Summary
Episode 18 captures the gentle glow of Thanksgiving weekend — full of food, friends, and a little much-needed rest. Recorded just after the holiday, Sharryn reflects on the family’s celebrations and shares a moment of calm before the busy December season begins.
Thanksgiving Highlights:
The family stayed local and celebrated with friends — Ruth, Georgia, and the ever-present Elodie included. Sharryn recounts the menu in loving detail: turkey, stuffing, pies, and all the trimmings. There’s laughter as she describes the logistics of hosting (or helping host) a multi-family meal, with kids running wild and adults stealing quiet sips of wine between kitchen sprints.
Home Life & Reflections:
The Elsons’ house feels fully settled now. Sharryn talks about cleaning, decorating for the holidays, and planning ahead for Christmas. She’s juggling budgeting, letters, errands, and end-of-year school demands — but seems more grounded than in earlier tapes. There’s a rhythm to the days now.
The Kids:
Maitland and Rachael are off school for the break, and the house is noisy and full of energy. Rachael reads another book aloud and shares what she’s thankful for. Maitland talks about puzzles, animals (as always), and “how much food he ate,” with comedic flair. Their personalities sparkle on tape — curious, silly, affectionate.
Community & Connection:
Friends drop by, leftovers are shared, and the house feels like a hub of warmth and activity. Beverly gets a mention, as does a brief visit from Marsha. There’s lots of talk about plans for December gatherings, concerts, and a possible trip.
People, Places, and Themes:
- Family & Friends: Rachael, Maitland, John, Ruth, Georgia, Elodie, Beverly, Marsha
- Themes: Gratitude, community, food, family tradition
- Recurring Details: Budgeting, reading aloud, puzzles, seasonal décor
Tone:
Grateful and glowing. Episode 18 is full of warmth — not just from the oven or the weather, but from a mother speaking with affection and deep appreciation for what (and who) surrounds her. It’s a calm breath before Christmas kicks in — a moment of joy, recorded and sent with love.
Full Transcript
Well good morning y'all, it must be like the 30th of September today, and I don't know whether you ever received any blank tapes, but this tape I had already recorded on a little bit on the 31st of January. I don't know whether I started another one or not, but if you ever get any blank tapes, that's just a mess up at this end.
Well, the rains have come. 30th of September, we've had no rain totally at all, you know, and yesterday, Sunday, it rained all day solidly, and it's raining again today, and the forecast is for a few more days of rain. It's most unusual to get rain consistently like this; usually it comes in thunderstorms and stuff, you know, but it's very wet out. And the children got all dressed this morning. Actually, it's quite cool this morning; it's down to about 60, which is a heck of a change from that humidity just over a week ago. It was, you know, still very, very humid and hot, and maybe it won't get up to the 90s again after this. I shouldn't think so, although there is... over 80...? Problems? For later on in the week. The leaves are starting to fall, and the trees are starting to turn color. There's still a lot of green around here, of course, but it is... they're talking about the leaves starting to fall on the mountains, so it's much colder up there. Here, there are a lot of leaves on the ground already, and the section's starting to look messy, you know? It's much prettier when there's a lot more leaves on the ground.
Anyway, so what's been happening? I thought I'd better catch up on this. I've had a lot of communication from Graham and stuff lately, which I've had to attend to, a few phone calls and so on and so forth. Nothing disastrous. Graham called the other morning, which is quite a thrill, just said g'day. Like he was calling from Tower to Wellington, but it's mostly been over Brian Hazlock that's in John's workroom. Ms...? Hardly you... Oh, as you can see, it's very early in the morning, it's 7:30. I've been up since about quarter to six, but I've just not got my act together yet. By the way, it is only the 29th today; you can tell I don't know what day of the week it is. But anyway, what was I saying? Oh, about Brian. Yeah, he wants to... there was a clause in the contract where he could not open another business anywhere within a million-mile radius of Wellington, so on and so forth. And he wants to buy another business in Wellington, which he called here about a couple of times the other week, and John's perfectly happy for him to do that. He's buying a guy called Rama Ethan, an Indian guy. Well, why the hell he wants to do it, I have no idea, but he wants to buy his business and operate both of them. And Rama has been operating this business without even being there, so there's no reason why he can't do that. And he still will continue to run Lambton Quay, which is where, of course, John wants to be with all the new buildings. Graham said there's 28 buildings going up. And Lambton Quay has always been, I think, the best part of town and will remain that way, and a lot of that building is going on there. So he naturally wants to keep his office open there, and so no problem. You know, Graham's got it all sorted out, but although Brian said that he'd called and it was all okay with John, he just said, "You were better to be sure than sorry," you know, so he just put a call through. And he hinted that him and Betty may well come over for a trip, which will be nice.
That was the news from that end. We had Pat Lyford here last week, who lived at number 12 Cromwell Street. You know Joan lived at 16, so it was just a house between them. He's a guy from Blenheim and had gone to school with John and Graham and Ron and everybody. And he's in... he manufactures Rembrandt suits. So they have factories out at Naenae somewhere, and he was over here for the Bobbin Show, which is a big annual event in Atlanta, looking for machinery.
(Note: The recording for Episode 18 seems incomplete in the provided text, ending abruptly after mentioning Pat Lyford looking for machinery.)
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