it, and he would - like, you'd be blindfolded and they would like pull the string up and down while you're trying to hit it. Oh, yeah. It was a blast. I can't remember when we stopped or when it started, but it's definitely a core memory I have of Thanksgiving, and it became a very, very big tradition in my family, that that was something that we did.

On my mom's side - and so we don't do this because my mom doesn't do it, but the - my grandma makes these really good baked beans with like brown sugar. She used to make those for Thanksgiving every year. This year she made calico beans for Thanksgiving and I love them. Not something she does - I don't think that's something she does all the time, but I'm gonna start demanding more from her 'cause they're good. Something else we used to do is broccoli casserole. I know it's - a lot of families still do broccoli casserole. I think up here they do broccoli and rice casserole? But my tía makes broccoli casserole. In fact, her broccoli casserole were so good, she would make four of them for Thanksgiving. One to eat during Thanksgiving and then three for like each of us, like, so one for my family, one for my Uncle [name] family, and one for my Uncle [name] family to take home. Because we loved it that much. I don't know what the hell she puts in it, but she makes it every year. And I love it. And of course, I didn't get to see my tía this year, so, I'm mad I didn't get any of her broccoli casserole. Although someone at my work made broccoli casserole for like a luncheon that we did, a Thanksgiving luncheon, and it was terrible. She was like, "Frozen broccoli," and I was just like "Blech. Blech." So I didn't say it to her, but it was terrible.