goodstuffhappenedtoday:

This man hosts a free Thanksgiving dinner for all who RSVP. It’s his 33rd year.

For his first Thanksgiving alone in 1985, Scott Macaulay was thinking that he would have to heat up a frozen turkey dinner and turn on a football game to stifle the silence in his apartment near Boston.

With his parents recently divorced and “nobody talking to anybody,” he said, “I was looking at a pretty rotten Thanksgiving. And I absolutely hate to eat alone.”

Then Macaulay, a divorced vacuum cleaner repairman, had an idea: What if he took out an ad in his hometown paper, the Melrose Free Press, and invited 12 strangers to join him for Thanksgiving dinner? It seemed like a manageable number to host at the First Baptist Church he attended — and, yeah, it was a little crazy, but it had to be better than being lonely.

“I knew that I couldn’t be the only one in this situation,” he said. “There had to be at least a dozen people out there who didn’t want to spend Thanksgiving Day alone.”

Actually, more.

Since those 12 strangers gathered around his table for turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie 33 years ago, Macaulay has made his free feast an annual event, inviting anyone to make a reservation by calling his office phone number that’s printed in the paper. He does not own a cellphone or computer. Through the years, he has fed plenty of widows, widowers, homeless people and college kids who can’t make it home. A few years ago, one of his guests crawled under the table. All are welcome.

(go read the rest of the story – it’s wonderful)