Gravy Purse

Articles from Boomer Magazine in Richmond, VA

Monday, 22 November 2010 10:42

BY RANDY FITZGERALD

In 1993 Barb and I and some of our relatives rented a house at Wintergreen for Thanksgiving. We made reservations for the buffet at the Rodes Farm Inn on the mountain, but we bemoaned a Thanksgiving without leftovers. Since the Thanksgiving meal was a buffet, asking for a “doggy bag” wasn’t quite in order. How we would miss those customary hot turkey sandwiches at 9 o’clock Thanksgiving night!

Barb had a plan. “You know we’re going to load up our plates and take more than we can comfortably eat anyway,” she told our group, “so let’s take along some little plastic Baggies and discreetly pack up some turkey and leftovers, and then we can make sandwiches back at the house later that night.”

“What about gravy?” someone asked.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll handle the gravy.”

On Thanksgiving Day, my party (wearing our choice of cardboard pilgrim hats or feathered headdresses made by my then 13-year-old niece the night before) assembled at the entrance to the inn. I looked around, knowing how silly I looked and hoping desperately that I would see no one who knew me. I did not, but I did see someone I knew: Farther up the line was Gov. Gerald Baliles.

At various points during the meal, I noticed my relatives secreting away a little turkey or a sliver of dressing into their Baggie; but then Barb suddenly looked around, picked up the gravy boat and poured its entire contents into her purse. Even though we felt pretty sure there was a plastic bag in there, my whole party gasped, and as I glanced around to make sure no one had seen, I met the stunned eyes of Gov. Baliles!

Ten years ago I finally got up nerve to tell this story in print. A week later, an envelope arrived in the mail with Gov. Baliles’ return address.

This was the entire message: “For ten years I kept your secret, Barb, and then Randy had to blab it to the world.”

Randy Fitzgerald teaches modern American literature at Virginia Union University. He was a longtime public relations director at the University of Richmond and columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.