It was American Thanksgiving, and like many other years, I was far from home. I was living in Eugene, Oregon, working part-time at a non-profit ISP, training to be a Waldorf teacher, and living in a house with a divorcee, Jo, who seemed angry at the world.

Her best friend, who also was one of my teacher trainers, invited us to her house. She hosted a big potluck and lived on a lovely farm that grew herbs and vegetables for a local Italian restaurant. Her home was warm with friends mingling, and the kitchen counters were covered with dishes that everyone had bought.

I took my aluminum covered casserole into the kitchen looking for a place to put it down. My landlady and our hostess were in the middle of a conversation.

“Oh, look at all this wonderful food. What’s this? Oh! And what’s this?” Jo peeked under lids, foils, and peered into plastic-wrapped food.

“Wonderful,” she continued to gush, then her tone changed, like a woman dishing out gossip, “I do hope no one brings a green bean casserole though.” She rolled her eyes,  “It’s so white trash.”

I continued to wait to greet our hostess and find a spot for my food, and watch my uncharacteristically happy landlord until she noticed me. “Oh, hi Lani! Good to see you.”

(That felt overdone as we had just seen each other at the house.)

“What did you bring?” Jo beamed.

“I brought my favorite Thanksgiving dish,” I smiled, “green bean casserole.”

24 replies on “Discover Prompts, Day 5: Dish”

  2. Glad you told her! 🙂 Memories that last the test of time!

    44 years ago we were invited to a new acquaintance’s house and they knew we were vegetarian. I politely asked if I could bring anything. “Yes, please. Could you stop by the store on the way and pick up a bunch of broccoli, a can of fruit cocktail and a can of cheese soup?” Uh…..sure. We arrived and I handed over the bag and she poured us wine while we chatted in the other room with her husband. A short time later we sat down for dinner. We were served broccoli with cheese soup over the top and a small bowl of fruit cocktail!

    We made it through dinner and left as quickly as we could. On the way home we stopped
    for pizza!

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    1. Ha! I love that story.

      Boy, she was being weird, wasn’t she? Was she making a point? Or did she always ask folks to bring something for her to cook?

      Thank god for pizza 😀

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    1. Thanks. We didn’t get along. She was a horribly depressing person to be around, so this just seemed to be part of the story of how different we were 😉

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      3. Oh no I do, that’s the whole point. Lol. I offer points to whoever can answer my question, award points when they do something awesome by telling them.😄

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  6. Well, I prefer me some stuffing…but I did laugh at your story!!! So funny. Did she ever get more optimistic or did you learn how to deal with it? 🙂

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    1. OH, we had a bit of a blowout in which I moved out. That was a crazy time because I lived in 5 different places in about 2 years. Twice was with the guy I was dating at the time though. We kept trying to make it work, but it didn’t.

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    1. Thanks, yes. Isn’t it funny when you bring food you watch it, take peeks at it to see how it’s doing against the other foods? 😛

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  9. I got a giggle from your post. Good on you. Personally, the 🍄 in green bean casseroles don’t like me. Still, I love to see it, smell it, and imagine diving into it with my spoon 🥄 or fork. Most people love 💗 it, and would miss it at pitch-ins and holidays. Good on you! 🤭

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    1. Ha! I don’t think I looked at her when I said it. I think she laughed awkwardly and then made an excuse to leave the kitchen as soon as possible.

      Hello Mabel!

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