Allison Scott and Mark Scott

[00:02] ALLISON SCOTT: My name is Allison Scott. I'm 66. Today's date is March 1, 2023, in Marfa, Texas. My interview partner is my son, Mark Scott.

[00:12] MARK SCOTT: My name is Mark Scott. I am 36. It is March 1, 2023, in Marfa, Texas. I'm sitting here with Allison Scott. She is my mother.

[00:26] ALLISON SCOTT: Good morning. Good morning. I wanted to talk about the community Thanksgiving that you've taken over the last couple of years. But I thought it would be a good story to tell about how it all got started and to see what memories you have of the Thanksgiving.

[00:48] MARK SCOTT: Absolutely. It's an important thing, a long running thing that is near and dear to lots of local people, but also many newcomers as well.

[01:01] ALLISON SCOTT: Right, right. There was this. Some people had thought that the community Thanksgiving that St. Paul's Episcopal Church host has hosted for many years started for the tourists because there wasn't a place always to have Thanksgiving. So I wanted to tell the story, the history of that. And actually it started in the seventies. There was, I have five, as you know, five brothers and sisters. So there was eight ryans. And the minister at St. Paul's, Jim Eubanks, he and his wife Greta, they had five kids. So altogether there was this huge bunch.

[01:42] MARK SCOTT: There's a full table just right there.

[01:44] ALLISON SCOTT: Right there. And so neither house was really big enough to host everybody. So they had asked the church members, would it be okay for us to use the parish hall for Thanksgiving? And everyone said that was fine. Well, then my mom, because she was such a good hearted soul, she said, you know, Maureen Wagner's by herself. I wonder if she'd like to join us, or Burt Blackwell. She's by herself. Maybe she would like to join us. And that's really how it got started.

[02:16] MARK SCOTT: That's amazing.

[02:17] ALLISON SCOTT: Yeah. So I went back in some of the old big men sentinels, which, you know, your granddad was the editor and publisher of the paper for so many years. So I went back to look to see if I could find early articles about it. And the earliest I could find was 1975. And it was just a small story on the front page by Father Eubanks inviting anyone who was alone or couples without families to join them for Thanksgiving.

[02:50] MARK SCOTT: So 75, you were just graduated?

[02:55] ALLISON SCOTT: I had just graduated in May of 75.

[02:57] MARK SCOTT: So were all the kids put to task in the kitchen? Was everybody helping out?

[03:02] ALLISON SCOTT: Yes. Like, for us, it would be carrying out the plates or setting up the tables or the chairs or clearing the table. That's what the kids. And at that time, there was quite a few kids in the church because it was I guess there was the Hendersons and the Christopher's and the ryan's, and so that would be our job.

[03:22] MARK SCOTT: That's awesome. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. I remember going. I think my earliest memories is probably late nineties when I was kind of remember the last time and how it was such a great combination of local folks and people that I had never seen before. But a lot of those people turned out to be people that still live here today, which I think is great, who have helped carry on the tradition either by serving or bringing dishes or helping set up, and. And it's become just such a beautiful thing.

[04:07] ALLISON SCOTT: I agree. I agree. For a long time, when we first moved back here in 95, we would just have thanksgiving at home and maybe every once in a while at the church. But I think it was probably ten or twelve years ago when I decided to go back to church. I had walked away from the church because of not accepting the LGBTQ community. But I came back to church, and it was so much fun being the adult helping with the thanksgiving.

[04:40] MARK SCOTT: I remember as a kid, I always thought of it as a thanksgiving for the people that had nowhere to go.

[04:49] ALLISON SCOTT: Right.

[04:49] MARK SCOTT: And so we had a house here. We cooked dinner at our house. But it wasn't until I was a little older than I realized it wasn't for just people who had nowhere to go, but it was for somewhere to go. And it was an experience, and it was this thing of community and love, and it made so much more sense than staying at your house and just, which is also fine and beautiful, but it really. I remember it kind of making this turn of not something just for people with nowhere to go, but somewhere you actually want to go. And. Yeah, it was a fun experience.

[05:29] ALLISON SCOTT: Exactly. Well, and then I loved when community members started bringing dishes, you know, something to share.

[05:35] MARK SCOTT: Then no one has to cook all the food.

[05:37] ALLISON SCOTT: That's right. That's right. And so, in fact, a few years ago. And her last name. Her last name is Clifton Leann.

[05:46] MARK SCOTT: Yeah.

[05:47] ALLISON SCOTT: She brought a south American. I mean, a south african dessert that was like a pudding. And I had just read about it, and so she brought it, and I was so excited to be able to try something different, you know? So, yeah, so it was. It was really great. And the idea that it's continued. And so I was going back through old newspapers to see, you know, if there was a year that. That we didn't have it. And there was one year, and that was the year that my mom died. So, you know, your grandmother was diagnosed with cancer in September of 91. And so she died in December of 91.

[06:32] MARK SCOTT: She was always the one to be kind of spearheading and getting everyone together.

[06:37] ALLISON SCOTT: Absolutely.

[06:38] MARK SCOTT: Making sure it's in the paper and making sure everyone.

[06:42] ALLISON SCOTT: Yeah. Was there. And so all the women of the church, and, you know, my mom was more of an introvert than she was an extrovert, but it was meant so much to her. Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday of all holidays, and the idea that she could bring community together and everybody sit down and share a meal was so important to her. She just reveled in it. She loved it. It was hard work, but she loved it so much. And so when I was going through the paper and I didn't even realize the year, I just happened to see this small article. I mean, it was like two sentences that just said, st. Paul's episcopal church community thanksgiving has been canceled this year.

[07:25] MARK SCOTT: Yeah.

[07:26] ALLISON SCOTT: And that's all it said.

[07:27] MARK SCOTT: And everyone knew why, though.

[07:28] ALLISON SCOTT: And everybody knew why. And then I realized, oh, that's right, mom had died, and we were all together at mom's house for thanksgiving because we came from Louisiana, and that was her last. Her last thanksgiving.

[07:41] MARK SCOTT: Wow.

[07:42] ALLISON SCOTT: So that's why I think it's so special that you are now heading up. You know, when Covid shut everything down, there was no thanksgiving at St. Paul's. But then two years ago, you stepped.

[07:59] MARK SCOTT: Up, and I had no real idea of the history. I knew the episcopal church did it, but I didn't know it started with grandpa and granddaught. I just knew that it was a tradition, and I knew that people really enjoyed it, and it was a place for everyone to go, and it just couldn't be forgotten about. And so that's what made it so important for me to offer our space and our help just to keep it. To keep it alive. And it's a. To keep it for the community, for the tourists, for anybody, everybody.

[08:44] ALLISON SCOTT: Right. Well, and what I loved about, you know, you and your restaurant convenience, west, you know, that all of y'all are community minded anyway. You know, there's often that y'all step up to help the community when it's needed. And so the idea that here was this third generation that was providing this meal for everyone, but you also had the connection with your peers who did meals on wheels and who were also in the food industry. And so to me, it became even more of a community meal because you pulled in all these other people who said, hey, we'll deliver meals on wheels. That's what we do anyway. Or, hey, I'll bring over my fryer, Mark de Klerk, and I'll fry up turkeys for you.

[09:36] MARK SCOTT: Oh, yeah. It just immediately developed into this beautiful, beautiful thing of the meals on wheels, which I think both years we sent out 70, 75 lunches, and all the volunteers who do it all week showed up and everybody was having a good time. And something about taking a church based event and moving it to our funny little roadside barbecue joint on the west side and seeing all the church ladies come in. And it's just, it's, it's a, it's a different vibe, and it makes everyone squirm just a little bit because we do, as a, as a restaurant, often shoot from the hip, like, you know, and it's, it's always a bit of, what do they say? Say, organized chaos.

[10:29] ALLISON SCOTT: Right.

[10:29] MARK SCOTT: And so to see, like, the little church ladies and father Mike come in, who maybe are a little more used to a little more solid planning, kind of come in and be like, okay, what can I do? And this is maybe turn down the music just a little bit. I really enjoy. I really enjoy that aspect of, you know, it makes it even more kind of well rounded, and maybe it makes some people feel a little bit more comfortable to come into just a kind of a more neutral, neutral environment who may or may not have any affiliation with any religious religion or church. So I think that's also a different little aspect. And then you'll have the people coming in who just think we're open because now there's a bunch of cars and it looks like we're open. And they say, are you open? And we're like, well, no, but you can still. And eat.

[11:25] ALLISON SCOTT: Yeah, we've got food. Come on.

[11:27] MARK SCOTT: Yeah. So it's, it's been a fun, a fun transition. And, and I don't know. Maybe we'll keep doing it there. I don't, I don't know if Father Mike wants to go back to the.

[11:39] ALLISON SCOTT: Parish hall, you know, after the, the last one. In fact, you know, Father Mike had asked you, can I have a church service in the patio area before?

[11:48] MARK SCOTT: Also a trip.

[11:49] ALLISON SCOTT: Also a trip. Here we are having the episcopal church service in the patio of the barbecue restaurant.

[11:54] MARK SCOTT: Service at their barbecue restaurant.

[11:56] ALLISON SCOTT: Right.

[11:56] MARK SCOTT: And maybe more. More people than we think we are in Texas.

[12:00] ALLISON SCOTT: Well, and, you know, at the end of the service, he said, a woman walked up and said, hey, next year can I bring my guitar and play music for the service? And Father Mike said, absolutely. So when he was telling me that story, I said, are you, you want to do it again next year. He says, sure, if Mark will have us, I think this is the best place to have it. So I think that it turned out to be such a great transition, continuing it, but also different, you know, so you keep the basic community feeding people and loving people, but in a different. It gives it, like you said, a whole different vibe. One of the things that they did continue that I really liked was Kathy and Kevin serving mimosas in front. And, you know, that started, I don't know if that started. When Lon and Dee Dee Taylor started coming to St. Paul's, they started serving mimosas in between the church service and when the meal would start to kind of keep everybody, you know, occupied while everything was getting brought out onto the tables. And so the idea that they sits asked, because they live in San Antonio, but they are always here for Thanksgiving, they said, can we serve mimosas at convenience West? I said, well, let me ask Mark, make sure it's okay. And I think your response was, it's Thanksgiving.

[13:19] MARK SCOTT: Yeah. It's not okay, but it's not okay.

[13:21] ALLISON SCOTT: It's Thanksgiving.

[13:22] MARK SCOTT: It's gonna be okay.

[13:23] ALLISON SCOTT: It's gonna be okay.

[13:24] MARK SCOTT: And Episcopalians don't do much without alcohol.

[13:30] ALLISON SCOTT: We are the whiskey Pallians.

[13:33] MARK SCOTT: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I was like, of course that fits. That fits right in.

[13:37] ALLISON SCOTT: Right, right. It just fit right in. And I just think that, you know, everybody at St. Paul's one was so appreciative because the congregation is getting older and there are fewer people in the church. And so the idea that this next generation of people who live here in Marfa see the value in community and see the value in feeding our neighbors, that just. I mean, it just thrills me. It just. I just think it's the most amazing thing that you guys want to continue that as long as. As you can.

[14:14] MARK SCOTT: It's an incredible thing to be a part of. Once I found out that how deep it goes, all the way back to grandparents and something that we helped on the serving line as kids, and now that we can give it a new home and kind of some new life and do a little bit of the heavy lifting, it's so much fun. It's a long day, but at the end of it, it's always so, so worth it.

[14:44] ALLISON SCOTT: Absolutely.

[14:45] MARK SCOTT: There's usually too much pie left, right?

[14:47] ALLISON SCOTT: There's always too much pie left, right. But there's never any potatoes, dressing, or gravy left. That's for sure.

[14:54] MARK SCOTT: Always run out of that first thing.

[14:56] ALLISON SCOTT: Right.

[14:57] MARK SCOTT: So before Father Mike, Judy was. Was it there was someone between Judy Burgess and Father Mike or maybe a couple people.

[15:05] ALLISON SCOTT: Jeremiah Griffin.

[15:06] MARK SCOTT: Jeremiah, right. And he, he, he kept it going.

[15:08] ALLISON SCOTT: He kept it going. And before him. I'm sorry, I can't remember his name. He's the one that actually brought me back into the church. He did it. And then before that was Judy.

[15:18] MARK SCOTT: Yeah. So you think, is there a question on the interview process when you go out to Marfa to work at St. Paul's, there's a community Thanksgiving, and you have to get behind it.

[15:28] ALLISON SCOTT: And you have to get behind. I don't think so. I think the women of the church are just like, well, of course we're going to do the Thanksgiving. I mean, there was just no question about it. It wasn't really until pandemic that we decided not to do it. And when we came out of pandemic, Dee Dee Taylor was really the driving force behind it. And by then, Lon had died and she just didn't have the energy to want to do it anymore. And so I was glad when, you know, you wanted to pick it up and those who were going, still attending St. Paul's were, were all in to bring sides and whatever we needed to do to support y'all.

[16:03] MARK SCOTT: Absolutely.

[16:04] ALLISON SCOTT: Yeah.

[16:05] MARK SCOTT: So many things changed and ended, unfortunately, during the pandemic.

[16:09] ALLISON SCOTT: Absolutely.

[16:10] MARK SCOTT: And Marfa.

[16:11] ALLISON SCOTT: Yeah.

[16:12] MARK SCOTT: It was just, it really felt like one of those things that, like, we.

[16:15] ALLISON SCOTT: Just couldn't let it die.

[16:16] MARK SCOTT: We can't let it go. Too many people have grown up now. Too many young kids have, you know, I think about, like, the Marginot triplets.

[16:26] ALLISON SCOTT: Right.

[16:26] MARK SCOTT: And, you know, now, like Sam Watts and his two boys, there's just like, there's now new generations who are making memories and loving that, loving that moment in time. It's very cool.

[16:39] ALLISON SCOTT: It's very cool. And so, yeah, I do hope it continues, and I hope we have a variety of people that continue to be involved and participate in it. And I was telling you earlier that one of my memories when Judy Burgess was the reverend, was when the National Guard were out here to support the border patrol. And I thought you said it. You thought it was maybe in the late nineties, early thousands, I think. And here came all the national guardsmen in to eat Thanksgiving. There was probably, I don't know, 25, 30 of them. And everybody was so happy because there were just these young kids looking for Thanksgiving. And so it was, it was a good thing to, I think feeding people is one of the best ways to love people.

[17:27] MARK SCOTT: Oh, absolutely. Food. Food is love.

[17:29] ALLISON SCOTT: Food is love, for sure. And thanksgiving is in itself a thankful time. And so to be able to feed strangers and friends and family is so important.

[17:42] MARK SCOTT: I think we had like 150 people come through.

[17:46] ALLISON SCOTT: Wow.

[17:47] MARK SCOTT: And then the 70 something meals on wheels. So, yeah, I think that's a lot for this little town, us and all of the potluck. We fed over 200 people last year.

[17:56] ALLISON SCOTT: Wow.

[17:57] MARK SCOTT: I think was a little bit more.

[17:58] ALLISON SCOTT: Than the year before.

[18:00] MARK SCOTT: So, yeah, I think it will just continue to. To grow and be a fun thing. Especially now people are playing guitars. It's gonna be, right?

[18:09] ALLISON SCOTT: I mean, yeah. Father Mike is all day event. I know. He's all in. He's like, oh, no, I'm all in. This is just perfect. And I think that's really great, too, that he is willing to let go of it as just a St. Paul's event, but sees that big picture as this is a community event.

[18:26] MARK SCOTT: Right. Cause I definitely thought we were gonna do it that one year, right. Just to provide the outdoor safer space. And then after that, they'd wanna take it back to the church. And now I realize we might be saddled with it for a while.

[18:42] ALLISON SCOTT: Be careful what you volunteer for. Right?

[18:45] MARK SCOTT: I'll be in my sixties frying turkeys.

[18:51] ALLISON SCOTT: We'll have to get my grandson, your nephew, Jacob. He could be the next generation coming up. Right. Well, thank you for sharing your memories and telling this story, because I think it's such an important story.

[19:06] MARK SCOTT: Absolutely. I'm so happy to be a part of my family tradition and Martha's Thanksgiving tradition. It's a special thing that I hold dear.

[19:18] ALLISON SCOTT: Me too.

[19:19] MARK SCOTT: So one more question.

[19:21] ALLISON SCOTT: Okay, I'm ready.

[19:22] MARK SCOTT: Homemade cranberry sauce or canned cranberry?

[19:26] ALLISON SCOTT: Oh, you know me, it's gonna be homemade cranberry sauce. But what is your dad's favorite?

[19:31] MARK SCOTT: Oh, from the can.

[19:32] ALLISON SCOTT: From the can, that's right.

[19:33] MARK SCOTT: Cause I've got the best of both of you. I like both.

[19:36] ALLISON SCOTT: You like both. So there you go. Perfect ending.

[19:43] MARK SCOTT: Thank you so much for talking with me.

[19:45] ALLISON SCOTT: Thanks for joining me. I love you too.