Happy Thanksgiving

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11-23-2021

Greetings and blessings go out to our families, friends and enemies (we forgive them, too) as the 2021 holiday season commences. The past two years have been harrowing for all of us in multiple ways, We've all been touched by the pandemic, grieving for those loved ones we lost, while celebrating life with the survivors.

Libby and I will share our Thanksgiving in the Lake C.I. prison visiting park, Clermont, Florida, trying to decide what we will eat from the meager selection of sandwiches in the canteen. I am thankful just to be together with my wife.

When I first came to prison at Union C.I., "The Rock," Raiford, in 1980, our families were allowed to bring in home-cooked meals to visits as long as the food was in Tupperware containers and passed through the metal detector. No handguns or hand grenades allowed in the potato salad!

My father and mother, Eugene and Lucille Norman, would make the hours-long trek from Tampa to North Florida every two or three weeks, and my mother insisted on getting up hours earlier to prepare a feast of home cooking for her eldest son. She always cooked much more food than we could possibly eat, fully intending to share it with hungry prisoners and their less fortunate loved ones. Feed the hungry. We made a lot of grateful friends.

The last Thanksgiving we shared before the prison banned bringing in food, my mother planned another one of her holiday feasts. My father struggled to carry in the biggest Tupperware container I'd ever seen, barely holding the roasted bird that could have been a small ostrich, it was so big. My mother carried a large box filled with all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes: cranberry sauce, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, candied yams, salad, rolls, and pumpkin pies. She'd been up all the night before, cooking, assisted by my sister-in-law, Sandy Norman, my brother Dan's wife.

It was a wonderful occasion, even if we shared it inside prison. A number of children and families were treated and blessed by my parents' generosity.

The authorities posted a memo months later on, calling a halt to the family visit food from home, claiming it was to stop the flow of contraband.

That was a lie. The real reason was that visiting park canteen food sales suffered because of the family meals brought in the V.P. Cut out the visitor food, increase canteen sales.

I am thankful for the many blessings bestowed on us, despite the circumstances, and pray that one day we will share our meal together in freedom.

God bless you. Peace, joy and love...

Charlie and Libby Norman