Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 10/01) - On the second floor of the Salvation Army building about 200 people ate turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and corn for Thanksgiving in a cafeteria-style feast.

Some came because they couldn't afford a turkey, others because they didn't want to be alone or just needed a complete immersion in some semblance of community.

After all, it was Thanksgiving, a time when pumpkin pie and laughter provide a brief respite from the drudgery of life.

But it only works in the company of others.

And so they lined up, filing past volunteers behind mountains of mashed potatoes and turkey piled in silver trays and scooped by silver spoons with the little round holes.

Volunteers at the Salvation Army sliced 16 turkeys and peeled around 150 kilograms of potatoes.

The hot smells from gravy and stuffing mixed with kitchen heat, the clang of empty pots and the scraping of chairs across the floor and someone drops a fork, the sharp ping muffled by the murmur of 100 different conversations.

With eyes closed it could be anywhere, a grandmother's kitchen, a friend's Thanksgiving party.

"We have the best feast in town," said Capt. Karen Hoeft of the Salvation Army.

But Bill Buggins remembers a better feast. With an empty plate before him he smiles a little.

He was 15 years old, living in Rocher River and sitting at a table in a cabin on Thanksgiving. It was beautiful, sunny and warm, he said.

No one ate turkey that year, just caribou, moose meat and muskrat. "All our family was there," he said.

Now he eats with a different family.

On Sunday, bombs fell on a country half a world away. War broke out on the day before Canadian Thanksgiving. Many people spent that evening tuned in to CNN. Millions of Afghani refugees ran for the Pakistani border as bombs -- and emergency relief supplies -- fell on their heads.

They're poor, it's sad. We're beautiful, rich, said a poet once.

"For the street people, they're pretty much refugees in their own land in a way," said Hoeft.

Not everyone has the luxury of worrying about the millions starving over there.

Albert Reardon didn't even know there was a war. He said he read about the World Trade Center collapse somewhere.

It's been a slim year for him, said Reardon, a part-time kitchen worker.

"I only get part-time wages," said Reardon, who's lived in Yellowknife since 1985, the same year he found God.

"Today I thank God for creating me," said Reardon. "It's good to be alive," he said.