It was a mix of people, it's don't ask don't tell. There were older folks and college aged folks as well.

Years ago when I was a poor kid, some 700 miles from home, I couldn't afford to go home for Thanksgiving like all of my friends. All of my friends went home and I found myself alone on Thanksgiving, walking around campus feeling as low as an 18 year old can possibly feel. I ended up eating at a "Luby's" type place, and, there were a few of us poor souls in there, eating alone and alone in our thoughts. I had recently lost my best friend to a car wreck and my grandfather to old age. It was really hard being alone, feeling alone, that was a feeling I never wanted to feel again. It is forever burned into my memory, that sadness, that melancholy feeling of loss and isolation.

Years later, while my baby bro was attending school here, he asked if one of his friends, a Chinese student, could come for thanksgiving as he had nowhere to go and didn't really understand the concept. I said sure, the more the merrier. Well, they must have posted a flyer at the foreign student center because that day we had about 10 foreign students for thanksgiving, we demonstrated the true spirit of American Thanksgiving and that's how it all started. That was around 97 or 98.

Some years there are more, some less, we have had as many as 33 strangers at our house for a meal and companionship. It's something my family likes to do for the community and hopefully it will continue to grow to a point where nobody in Aggieland is alone on thanksgiving unless they want to be.