The Thanksgiving Visitor returns to the childhood days Truman Capote wrote about in his previously published semi-autobiographical short story, A Christmas Memory. This time, a schoolyard bully, Odd Henderson, menaces young Buddy. To his horror, Buddy's older cousin, Sook, invites Odd to Thanksgiving dinner in hopes of ending the boys' feud. At dinner, Buddy attempts to publicly humiliate Odd, but this revenge scheme fails. Buddy learns about cruelty, the lesson of Two Wrongs, and the dignity of empathy.
After his failed attempt at revenge, Buddy sulks in the shed. Capote writes:
The door to the shed was ajar, and a knife of sunshine exposed a shelf supporting several bottles. Dusty bottles with skull-and-crossbone labels. If I drank from one of those, then all of them up there in the dining room, the whole swilling and gobbling caboodle, would know what sorry was. It was worth it, if only to witness Uncle B.’s remorse when they found me cold and stiff on the smokehouse floor; worth it to hear the human wails and Queenie’s howls as my coffin was lowered into cemetery depths.
Note: The Thanksgiving Visitor was first published in the November 1967 issue of McCall's magazine.
Just a loud mouth Yankee I went down to Mexico. I didn't have much time to spend, about a week or so. There I lightly took advantage of a girl who loved me so. But I found myself a-thinkin' when the time had come to go...
What am I doin' hangin' round? I should be on that train and gone. I should be ridin' on that train to San Antone, What am I doin' hangin' round?
She took me to the garden just for a little walk. I didn't know much Spanish and there was no time for talk. Then she told me that she loved me not with words but with a kiss. And like a fool I kept on thinkin' of a train I could not miss...
What am I doin' hangin' round? I should be on that train and gone. I should be ridin' on that train to San Antone, What am I doin' hangin' round?
Well it's been a year or so, and I want to go back again. And if I get the money, well I'll ride the same old train. But I guess your chances come but once and boy I sure missed mine. And still I can't stop thinkin' when I hear some whistle cryin'....
What am I doin' hangin' round? I should be on that train and gone. I should be ridin' on that train to San Antone, What am I doin' hangin' round?
Note: At 0:24, Nesmith appears to sneer at someone (or something) off camera.
We skipped the light fandango Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kinda seasick But the crowd called out for more The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we called out for another drink The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, 'There is no reason And the truth is plain to see.' But I wandered through my playing cards And would not let her be One of sixteen vestal virgins Who were leaving for the coast And although my eyes were open They might have just as well have been closed
And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale
