Introduction to "Thanksgiving Dinner with the Dutch Mafia"

Audience and Voice: I selected my tradition paper for the Audience and Voice piece. I published the paper in my blog under the title “Thanksgiving Dinner with the Dutch Mafia.” When I wrote this offering, I had a very specific audience in mind: I wanted to connect with those who harbored their own fond memories of extended family holiday gatherings. I chose to write this paper from the perspective I remembered best—from the eyes of a 5 year-old. Many of us take mental snapshots from our childhood. It was easy for me to tap into those snapshots and draw out images of my family. I hoped, therefore, that my snapshots would encourage others to draw out their own. The car trip provides an excellent demonstration of my goal: “This was also in the days prior to the use of booster seats and I was too short to see out of any of the windows except to see the telephone poles zipping monotonously by on old Hwy 99.” I wanted to bring out that my family, like most, had their own “odd” traditions. Toward the end of my paper, I steered in that direction more clearly when I wrote, “One oddity (which I never knew was an oddity until I was an adult) is that everyone, and I mean everyone, gets poured just half of a cup of coffee.” By causing my readers to consider their own odd family traditions, I felt I would connect them emotionally to my story. Writing “Thanksgiving Dinner with the Dutch Mafia” proved a challenge to me, just as my other blog piece did. I am unaccustomed to writing from a personal viewpoint, except when speaking to a very limited audience. For this reason, I had to be more aware of my details, so that the reader might easily follow along. However, because of its challenges and connection, I found the piece satisfying to write. The writing of it has definitely altered my opinion of blogging, and I am sure to be doing more of it in the future.