Updated: 11/26/2008 10:32 AM KSTP.com | Print Story
By: Art Barron

BARRON: Thanksgiving hiccups

Always seems that during the Thanksgiving holiday, there is some sort of plumbing problem. Whether it's at my house or a relative's house, it causes anxiety. Nobody wants a back-up ... noooooo way!  NOR does anyone want to fork over double the amount of money to pay a plumber on a holiday.

Seems like my sink gets stopped up on turkey day. No, it's not because I'm making a meal. In fact last year when it happened, we hardly used the garbage disposal. I didn't have anything that would clog it up, because there was nothing to make. I purchased a pre-cooked bird, and the side dishes were already prepared. So I'm thinking, why? My sink has done that before on Thanksgiving.

Of course there was the time many years ago I took the family to my then mother in law's house in Omaha. My kids were a lot younger then. So we stayed there for a few days. Then the day of Thanksgiving... the sewer was backing up.

Of course the frowns were directed at me... as if it was my family who caused the back-up, you know, maybe too much toilet paper. Boy did it smell foul. Whoa!!! I didn't want to seem too eager to get out... but I took the family for a drive, just to air out.

So, a few hours later, the Roto Rooter man pulls up. Smiling! He's making some pretty good change. "Yeah, already had my Thanksgiving" he quipped, now this is just "gravy".

Meantime, the children are acting up because the downstairs family room at grandma's house not only smells, the carpet is not doing too well. So all of the fun stuff downstairs is now "off-limits".  I had no problem contributing to pay the hefty plumbing bill.... if I recall, something like 300 dollars!!! I remember it was steep.

Anyway, found out by Mr. Roto Rooter it wasn't anything like toilet paper which caused the back-up. It was the root system of a large tree outside.

I figured the frowns would stop, and Grandma would realize it wasn't my family responsible for the expensive back-up. It took a while, but I remember she said something like... "these hassles always happen during the holidays."  She's right.

None the less, things got back to normal late that afternoon. The foul smell started to go away, the kids could use the bathroom once again, and dinner was pretty good... once we regained our appetites. : )