62. Louisa May Alcott’s “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving”

AMY HELMES: Hey, everybody! Welcome back to another Lost Ladies of Lit mini episode. I'm Amy Helmes, here with my writing partner, Kim Askew... 

KIM ASKEW: Hey, everybody. We hope you, our listeners, are getting the chance to spend time this week with someone near and dear to you. We have so much to be thankful for, including the vaccines that are making it actually possible for us to really celebrate Thanksgiving this year. And maybe, for some of you, even to travel. Amy, I don't have to ask what you're doing this week, because it's always the same. 

AMY: That's right. Thanksgiving week, every year, I go with my husband's side of the family. His parents have rented the very same house in Northern California for Thanksgiving (get this) going back almost 50 years!

KIM: That's a dream. I love that idea, especially with my growing up moving all over the world. The idea of going to the same Thanksgiving and every year... 

AMY: Yeah, it's such a great tradition. The house is right on the beach. You never know what kind of weather you're really going to have. And there have actually been a few Thanksgivings in recent years where we lost power for several days on end, which is always an adventure. But that said it's become a comfortably familiar place to me. And it's really interesting, I think, the way that being there sort of marks time, it kind of reminds me of that movie...there was that Alan Alda movie, I think it was called Same Time Next Year. 

KIM: Oh yeah. 

AMY: You know what I'm talking about? 

KIM: Yes, totally. Yep. Which I've never seen. I've always wanted to see it. 

AMY: I mean, that was about two lovers that would meet up at the same cottage every year. This is more family friendly, but, um, yeah. So a decade ago there were babies crawling everywhere, and now we're kind of moving into pre-teen territory with all the cousins. My in-laws always have fun surprises in store for the kids. They brought a magician in the year before COVID struck, and he actually had to wind up performing in the dark because that was also one of the years the power went out. Always a little unpredictable. They're always fun though. But what about you? What are your Thanksgiving plans? We're recording this a few weeks before Thanksgiving. 

KIM: Yeah. So, we are going back and forth, but I think we're going to try something different, which is having Thanksgiving with our friends, Kathy, Paul and their five-year-old, Sebi. We've been doing a lot of pandemic vacations with them and it's been really great. So we thought we would spend Thanksgiving with them this year. And then we're spending Christmas with family. 

AMY: Nice. 

KIM: Yeah. And Hanukkah at home. 

AMY: Yeah. Yeah. It's fun to have kind of your "family" family, and then your family of your choosing. 

KIM: It's nice to have a little bit of both. Yeah. Christmas and Thanksgiving are so close together. Maybe a little too close. 

AMY: It feels like, honestly, right around the beginning of November (I tell you this, every year, Kim) it feels like you're at the top of a roller coaster and you're about to head down the hill and it just flies out of control until January rolls around. It's just crazy. It always stresses me out.

KIM: It does always stress you out. 

AMY: It does. This year I feel a little better because (I'm getting off on a tangent here) but I think because of the whole supply chain thing, I've had to start doing my Christmas shopping really early. [pause] Oh, no. Oh, am I making you panic now? 

KIM: Yes, because you always do it earlier than me. And there's a supply chain issue?

AMY: Kim, how do you not know this? 

KIM: No, I kind of know about the supply chain. I just, I'm very spontaneous. And I usually wait until the last week and then run around, because I always have to get the perfect present for everyone for Hanukkah and Christmas. I celebrate Hanukkah with my husband and my daughter and Christmas. So if Mike had been Jewish, you would also be celebrating Hanukkah, which would just put you over the edge. 

AMY: Oh, my God, that would be way too much. 

KIM: Cause we're talking about how many crazy nights? 

AMY: Way too much. Yes, but I will say my early Christmas shopping, there is a downside to that. I've had to be like, "No, no, no, no. Don't buy that yet," to my family. "Maybe don't buy that yet, because that might somehow be coming into your life." Or a thing that the kid wants in September they don't want in late November anymore. We're getting way off track here, but really we are here to talk about Thanksgiving. So we thought it would be fun for this week's mini to give a sort of literary nod to the Thanksgiving holiday.So right off the top of my head, I was trying to think about Thanksgiving books, right? 

KIM: Mm-hm.

AMY: And I'm not super familiar with too many novels that are set around Thanksgiving. Kim, I know you probably know more than I do, but I'm going to do a shout-out to listeners right now. This is where we need your help. Drop us a note if you can think of some interesting Thanksgiving tales for us to feature next year. The one that I think of primarily — the first thing that pops into my head is Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. 

KIM: Oh, yeah. 

AMY: Which is not exactly an idyllic tale. 

KIM: I mean, it's hilarious, but it's not warm and fuzzy for sure.

AMY: No. 

KIM: And then there's Rick Moody's The Ice Storm, which I love, I love the movie. I actually haven't read the book, but I absolutely love the movie. That, again, is also, you know, kind of dark. 

AMY: Yeah. If you haven't seen that (for some of our younger listeners, maybe) that's a film with Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci and some other big names.

KIM: It's great. 

AMY: Just basic dysfunction. So, you know, I didn't want to kind of go there with this episode. I was trying to think of something more uplifting. 

KIM: Yeah. And also, you know me and holidays. I'm all about, you know .... the warm and fuzzy. 

AMY: Yeah. Making it happy, right.

KIM: Yeah. Yeah. 

AMY: I was like, "Where are you going, Kim?" I thought you were going to take a dark turn for a second.

KIM: No, no, no. Well, okay. So since we're going to keep things a bit lighter, we've decided to, how about a short story by Louisa May Alcott called "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving?" I want some cider right now; just saying that makes me want some. 

AMY: Serve up the pumpkin pie y'all! So Kim and I could sit here and talk about this little story, but we wanted to do something a little bit different this week instead.

KIM: Yeah, rather than ask you to go hunt up the story, we thought we'd save you the trouble and read it to you. The best bits that is. I have actually wanted Amy to try out... she has such an expressive voice, as you've heard, if you've listened to any of our other episodes where, you know, she's done a sort of a longer piece. I always wanted to hear her read something out loud for us. 

AMY: I know, I always kind of had ... you know when Jo March goes to read to...

KIM: Aunt March. 

AMY: Yeah, exactly. I was always jealous of her because I love reading out loud. So I thought it would be fun to read this story. (Thank God for literature in the public domain, also.) So consider this episode, your Lost Ladies of Lit story hour to get you in the Thanksgiving spirit, or maybe to aid you in digesting your Thanksgiving dinner, depending on when in the week you tune in.

KIM: Right. And though, of course, Louisa may Alcott isn't a "lost lady" of literature, granted, we're willing to guess a lot of you have never read this one. And even if you have, you'll probably want to hear it again. So Amy, since you're going to read some of it for us, maybe you can set the stage for everyone. 

AMY: So Alcott sets this story the day before Thanksgiving at the country home of Mr and Mrs. Bassett and their eight children. Eight! Oh my gosh.

KIM: Eight is enough.

AMY: "Eight is enough..." How does the song go? "Eight is enough, to...." I don't know. Anyway, Mrs. Bassett is in the kitchen starting to wrap her head around preparing the Thanksgiving feast for the next day when she gets word that her mother is at death's door. Oh no! She's being summoned to come say her final goodbye. So she and Mr. Bassett take the youngest child, an infant, with them and they hurry off in a sleigh to grandmother's house, which is 20 miles away, but they instruct their oldest boy Eph, short for Ephram, I guess, and their 14 year-old daughter, Tilly, to hold down the fort with the younger kids while they're away. Unfortunately, a snow storm is also coming, but the kids assure their parents that they can manage until Pa gets back to the house the following evening. So once the parents rush off, the kids soon forget all about grandmother's illness and relish in their newfound freedom and responsibility. 

KIM: Wait, is this Home Alone circa 1882?

AMY: Yes. I would say the kids are a little precocious. So you're left wondering what's going to happen now that they've been left all alone in the house. Yes. 

KIM: Yeah. I'm totally getting "Ruggles" vibes. For our listeners, those are the kids in The Birds' Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin. We featured that story at Christmas time last year.

AMY: Yes. I thought of the Ruggles, too. I would say these kids aren't quite as crazy as the Ruggles, but definitely cute. Definitely cute. So to save some time here, I'm just going to drop into the story around the halfway point, just as the Bassett children wake up on Thanksgiving morning and things start to get interesting.

So without further ado, here's the rest of Louisa May Alcott's "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving." 

[reads story]

KIM: That was so sweet! I loved it. We hope that you all enjoyed this little installment of Lost Ladies of Lit story hour just as much as I obviously did. And we hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

AMY: And if you're not completely in a food coma next week, we hope you'll join us again to discuss another lost lady.

KIM: Yes. As if you didn't need any more food, we'll be discussing food writer MFK Fisher and her wartime classic, How to Cook a Wolf. We've got a phenomenal guest joining us to discuss Fisher's life and work: her biographer Anne Zimmerman.

AMY: I can't wait. In the meantime, we're so grateful to have the support of you, our listeners. And if you want to share in that spirit, perhaps you could take a moment to give us a quick review over at apple podcasts. It's one of the simplest ways you can show your support for us. 

KIM: Our theme song was written and performed by Jennie Malone and our logo was designed by Harriet Grant. Lost Ladies of Lit is produced by Amy Helmes and me, Kim Askew.