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Bah! Humbug!
This week is Thanksgiving. Last week, 12 days
before Thanksgiving, my favorite radio station went wall-to-wall
Christmas songs. (It's not my favorite station right now.) One of the
largest florists in the Twin Cities had a lighting ceremony last
Saturday, two Saturdays before Thanksgiving. And on Monday, the
little florist shop on the corner was all decked out for Christmas.
What happened to Thanksgiving? The only place that has had a blitz on
for Thanksgiving is the Food Channel. The secret ingredient on The
Iron Chef was turkey. Paula Dean told us about tur-duck-en. And
Alton Brown told us about the thermodynamics of frying a perfect
turkey. Where have all the cute little Pilgrim salt and pepper shakers
and turkey-shaped platters gone?
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. First of all, it is one of the few
non-sectarian holidays. It is a family holiday. We all know that more
people travel during this long weekend than any other time during the
year. It is the time of year when the first big snows can fall. Some
of us even pray to the snow gods that we will be stranded at Grandma's
house for an extra day or two. Where I grew up it was the time of fog.
I can remember leaving home one day after school was out. Dad was
driving and every once in a while he would stop the car and stand on the
hood of the car to look over the layer of fog that lay close to the
ground but was only about ten feet deep to get his bearings.
Thanksgiving is also the time of
year that family recipes are handed down. Grandma always made the
pies. No one else in the family could make one as good. She always
followed the recipe on the back of that famous can of pumpkin. But it
was her crust that was famous. The family would trust my mother with
the stuffing. Mom was also good at the chocolate chip cookies. This
was the time of year the first batch was made. And my aunt did a wicked
mashed potato. She was also the one who made the mincemeat. And then
it was my uncle who would carve the bird. Over the years I have added a
few of my own twists. This is the time of year I make that strange pie
recipe I found that includes apples, cranberry sauce and walnuts.
This is the holiday I have the best memories. One Thanksgiving Grandma
forgot to turn on the oven to bake the turkey. We had set the table.
My cousin and I were constantly being shooed away from the relish
platter. I think Grandma actually got extra olives because we would
stick them on our finger tips and eat them off. By the time we got to
dinner, she would dump the second can of olives onto the platter as we
had decimated that one delicacy. Just about this time Grandma went in
to check the turkey...it was still stone cold. Dinner was a few hours
late that year.
Then there was the year we had two dinners. My mother cooked two
separate complete turkey dinners that year. We took the turkey and all
the fixings down to my paternal grandfather's house. She even went to
the trouble to make him a pumpkin pie with liquid sugar substitute
because he was a fragile diabetic. (That would be so much easier today
with the substitutes now available.) We had dinner early in the
afternoon. While we were at my grandfather's house, another turkey was
back home cooking in the oven. We had more stuffing, mashed potatoes,
cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with little marshmallows, and gravy.
That was the year I never wanted to see turkey again for a very long
time.
Thanksgiving is the day for family
activity. Wake up early and watch the Macy's Parade. On the West Coast
we had to get up early because of the time difference. Then, while
dinner was cooking, my uncle and father would watch the first football
game. There would be the never-ending card game that started Wednesday
night and didn't end until Sunday afternoon. Dinner was always a little
early on Thanksgiving...we had to have time for leftovers later that
night. There were walks on the beach. If the weather was good, we even
went swimming on Thanksgiving day.
So, let's not forget Thanksgiving in the rush to get from Halloween to
Christmas. Let's take that few days and relax with family and friends
on that special Thursday in November.
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