SATURDAY STORY - NOVEMBER 20, 2011

 SATURDAY STORY - NOVEMBER 20, 2021

This is a work of fiction.

*****

Leon Wolff relaxed in his daughter’s recliner chair.  The television had a football game - somebody playing the Dallas Cowboys.  He could hear the grandchildren playing football outside on a beautiful fall day in Gretna Nebraska.  Although his eyes were closed, he wasn’t asleep.  He was thinking of all of his blessings.

*****

Leon remembered being a freshman at Chadron State College (now Chadron State University) in Chadron Nebraska.  He had been recruited by Chadron State to play football for the Eagles.  It was 1950, and Leon was eighteen years old.  Recruited is too good of a word thought Leon.  Yes, he had played football at Valentine High School in Valentine Nebraska, and had been all-conference.  He had gotten a letter after being named all-conference from Willis Summer, the head football coach at Chadron State.  Leon was a good student in high school and was planning on college and didn’t want to go to the University of Nebraska.  Being from a small Nebraska town, he fretted that he would be lost at such a large university.  So, he was thinking of Wayne State, Peru State, Kearney State, or Chadron State - the smaller state colleges in Nebraska.  

He grew up on a farm just outside Valentine.  It was the family farm and his dad and uncle now ran the farm as his grandfather had retired to town.  His dad had volunteered for the Army and had seen some action in Europe.  His uncle Roy managed the farm.  Leon was nine when the war started and much too young for the military and also young to be a farmhand, but he learned enough farming to help out on the farm.  His older brother Orville was already primed to be a farmer and rancher.

Leon wanted to go to college.  He thought he would be a math teacher and maybe a coach.  The offer to play football at Chadron State also brought him an offer of a $100 athletic scholarship.  As Leon remembered, he was impressed that somebody wanted him enough to give him a scholarship.  

Football had been okay, other than maybe the long bus rides.  Chadron, he realized, was not the center of the universe.  But, it was a nice school and he was enjoying his classes.

He didn’t have a car on campus but could walk anyplace he needed to in Chadron.  When Thanksgiving came so did a blizzard and nobody he knew was driving in that storm to Valentine.  

Oh well, Leon thought, I can study and get ahead of my final tests.  

But, in the campus mail on Tuesday, November 21st, he received an invitation to have Thanksgiving dinner at Dr. Schaeffer’s house.  Dr. Schaeffer was Leon’s economics professor.  Leon used the phone on the floor of Edna Work Hall, his dormitory to call in his RSVP.  

Maybe there was some good in this blizzard after all.

*****

The invitation said 1:00 at Dr. Schaeffer’s house at the northwest corner of Mears and west 8th street.  That was about four blocks away from his dorm.  But, Leon was anxious.  What should he wear to a Thanksgiving dinner at a professor’s house? The invitation said “casual attire”, what did that mean?  Could he wear jeans?  He would, of course, have his boots and parka.  Maybe he’d wear that good sweater he got from his grandmother last year for Christmas and nice slacks.  

He was ready at 10:00 on Thursday, November 23rd, 1950.  With the extra time, he tried to study, but his brain wasn’t quite into studying.  He read and reread his economics book in case Dr. Schaeffer wanted to talk economics, but his heart wasn't in it.

His parents called him about 11:00.  There was one old phone in the hallway.  Leon’s room was halfway down the hall and the phone would ring and ring until somebody answered it.  And, since it rarely was for that person, whoever answered the phone would have to trudge down the hall and knock on the door of the person who was wanted on the call.  Today, Steve Barton answered the phone and got Leon.

Mom told Leon they missed him and wished he was home for Thanksgiving.  Dad asked how classes were going.  They asked about his Thanksgiving plans, but he had called them after accepting the invitation from Dr. Schaeffer they knew.  Mom asked what he was going to wear.  His younger sister, Beth, said she missed him.  (It was good to be loved and missed on his first Thanksgiving away from home).

He went back to his room and ended up finding Steve Barton and playing a game of chess.  Steve wasn’t that good of a player, so Leon backed off his offense and with his brain more concerned about his dinner at the Schaeffer’s ended up losing the chess match.  

****

At 12:30, he bundled up and started walking the four blocks to Dr. Schaeffer’s house.  Fighting against the wind, it took him fifteen minutes.  He was early.  Should he walk around more?  But then he saw a girl, Dorothy Knapp from his econ class and greeted her and they went in together.

The Schaeffers had a very nice house.  There were ten students plus the Schaeffer family, a daughter in high school, a son in junior high school, and a younger daughter who was in elementary school.  Most of the students knew at least five of the other students and Leon recognized several from his econ class.  

Dinner was wonderful.  It seemed to Leon that he must have had a hollow leg to get two servings of turkey, three servings of mashed potatoes, and of green bean casserole.  Mrs. Schaeffer had pumpkin, apple, and mincemeat pies for dessert.  Leon hadn’t ever had mincemeat and found that he really liked it.

He sat next to Dorothy Knapp at the table.  Dorothy was from Kearney and opted for Chadron State instead of Kearney State College to get away from home.  She was going to be a teacher.  

One by one they left about 5:00, but Dorothy and Leon kept talking like old friends.  

Leon was outgoing but very shy around girls, but Dorothy was easy to be with.  

*****

Back in the present at his daughter’s house, Leon’s wife of 63 years, the former Dorothy Knapp said next to him on the sofa and gently held her husband’s hand.  He soon covered up her hand with his hand and squeezed it three times (their private code for “I love you”)

It had been an awesome life together.  With two children Mary and Howard, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren on their way, Leon had been blessed.

Dorothy watched her husband knowing that he was reminiscing and he was happy with a grin on his face.  And, she could guess why!!

Thanksgiving had special memories for both of them!!

*****

While I embellished this, I did have an Uncle Leon who was a professor of Economics at Chadron State University, and an aunt Dorothy.  Uncle Leon was the first real professor I ever knew.  I’m not sure that affected my own career choices, but possibly it did.  

My friends, Thanksgiving is a magical time of the year. 

Let us truly GIVE THANKS for our blessings - which are always more than our troubles.  

*****

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Karen