25年感恩大餐暖人心

感恩節，顧名思義是感恩的時候，但我們的主人公卻成了別人感恩的理由。一切源自25年前自己家庭的不幸。

As families get ready for Thanksgiving meals next week， we have a story today from Scott Macaulay who started a holiday tradition of his own 25 years ago. This vacuum repairman in Melrose， Massachusetts， began cooking dinner for strangers.

Scott Macaulay: My folks decided to get divorced， and if you were nice to one， the other one would get mad with you. When October came I thought， gee， you know， what’s gonna happen at Thanksgiving? So I just thought， well， there must be some other people that are in the same boat. Why should they have that 1)rotten feeling? Why should they be stuck home alone?

眼下，各個家庭都在為下周的感恩節大餐作準備。我們現在來講一個關于斯科特·麥考利的故事。他是來自馬薩諸塞州梅爾羅斯的一名吸塵器維修工，他在25年前自己創造了一項傳統——為陌生人準備感恩節晚餐。

斯科特·麥考利：那時，我的父母決定離婚。如果我對他們中的一方好，另一方就會很生氣。到了十月的時候，我想，天啊，你知道，到了感恩節會怎么樣？我就想，嗯，肯定有其他人也處于同樣的境地。他們憑什么要承受這種糟糕的不愉快感受呢？他們為啥要落得個孤獨呆在家的下場？

So I put an ad in the local paper and offered to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people. People came and they had a good time. And last year， 84 people showed up.

What I do is transform the hall at the First Baptist Church to look as close to home as I can get it. I have a fake fireplace. I have 2)Norman Rockwell’s famous Thanksgiving picture framed. And the way I test my success or failure is how long they stay.

Last year， I had a family show up two hours late. He had lost his job and they had heard about the dinner and wanted something to eat. And， some of these people might not have anything， but they always find something that they can be grateful for.

My goal is always to have nobody sign up，’cause that means everybody’s got a place to go and everybody’s OK. And that’s what keeps me going 25 years later.

于是我就在當地的報紙上登了個廣告，提出給12人做感恩節晚餐。人都來了，他們都過得很愉快。去年，有84個人來。

我就是把第一浸禮會教堂的大廳改裝一下，讓它盡量有家的感覺。我會弄一個假的壁爐，掛上諾曼·羅克韋爾著名的感恩節畫。我判斷自己做得成功與否的標準就是他們呆多長時間。

去年，有一家人遲到了兩個小時。男主人失業了，他們聽說了這事兒，想要點吃的。他們當中有些人可能一無所有，但他們總是能找到讓他們心存感激的事情。

一直以來，我的目標都是沒有人登記報名，因為這就意味著所有人都有了歸屬，所有人都過得不錯。正是這一點讓我堅持了25年。

翻譯：Portia