The Importance of Noon

Unfortunately, my family is unable to gather en masse for Thanksgiving this year. However, along with millions of other people  around the world, we have established a back-up plan just in case we find ourselves in this very situation. We maintain a standing reservation at the same restaurant, you may have heard of it, it’s owned by a lady named Alice.

Every year at precisely noon on Thanksgiving Day, as a matter of near religious devotion, classic rock stations (a rare and dying breed) around the country play the 18 minute and 34 second Arlo Guthrie classic Alice’s Restaurant. This 18 minutes and change is sacred to me, and I’d never miss it. No matter what the circumstances, whether traffic on the Turnpike, delays at the airport, or even physical limitations due to health or distance, I know that, at exactly noon EST, my family is sitting around the same table, sharing the same laughs and enjoying each other’s company…even if hundreds of miles apart.

So this morning, as I sat prepared with coffee on my couch, radio tuned in early, Facebook open and ready for the knowing quote exchange that was sure to ensue the song’s airing, and listening to the end of WZLX’s pre Alice Steve Miller Band “Threefer,” the clock struck noon. And then it struck 12:01…and no Alice, no Arlo.

My blood pressure rocketed as I stared at the speakers hoping the middle finger I was aggressively throwing at them would somehow make there way through the wires and hit the DJ square in the mouth. It surpasses my comprehension that the main rock station, in the very home state of the very events that transpired in 1965 to inspire this hymn, with a professional DJ at the controls, could possibly fumble the execution of pressing play at the globally accepted, understood and expected time. And for fuck’s sake, to finish off a Steve Miller “Threefer”?!?! No disrespect to Mr. Miller, but the world could have certainly lived without the 100,000,000th playing of “The Joker.” In fact, the world could live with it never being played again, especially in the way of, or to cause disturbance of a true classic.

I know, it sounds pretty ridiculous, maybe a bit strong and overstated, but it’s not. The importance of noon for this tradition cannot be understated.

When families gathers to eat at a certain time for Thanksgiving dinner, you want to be there on time and for all of the courses. You want to get a taste of each dish, you want to hear the funny new stories that you missed, and re-tell all of the stories about the people you all miss. If you start dinner 15 minutes after everyone else, you’re likely to get shafted out of the white meat, maybe even get the shitty side of the green bean casserole, and no one wants that. Even when they’re the same dishes every year, even when the stories repeat 90% of their content, it sucks to be left out or miss even a minute of it. And for me, my dad and brother, and the millions of others eagerly waiting for that clock to hit high noon that one specific day of the year that opens that special table where we’re all together for that few minutes, Alice is still providing that meal.

So while it may seem strong, maybe a tad extreme to be this upset by a radio station being slack in it’s attention to detail, it’s not to me. I want to be singing along with everyone else at the same time, I want to be messing up the lyrics with everyone at the same time, and I want to be yelling “Kill! Kill! Kill!” and “Father Rapers” with everyone, everywhere, at the same exact time.

Can I press play on my ipod at noon? Sure.

Is the world going to end because I’m laughing a few measures behind my family? no.

But does knowing that somehow, at this exact moment there’s millions of people that have agreed to be somewhere at some specific time to enjoy a very special moment just once a year make it more special? Hell yes it does. And to tell you the truth, I think that group togetherness that this song was born from, and inspires still, really was the point in the first place when Arlo shared it with the world.

I’ll be on the Group W bench next year at noon, and I’m hoping that the radio stations that have supported and helped keep this tradition alive for so many years find a way to respect the importance of noon.

Happy Thanksgiving.