11/27/2008 – Thanksgiving Day and my baby girl’s first birthday.

The family woke up at 8:00AM highly anticipating: Jaye’s pumpkin muffins, turkey, cranberries, Nana’s gourmet mashed potatoes with squash (and cream!), Nana’s traditional yam casserole with oatmeal and cranberries and marshmallows, (which let’s face it is a richer version of apple crisp that we pass off as a side dish) string beans, creamed onions (which never got made this year), two kinds of cranberry sauce which the kids dubbed cranberry relish and cranberry jel-ish, pumpkin, pecan and apple pie, and birthday cake.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

We attempt to watch the parade with the kids, but they are too wound up. The baby goes down for a nap and Jaye takes the other 2 for a walk in the double jogger. I work on belching monkey while the baby zomps. Wife gets back from the walk, the baby wakes up from her nap and we furiously get ready (at the last minute) for overnight at Nana’s which is 45 minutes away.

The Call

Just as we are about to leave, Jaye’s phone rings. Why do we even say that phones ring anymore? Almost nobody’s phone rings. They usually sing or play a song to let us know that someone is calling. My tone for Gregory Ng is a digital sound. Jaye’s is boing-boing-boing. Anyway, I’m still popping a squat on the couch geeking away when I hear from the kitchen: “THE TURKEY IS ROTTEN!”.

Suddenly, anticipation turns to fear. Shaw’s and Stop and Shop are both closed. I already know this and I quicky realize that it is going to take a miracle for us to have turkey this year. I tweet to find out if anyone knows of if there is a grocery store open in Metro West. Twitter, in spite of what everyone says, is no help. Let’s face it. Twitter is mostly a bunch of people talking versus the giant conversation that everyone would like it to be. I set Jaye’s facebook status to THE TURKEY IS ROTTEN! Lots of sympathy, not much help.

The Google Call

Determined, we hop in the car and start to drive towards Nana’s. I start making phone calls. I go through ALL of the stores in the area. Shaw’s, Stop and Shop, Russo’s (who doesn’t even sell turkey) and then I think of Roche Brothers. I GOOG-411 for the number. “GOOGLE! Name the business name, city and state”.

“Roche Brothers, Wellesley Mass”, I say.

“Dodge, Wilmington Mass”, says Google.

“GO BACK! GO BACK!” I shout. My wife glances at me, giggling nervously.

“City and state please.”

“Wellesley, Mass”.

“Wellesley, Massachusetts. Business name?”

“Roche Brothers”.

“Top listing, Roche Brothers, 377 Chestnut Street, Needham, MA. I’ll connect you!”

“Blast! Needham! I love Needham, but it’s not on the way.” I mutter. “GO BACK! GO BACK!!” I say as we get closer to the exit. I try a couple more times and finally agree to let Google connect me to the Roche Brothers in Needham and decide to ask them if the Wellesley store is open. Miraculously, Robert answers the phone. We converse about the conundrum. I ask him if Wellesley is open and he tells me that there are a few people at each store just in case anyone has a problem with their turkey. I tell him that we are indeed having problems, but that we bought our turkey from Price Chopper. He says it does not matter and that we should come to the Wellesley store before 2:00PM to pick up a partially cooked turkey, potatoes, stuffing and apple pie. It’s a miracle! We’re going to have turkey. When I ask him if we need to bring cash or if they will take a card, he says that he does not think they are going to charge us at all and that we should buy our turkeys from Roche Brothers going forward to avoid Meleagris gallopavo cariosus going forward.

Unfortunately at this point we have blown by the exit to go to Wellesley so we have to call my wife’s step father to go get the bird, but he made it just in time and, actually, it was (don’t tell Nana) the best turkey we have had in 5 years.

Thanks Google for insisting I talk to Needham Roche Brothers. Robert was extremely helpful. Thanks Roche Brothers for saving Thanksgiving. Roche Brothers knows customer service. I will be buying my Thanksgiving turkeys from them going forward.