November 21, 2023: Thanksgiving tomatoes, my mom, and The Boy -

Once again, I’m celebrating the late harvest as my mom did, by letting our last homegrown green tomatoes ripen until Thanksgiving. This year the Sungold cherry tomatoes were abundant, and now their Thanksgiving stragglers are filling up bowls and baskets. We've gone from Hang on, little tomatoes to Bravo, little tomatoes!

Thanksgiving garden tomatoes make me think of mom. She grew up in Oakland, where tomatoes were easy, and then moved to Seattle, where green tomatoes were easy, but red tomatoes were not. She took ripening some tomatoes until Thanksgiving as a personal challenge, much the way some people baby a delicate house plant. I don’t do house plants, but I accept the tomato challenge. It only lasts a couple of months.

I’ve also been thinking of Mom in the wake of seeing a documentary about dementia last week, “Keys, Bags, Names, Words,” that was showing down at OMSI. It’s not in theaters yet, but it’s touring around the world, fundraising. My dear pal Lori went with me, said, “You shouldn’t go to that alone,” and I thought Oh, I’d be fine alone, it’s been almost six years since Mom died. But I ended up being super glad Lori was there, and glad to debrief with her in the car.

The film was billed as full of Hope, because lots of folks are working on dementia: prevention, detection, treatments, and amelioration - living one’s best life, things like art groups, exercise groups, theater groups, music therapy, family support networks. I cried and felt I was letting the team down, failing to get on the Hope Boat, but it brought back a lot.  

After the showing, there was a panel, several scientists, the filmmaker, folks from the OHSU Brain Institute talking about their research. That part was better for me. I called OHSU the next day and volunteered for a study they are doing – not a drug study, just an observational thing, three visits over the course of a year. I am, at least for now, a control.

The day after Thanksgiving, the Tomato Ripening Challenge ends, and another seasonal challenge commences: The Little Drummer Boy Game! The challenge is to make it from Thanksgiving Friday to Christmas Eve without once hearing The Little Drummer Boy: not in a movie soundtrack, not in Starbucks, not when your beloved puts on a CD of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Not hearing The Little Drummer Boy is a “meaningless” quest that “ultimately rests on a foundation of stupidity.” I’m quoting from the website https://littledrummerboychallenge.com/  On the other hand, it is a pretty annoying song. Maybe not Twelve Days of Christmas annoying, but right up there.

I’ve taken the LDB Challenge for years, and one year, I actually made it. Other years I’ve posted statuses (there’s a Facebook page) like: “Day 15: The Boy got me in Safeway, David Bowie rendition.” And then my friends who also play (most of them music types, actually), send condolences, while my other friends ask if I’m okay. I think what I like about the LDB Challenge is its mock-apocalyptic tone, plus the graphics, one of which I’m sharing here. 

Just too good, right?