Thanksgiving At Denny's® Again! ~ TSL

Author's Preamble:

I hereby proclaim and disclaim that I am not responsible now and in the future for any side effects that you the reader may suffer. For any complaints, please get in touch with ACFan and or Jeff's Fort as everything is their fault. If they are unable to resolve your complaints please contact The Eggman!

I also do not apologize for the use of any characters, their likenesses, and or scenes and images from other authors used with or without their permission.  Gary the Turkey is on loan from Matt, maybe. For all plagiarism complaints please get in contact with my personal assistant 'Goos'.

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You may remember me from a previous story about Wild Turkey® whether you do or not isn't important in the scheme of things. My name is John Q. Public, and thanks to a Wild Turkey, I am no longer single. I now have a husband three boys and a cat or three. Now let's go back to that fateful day after Thanksgiving oh those many years ago, I remember it like it was yesteryear.

You see I bagged my Wild Turkey and brought it to my local Wholesale Butcher Shop, "You kill 'em we dress 'em!' I needed to get my turkey plucked and dressed so I could cook it for a Sunday Dinner down the road. I walked into the Butcher Shop and they were very, very busy. It seems that every Tom, Dick, and Hairy from miles around had gotten lucky with either Wild Turkeys, Deer, or Wild Boar. For the first time in my feeble memory, I had to take a number and wait.  As I was waiting very patiently, yeah right there isn't a patient bone in my body. I just happened to overhear the folks behind me asking whether or not they could afford to buy any meat for their dinner. Being the kind soul that I am and a rich one to boot, I, of course, turned around to see what I could see. I turned around and I thought that I was back in the Casino in Winnemucca, lights and bells started going off, well at least in my imagination they did.

Now if you ask me how many kids that hunk of manly goodness standing behind me had, I would have replied what kids? For standing behind me was the object of many a nightly dream, about six foot, auburn-haired with hazel eyes and a nicely chiselled chin. I was brought back to earth by a gentle shaking of my shoulder, and a warm dulcet-toned voice inquiring,

"Are you alright, sir?"

"I am fine, my mind just escaped me for a few moments. My name is John, and thank you for caring."

" Hi, John my name is John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, oh wait, wrong story. Sorry, my name is Jacob Price and we are very glad to meet you, these are my three sons, John, Jacob Jr. And Sean. We stopped at two J's so we we weren't so alliterative. [Sorry Darryl 😇] Yes Cupid's Arrow did strike me and it struck me hard. The questions are whether to pursue something and or if I am ready for an instant family.

The answer to the first question is definitely, and the answer to the second question is 

 I decided to take matters into my own hands and get things moving,

"I have a brilliant idea on how we can solve both of our problems, I hate to eat alone, and it sounds like you boys need some good food. So, why don't I trade this turkey in for Hamburgers and Hot Dogs for you young men and some juicy steaks for me and your dad? Then we can have a BBQ at my house, and you can take all the leftovers home. The only thing that you have to bring is your appetite. Does that sound like a good idea?"

To say that my idea stunned them would be a major understatement, poor Jacob was standing there making fish faces and his boys were licking their lips and they had twinkles instead of despair and hunger in their eyes.

While their Dad stood there unable to get a word out, his sons had no problem at all.

"I am John and I am the old man of the bunch we would love to share a Barbecue with you, Right Dad?"

Finally, all of Jacob's synapses between his brain and his mouth started firing on all cylinders.

"As my precocious son said we would love to join you for a BBQ, as long as we aren't imposing on you."

"Well, you can hardly be imposing as I invited you, right?"

The BBQ was a rousing success, and thanks to Jacob's adorable and loving sons we are now living as a loving family. Don't worry though this isn't the beginning of the end, although it might be the end of the beginning.

 

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Jake Jr. or as he prefers to be called Jacko decided to be called, decided that for Thanksgiving Dinner this year instead of cooking and creating mountains of dishes and pots and pans to clean we would go out to our local Denny's® for dinner this year. Of course, hearing his favourite Thanksgiving story for the umpteenth time just might have some bearing on his decision. So, we packed ourselves into my Ford Explorer and off we went to dinner.

I had called and made a reservation several weeks ago as a fallback plan. Good idea I had.

Although this was indeed an Official Denny's® Restaurant, there wasn't anything official about the restaurant. While they did serve all of Denny's® Hometown Favourites they did serve some good ole boy local cuisine as well. With all of the Wild Turkey Hunters in the neighbourhood, they had lots of fresh turkeys to choose from.  This Wild Turkey -  not this one   . Now our local Denny's® in addition to the standard carved turkey that you can get anywhere they also served the juiciest most flavourful Wild Turkey Roll that you have ever sunk your teeth into. This Turkey Roll was handmade in the kitchen by a cook who had to be as old as the day is long.  He deboned the turkeys by hand and slathered them deboned turkeys with his homemade Wild Rice and Chestnut Dressing. Then he rolled the turkey and then rolled them up as tight as a drum. The rolls then went into the walk-in cooler to chill overnight and to let the flavours meld a bit. Unlike a lot of so-called Turkey Rolls these had both Dark and White Meat and with the addition of the dressing were to die for. No dry tasteless roll here.

We arrived fifteen minutes before our reservation time and the line was out the door and halfway around the parking lot. I pitied the poor off-duty Police Officers and Reserve Deputy Sheriffs trying to keep order. Seeing that we had a reservation I carefully made my way through the madding crowd to the Hostess Stand and gave the good-looking harried young man my name.

"Just one moment sir, I believe that your table is ready, just let me check and I will be right back."

Sure enough not more than a minute later he was back and said,

"Follow Me, please."

"I would love to, however, the remainder of my party is still outside," I told him.

"Not a problem sir," with that he stepped back over to his podium and activated the microphone.

"John Q. Public party of five, your table is waiting, please make your way to the front of the line to be seated."

Sooner than I expected the rest of my family arrived. The nice young man whose name was Scott then said,

"Follow me, please."

So, we did, however, as we started toward our table, I thought I saw my family pass us by on their way out the door. I shook my head to clear my eyes and my brain, however, like a ghostly after image "we" had just walked through the door.

"John, what is the matter you look like you have seen a ghost?" Jacob asked.

"Jacob, I thought I saw us walking out the door, at least that is what it looked like," I shook my head and then said,

"I must be hungrier than I thought."

"Here is your table gentlemen," Scott then pulled out a chair for each of us and helped us get seated.

"Your server tonight is Sean; be careful we just took off his training wheels at lunch." With that, he was gone.

"I heard that Scott," I am Sean and I will be your guide through our Thanksgiving Dining Extravaganza." And then in a softer tone of voice,

Brothers ya know, can't live with 'em, and can't live without 'em."

That of course, cracked up our three boys. Jacob and I both noticed that Jacko couldn't keep his eyes off of Sean, even though he was light years older than him. 'We had privately wondered which team our three boys would bat for. We thought that John would turn out like us as he had a close friend that he was never without, in fact, Jamie had most of his clothes in John's closet and vice versa. Sean and Jacko were both always talking about the cute girls in their classes, while John never said a word about girls.'

This is who Jacko's eyes followed everywhere he went. Jacko absolutely detested being called Junior and Jake Jr. Was right up there with things he despised as well. So, we acquiesced and called him Jacko as he adamantly requested.

Sean then very efficiently went around the table taking everyone's drink order except for min, which I thought was kinda strange. However, before I could say or do anything the Owner Gus a lifelong hunting buddy appeared with a tumbler full of a glorious tawny liquid,

"One Wild Turkey 101 and branch, I believe this is your order, Mr. Public."

Now I understood why Sean didn't take my order, he was too underage to handle alcohol sales. In our state, you must be Twenty~One to even take alcohol orders. Now don't get me started there are some states where a server can deliver alcoholic drinks as long as the Bartender is of legal age to pour. Weird I know.

Sean delivered our drinks and then said,

" I won't be taking your food orders as Gus has already put them in, however, I will be helping him bring your food out. Don't worry you will be very happy with what Gus had ordered for you."

Shortly thereafter, Gus called for Sean and moments later a cavalcade of food appeared. Each plate had Slices of the Turkey Roll, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, along with freshly baked Wheat Dinner Rolls. Sounds nice and yummy and simple right? Now here is the twist, while Sean was busy delivering the individual plates Gus was loading up the table with serving bowls of Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes, Orange Glazed Baby Carrots, some of the wonderful Wild Rice and Chestnut Dressing, Fresh Corn in a Butter Sauce, and yes there is more! The final dish was a Baked Green Bean dish made with Cream of Celery Soup not Cream of Boring Mushroom.

"Dig in guys and if you want more just ask Sean, he needs to work to support me in my old age," Gus then turned and left, but not without mussing up Sean's hair.

Sean just shook his head and then said,

"Enjoy, I will be back shortly with more rolls and some Doggy Bags."

Unfortunately, none of us were able to respond to Sean as we were busy stuffing our faces. I am sure that every one of us would be loosening our belts before we finished eating.

Something in the back of my mind was bothering me, it wasn't until Sean came back with more dinner rolls that I realized what the problem was.

"Sean, what is the story with those teenagers in the corner booth with only Sodas in front of them?"

"Mr. Public, you can see them? It seems their author left them at that table many, many years ago. They seem to fade in and out of existence. It gets really strange when a party is seated at the table. Those folks set world records for the fastest meals eaten. Whenever we try to refill their drinks or bring them more food, they just say no, we are waiting for Jeff. Then they just fade out of sight. Most of our customers either don't see them or can't see them, however, they don't bother anyone, so we let them stay," Did that help, Mr. Public inquired Sean?

"Thanks, Sean, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't seeing things that weren't really there. Hopefully, this Jeff person they are waiting for shows up really soon before those poor guys waste away to nothing." I replied to Sean, not really as sure as I sounded.

I decided to forget about the table and enjoy the succulent repast in front of me. Shortly after our conversation Sean returned and asked a very simple question that had everyone at our table groaning.

"Is everyone ready for dessert?"

Our Sean and Jacko responded by throwing a couple of leftover dinner rolls at the waiter Sean.

I guess Sean was used to dealing with rambunctious teen and preteen boys, as he calmly grabbed the rolls out of the air and started eating them. Sean and Jacko nearly fell out of their chairs at Sean's reaction!

"Seriously though, please let me know what kinds of dessert you want and I will add it to the rest of your take-home stuff. Gus wants me to tell you that he will box everything up and you can pick it up at the back door. He said the crowds outside are getting grumpy."

"Thanks, Sean give us a couple of minutes and we will give you our choices," Jacob informed our waiter.

While Jacob was talking with Sean, I was trying to figure out how to punish Sean and Jacko for their attempted food fight.

"John, let it go, they were out of line, however, Sean handled it perfectly, no one got hurt and it was all in good fun." Jacob's whispered words calmed me down a little.

However, what our two sons did next calmed me down completely,

"Dads, we are sorry for throwing food at Sean, but he seems like a big kid to us. We didn't throw them very hard, and we threw them right at him so they wouldn't hit anyone else. You can ground us when we get home." Sean and Jacko told us alternating sentences as if they were twins. Thank God they didn't speak in stereo.

"Just don't do it again, and apologize to Sean when he comes back," Jacob told our two mischievous sons.

Sean came back with our check, and the boys did apologize,

"Guys it is no big deal, next time throw them at Scott instead of me." Sean then gave both of our sons a hug and gave Jacob the check.

What our three boys did next shocked Jacob and me to the core, each boy opened their wallet withdrew a ten-dollar bill and slid it under their plate. 

"Big hugs when we get home guys." Jacob and I said, bring big smiles to our boys' faces.

It was time for us to head home and watch the last football game of the day. American Football that is.

As we got up from our chairs and began heading toward the front of the restaurant Sean appeared to say goodbye and got big hugs from our three boys. The fact that John hugged Sean in public amazed both Jacob and me. Sean has been telling us that he is too old for public displays of affection. Maybe there is hope for him yet.

Once the hug fest was over we headed to the front door and on our way home. I almost fell as I was shocked at who I saw standing at the Hostess Podium because there we were standing waiting for Scott to seat us. I thought maybe I was experiencing a wee too much Wild Turkey. I shook my head thinking I was just seeing things until I winked at me...

I came too looking up to see my family looking down at me with concerned looks on their faces. I was just about to say I was fine when I saw myself looking down at me. Half an hour or so later I woke up again to someone shining a flashlight in my eyes. I struggled to sit up until I found myself looking right into the eyes of a .

Five years later I was finally released from the Happy Hills Sanitorium, supposedly cured of my hallucinations. The doctors told me to stay away from anything Turkey-related.

"I will try, I only hope that my loving family will help me."

We finally got home and I was ensconced in my trusty recliner getting ready to watch my first TV show in five years,

"Hallmark Proudly Presents the Rescue of Gary The Turkey. Later when I had recovered again Jacko told me that my screams were heard across the country. "It is so cool having a famous Dad!" Jacko said as he was smothering me with hugs and kisses.

Luckily Jacob came to my rescue with a highball glass full of....... You guessed it Wild Turkey 101 and branch.

 

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The End!