NORTHAMPTON — It was an unseasonably cold Thanksgiving — temperatures at Bradley International Airport dipped to 11 degrees Thursday morning, making it the coldest Thanksgiving on record there, according to the National Weather Service.
Perhaps less obvious than bitter cold, some of your neighbors were working. It’s not that uncommon — about a quarter of people have to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day, according to a 2014 poll from Allstate and National Journal. Here’s a look at three people who spent some of their day working.
Lindsey Drozdal, Drozdal Funeral Home owner and funeral director, said she has worked numerous Thanksgivings in the past. Last year, for example, she had a wake.
“I never close,” she said. “We work 24 hours a day sometimes.”
Deaths happen all the time, including holidays, she said.
“Death, you can never predict when it happens,” she said.
“I don’t make the decision,” she added. “It just happens. You wish it wouldn’t, but it does.”
This year she’s on call for work. “If it does happen I have to go out at make the removal no matter where they are … If they pass at 3 o’clock today I have to go.” She went out on a call last Christmas, for example.
She’s hosting a family dinner at her house this year, but she said, “If I have to leave, I have to leave.” Her family assumes cooking duties in that case, she said.
Ann King, an owner of the Amherst Inn and the Allen House Victorian Inn, has been working the holiday at the bed and breakfasts since opening in 1991.
“I don’t mind it,” she said, adding that Thanksgiving afternoon is usually pretty quiet.
On Thanksgiving evening, she said, the rooms are almost sold out.
“Mostly they’re here because there’s no room in their parents’ house or aunt’s home or wherever they’re going,” she explained.
A lot of guests are some-what regulars around the holidays, she said.
“I’d say about a third of them are people from last year,” King explained. “They like us and they come back year after year.”
Typically, she tries to get away from work for a few hours for a family dinner, but this year it’s too busy. On King’s agenda for this year instead: a simple turkey dinner with her husband.
Almost all the tables were full at Miss Florence Diner on Thursday morning.
“I’ve worked quite a few Thanksgivings in this industry,” said Georgianna Brunton, the diner’s owner.
Brunton has been in the food service industry since she was 13 and has worked at least 20 Thanksgivings.
“When you’re in management you’re expected to work,” she added. Brunton took over Miss Flo’s in April.
She doesn’t think working on the holiday is so bad, though — customers tend to be kind.
“They understand you’re sacrificing to be here,” she said. Diner staff volunteered to work the morning, she said, as the restaurant was open only for breakfast.
In the afternoon, Brunton’s family planned to come to her house for dinner where she’s serving turkey and ham, so she prepared much of the food in advance.
“My turkey is in the back,” she said, explaining that the bird was cooking there — one of the perks of being an owner, she acknowledged.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com