The Case of the Missing Turkey

As most of you know Jimbo loved practical jokes and pranks. He and his brothers famously and unrelentingly tormented their mother with their antics.....this was one of those times. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving (1980, I believe) and Marc/Lynn, Tom/myself and Jimbo were hanging in the kitchen at Allendale Drive. Betty had just returned with a car load of bags from the grocery store. The boys unloaded the bags and carried them to the kitchen. As we were putting the groceries away Betty looks around and asked "Where's the turkey?"....I saw the brothers give each other that look, each had thought the other had hidden the turkey....the game was on! Laughing, they swore up and down there was no turkey in the car...the car was double and triple checked. Normally when they pranked Betty, she would chuckle afterwards and all would be forgiven, but this was the Thanksgiving turkey and she was angry! She badgered them to tell the truth. Convinced the turkey had been left at the store, she took off with the A&P receipt in hand to reclaim her turkey. Cut to Thursday...Thanksgiving Day...we were all assembled around the dining room table, Betty was about to take her first bite, when Jimbo looked up with a grin and a wink and says "Hey guys, should we tell Mom where we hid the turkey?"..... we all laughed hysterically, poor Betty did not find it funny until many years later. Jimbo never missed a good opportunity for a punch line because the turkey was never hidden; she really had left it behind.