This Thanksgiving, I stayed home instead of going to Memphis to see my dad’s side of the family. Normally, when we go over to so many things happen. We drive all the way there, and have so many ways of entertainment. First off my dad always buys these GIGANTIC bottles of blue Powerade that my sister and I chug down the entire way there.  We’d also stock up on snacks, and when I say snacks I really mean junk food. We would always get candy including Twizzlers, not the regular kind, but the strawberry stringy kind. We also listen to books on tape. Ever since I was little that has always been our family’s thing. We don’t have little televisions in our car and never have so my sister and I always found a different way to entertain ourselves. We’d listen to “All of a Kind Family” whenever we got really bored, for hours and hours at end we could listen to it. The stories of that families life became kind of part of my own story. I probably could quote all of them by heart with no hesitations. I feel like those stories helped me build the great imagination that I have in my mind to this day. When I listened I’d jus look out the window, wishing I could teleport myself to that time so I could see these people face to face. Instead I’d just close my eyes and imagine the scenes that slowly made it to my ears. As I got older, the repeated stories, though wonderful, started to get a little dull. So my mom came up with another idea. A whole new book series. When we stuck the tape in I had no idea what to expect. Would it be just as good as my childhood stories? Would it be completely different? Would I not be able to imagine the stories the author tried to tell me? Turns out, those stories kept me listening for hours and hours at end too. The narrator was British and their voice was clear and smooth. They had the gift of depicting each and every character. I could see the characters. I could feel what they felt. I could hear what they heard. I was there. For many years those stories were a big part of my life. Each car ride, a new book in the series. A new chapter in my book I like to call life.  And then we got the last book. It was titled “The End” When I looked a the cover of the tape I really realized that it was the end. That car ride was probably the most memorable one.  Listening to every word. Making sure I remembered every single word. When the tape had finished, I just listened to the static. I didn’t know what to do. It was literally the end. But then again it was also a new beginning. This tradition was not going to end. It was just the beginning of a new one.