My friend Carolyn and I observed our tradition of taking our holiday meal at the Mashpee Chamber’s Thanksgiving community dinner at Camp Farley, an old estate that is now a 4-H property located on Mashpee-Wakeby pond.
This is the seventh community dinner, and the third that Carolyn and I have attended. As in prior years, there was a fire in the large stone fireplace in the lodge. Unlike last year, the weather was excellent, and I was able to stroll a little around the grounds.
We learned that there’s a new group of volunteers every year, and this time, they really outdid themselves with a more efficient service set-up, superb homemade stuffing and beautifully decorated tables.
The crowd was very different than the ones in years past. There were very few senior citizens and a lot more families.
A lady introduced herself to us, she is a writer for a travel magazine and drove 5 hours to attend the dinner. She’s working on a story about how Cape Codders celebrate Thanksgiving.
All of us being single, we laughed about how awful it is to be in forced company with married couples, their kids and even their dogs during the holidays – much nicer to engage in civilized, pleasant conversation with old and new friends in a beautiful place.
Carolyn recognized a friend of hers whom she hasn’t seen for some time, so between chatting with the writer and Carolyn’s friend, we stayed for the entire two hours.
Today, I was out of the house early to visit my oldest client in Beverly, about a 200 mile round trip. I made great time back and forth through town, had a good meeting with the client, and was even able to buy three new shirts on sale at the Sagamore outlets.
On the way back, I washed the truck at the self-serve, which costs about half of a “regular” carwash.
All in all, a good two days.