Button Up Your Overcoat (Thanksgiving Music From Grandma)

Thanksgiving was my Grandmother’s holiday. Every year, for about half of my life, we’d congregate around the kitchen table in Williamsport, PA.

It’s one of the places I learned the loving craziness of family. It’s one of the places I can directly trace the roots of my sense of humor came from. It’s one of the places I learned how to pick thoughtful fights with teachers.*

I didn’t know this until recently, but one of my grandparent’s songs from, “back when we were courting,” was “Button Up Your Overcoat.”

It’s a sweet song and a sweeter memory. This is the first Thanksgiving without Grandma around. “Take good care of yourself,” and know who you belong to. Friends, family, and otherwise.

*seriously – it pays to have relatives with volumes of literary criticism on nearby shelves and strong opinions, loosely held. No authority was ever sacred or safe in that house. It was fantastic.