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By Sharon Stockdale

"Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare. They are consumed in 15 minutes. Half-times take 15 minutes. This is not coincidence."

- Erma Bombeck

"It's fruitcake weather," proclaims Ms. Sook in "A Christmas Memory," a short story by Truman Capote.

Buddy, a 7-year-old boy (AKA Truman Capote as a child), and Ms. Sook, his cousin, live in rural Alabama during the Great Depression. Each fall they make 31 fruitcakes to send to a few "friends," President and Mrs. Roosevelt among them.

Except for the works of a few authors, I have never been much of a fan of short stories. Truman Capote, although best known for "In Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," had two memorable short stories: "A Thanksgiving Visitor" and the above mentioned "A Christmas Memory."

O. Henry, of course, was a master; most notably being author of "The Ransom of Red Chief" and "The Gift of the Magi."

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