Like life, I believe Thanksgiving - now and in the past, is unique to us all. I know for some, there is disdain for this day, and i have Osage blood in my body, so I understand that.
My fondest memories are from my childhood. I prefer to think of it as a day surrounded by family. No schoolmates. No neighborhood kids. In my/our specific case, a get away from the hometown.
To visualize is like a trip down memory road. We can turn on ME-TV today and watch yesterday, today. Ben, Hoss, Lil Joe, Hop Sing... Andy, Aunt Bea, Ope, Barn, even Otis. Granny, Jed, Jethro and Ellie Mae... Gilligan, the Skipper, the professor (and Mary Ann)... flip a switch, they are here (Here on Gilligan's Island, so to theme song it.)
To see yesterday as a child - we must go with memory. Folding tables setup, usually in the living room, with plates as far as the eye can see. Granny and the aunts busy bees in the kitchen, grandpa and the uncles planted on the sofa, easy chair - conversations they had I don't even remember, with one eye tuned to a Lions-Cowboys football game. With apologies to sister, girl cousins, I frankly don't remember what you all did during this time.. Probably in a back bedroom talking about boys, or something like that.
Cousins, the younger ones with abundant energy - occasionally in the kitchen listening to the ladies, same in the living room with the gents - but oft times in the front yard with a football, or, at the basketball hoop for endless 2 on 2, or horse games. Some years weather played a role - the game changed from sports to snowmen, igloos, sledding, and when mom and dad weren't watching, harmless snowball fights. All followed by Kool-Aid or hot chocolate, dependent on the weather.
Dads and uncles are always hungry, moms, grannies and aunts simply want to taste their fare - gobble up the desserts so they can get a recipe to take home. "Time to eat" beckons us all - there is no formal seating, and one usually jumps in a chair close to someone their own age. A blessing is said, hands are held, then Amen brother Ben, bring on the goodies! A seemingly endless right to left passing of stuffing, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and of course, roast turkey. I'm way too picky of an eater (at this age now, don't care) so, if something I didn't like, I'd maybe take just a dab of it, and kinda roll it around with my fork to make it look like I tried it. There was plenty, PLENTY for us all. We ate, and ate, and ate.
And ate s'more. Pumkin pie, "pass the whip cream please!".. Pecan pie (my personal fav).. carrot cake... taster's choice.
Today's era would find the ladies in the living room, the gents in the kitchen to clean up - but, that wasn't the way back then. Grandpa, dad, uncles returned to their seats in the living room, most would be snoozing by the time you counted to 200.. Granny, mom, the aunts wrapped, divvied up leftovers - did the dishes, cleaned things up - for an eventual good visit around the dining room table.
Nowadays, if I ate like that, I'd be asleep before you got to 100.. back then, it was out the door for more football, basketball, sledding, yada.
Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.
We all travel differently for Thanksgiving. Planes, trains, automobiles.. . Some simply drive across town, some halfway across the state, some make it a two day venture with a stopover at the Holiday Inn, which was a treat back in the day. The nuclear family, wonderfully sequestered together.
This happened for years and years and years. Those were they days my friend.
Then D's happened.. Death, divorce, departure (to a further distance, making it impossible to return for a 4 day weekend). Cousins aged, married.. went to inlaws instead. Thanksgiving still happened, but, not nearly as many folding tables, football tosses, bankshots. Nothing got in the way of the camaraderie of those still in attendance - if anything, an even great appreciation was taken.
The trek home. NOW, now we kids slept. "We're home", back to our rooms, back to school, back to regular ole regular - with anxious eyes on our next family gathering in December, only this time, selfishly WE GET PRESENTS!
Yes, those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end. We can't turn on ME-TV and see them - but they are never removed from our memory, and the fondness for same grows annually. I can only hope your memories are as fond as mine.
Happy Thanksgiving
Love, Victurkey
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