re: It’s about that time for some crazy thanksgiving family stories

My story is about MY WORST THANKSGIVING EVER.

But it's a little different-- no crazy relatives, no burned turkey, just a sad situation for three guys who were barely 18. May be a little long for some of you to read, so I'll put the TL;DR sentence version at the end.

But for the rest of you, enjoy...

To start with, my best friend and I were the types who couldn't WAIT to get out of our hometown and go far, far away for college. We both got scholarships to Trinity University in San Antonio -- about 9-10 hours away from home back in the days of the 55 mph speed limit-- and shared our freshman dorm room.

Another good (mutual) friend wanted to come visit us, and asked to do so during the Thanksgiving break. We were still enjoying our freedom from our families and had no plans to go home for Thanksgiving anyway, so we said that would be a great idea. He flew out from New Orleans to join us the Monday before, and would leave us on Friday. I had saved up some money from my part-time job delivering pizza, so we could party in style and have a nice Thanksgiving dinner at some restaurant.

Things went well the first couple of days; we all hit some parties and did touristy things with our friend in San Antonio. I had a piece of crap old car that my parents "gifted" me for high school graduation, so we had wheels to get us around.

Things started going downhill late Wednesday afternoon. My roommate borrowed my car keys to take his girlfriend to the airport; but the car wouldn't start. Dead as a doornail; couldn't jump it, nothing worked. She got a ride to the airport with another student, and it was too late on Thanksgiving eve to get the car towed anywhere and fixed.

We soon found we were pretty much alone on campus, with no car to go anywhere. We used some of my cash on a cab and went to a mall that night to have something to do, and eat at a food court.

As we took another cab home, a cold front started coming through, temperatures began dropping severely while winds picked up, and a chilly rain began.

We awoke the next day to a cold, gray day of not-quite freezing rain outside, while the three of us were cooped up/trapped in a tiny old dorm room. None of us had a credit card, and I knew I had to save as much of my wad of cash as possible, to pay to get my car fixed. The campus food service/meal plan was closed, so we ordered a pizza for our mid-day Thanksgiving dinner and watched football on a tiny black and white TV. Later in the afternoon, rather than going stir crazy, we marched about a half-mile and back in the cold drizzling rain to the nearest 7-11 to get some snacks and treats. It was a MISERABLE day all around.

Early the next morning, the tow truck came to get my car, and I rode with the driver to the shop to get it fixed. It needed a new starter, and with the tow fee the bill was like $150 and I only had about $100. Our visiting friend lent me the other $50; I dropped him off at the airport just after lunch time.

And that Friday night, I did the only thing I could do as I was back 'in the hole' financially-- I went back to delivering pizzas on another freezing cold night to make some money. That night the car heater was acting up, and the windshield was alternately fogging up or frosting up constantly, and I wasn't getting any tips.

I was overcome with a sense of depression and desperation, thinking this was going to be my life: right when I would be getting ahead, something--some unforeseen event or circumstance-- would come along and ruin it for me, putting me back in debt, and I would spend the rest of my life as an independent "free man" on my own in this miserable situation, working at a menial job just to make ends meet.

I am not ashamed to say I pulled over at one point and cried my eyes out for awhile that night.

So every year, I give thanks that I have NEVER had to endure a Thanksgiving like that again.


TL;DR: Three college freshmen trapped in a dorm during a freezing cold, rainy Thanksgiving because the car broke down on Thanksgiving eve.