When you take your age and consider that there is a Thanksgiving for each year you've been alive, and you are AARP qualified....that's alot of turkey!
Fifty-seven turkey dinners for me...well, maybe I ate turkey 55 of those years. Think of all the people, dirty dishes, miles traveled to get there that have made up your life's Thanksgiving experiences! I'm sure there are some Thanksgivings that really stand out...good or bad. Did you suffer through your great-aunt's gummy white bread dressing that contained ground up turkey parts and an entire can of ground sage? Were you still relegated to the kids' table on a kitchen stool when you were waiting on your SAT scores?
Of those 50 some-odd years, I have some very special memories. As a child, we drove from N Texas to Kaufman to have dinner at my grandmother's sister's house. We caravaned with my grandparents. Nanad (my grandfather) always wanted to leave early enough so that we could stop in Dallas at a restaurant on Loop 12 so he could have a waffle breakfast. All my grandmother's sisters were there and my favorite person in the world---Lulu (their mother, Lula Mae Brooks). Lulu was relegated to an easy chair, and she played checkers with me, read the funnies to me, and I thought I was reciprocal in the care-taking....."helping" her to the bathroom, holding her hand in mine while she stabilized herself with a walking cane. In my other hand, I carried her small coffee can. You see, Lulu dipped snuff. I never saw her place it under her lip. She was discreet. But every now and then, she would spit into the can. In my five year old understanding, I thought she did that because she was old. She was the oldest and grandest person I knew.
I loved those days....The conversations between Pete (my grandmother Faye) and her sisters, Laura, Billye, Madge, while they bustled around in the tiny kitchen. Billye, Madge and Pete talked about Laura whenever she wasn't in earshot. Laura had been an old maid...married her husband Andy late in life. Mainly, they talked about Andy....how he always watched the June Taylor dancers kick up their legs on a TV variety show. And, how he would come in the kitchen with one spoon and sample all the food before it arrived at the dinner table. Disgusting!
The food was always great---good cooks in the family. There was ALWAYS cheese & macaroni, cornbread dressing, turkey, ham, rolls, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, black-eyed peas, put-up chow-chow, pickles, and jellies. The only disgusting food on the table was the fresh green beans. I swear, the only way these women prepared green beans was to cook them for the same amount of time as the turkey. Green mush--enough said.
It was fun to go into the living room, sit on a straight back chair and listen to the men talk & watch football. They were all cordial, and knew their place in the Thanksgiving ritual---sit in front of the TV, out of the way until they were called to the table.
My mother's cousins, Billye & J. T.'s kids were teen-aged---and cool. Rosemary wore slim skirts, flats, and a button-down cardigan as her top. John Lawrence was about to go to A & M. They hung out with my uncle Robert. After a few years, Robert was in the Army in Germany. After Lulu died, we didn't go to Kaufman anymore.
Other favorite Thanksgivings were the ones when we went to the Muenster community dinner at the Parish Hall. It seemed like thousands of people were there and I was related to at least half of them. It was a buffet, and everyone sat at long white paper covered tables. We ate on cafeteria-type dishes. There was always a lot of noise and commotion. It was a reunion of sorts. In Muenster gatherings, kids were allowed to roam free. There were no knick-knacks in danger of breakage. No couches to jump on. If the weather was good, we were outside on the playground.
My saddest Thanksgiving was when I was in college in Houston. I worked some weekends at Methodist Hospital as a student nurse (glorified aide). There was a rumor that the student nurses had to work either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I immediately signed up for Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving morning I showed up on my unit. It was closed (post-op cardiovascular surgery--DeBakey's unit). I went to the supervisor's office and was told they shut down for two weeks to paint and re-furbish. Who in their right mind wanted to have a by-pass during the holidays? So, I was assigned to the much-despised by me orthopedic post-op unit. Lots of balanced-suspension traction, screws, casts, and pain. Oh, did I mention bedpans?
As an adult, some of my favorite Thanksgivings were when we drove to Prairie Valley Presbyterian Camp on Lake Whitney. The kids didn't like going, but Clu Flu and I did. There was a community dinner prepared by the camp cooks. People brought side dishes and desserts and the camp ladies made turkey, dressing, etc., along with the very best homemade bread. One year, they were kind enough to write the recipe for me. It was written to be prepared for 25 loaves! Converting it down to 2 loaves was unsuccessful.
There was an outdoor worship service in the mornings. We sang hymns a Capella. I remember one year we sang "Morning Has Broken." The sun was shining brightly, the air was crisp, and the sound of rustling leaves made it all the more wonderful. There were hayrides, outdoor fires, hikes, board games in the dining hall. You could also tell by Thanksgiving if it was going to be a good year for bluebonnets, as the seedlings were breaking through the soil.
We gave in to the kids one year, and stayed home for Thanksgiving. That was fortuitous, as it sleeted and iced over the night before. We would not have made it to PV that time. The kids were excited about the ice---sliding around on the drive/street. It was a quiet day. We used my grandmother's china and crystal. Candles on the table, fire in the fireplace. All the food was ready at the same time. Clu Flu opened a bottle of wine, and as we were putting the food on the table, here came Zack...he had put on a tie, tucked in his button-down denim shirt, and announced that he would pour the wine! I don't remember his exact age, but I think he was about 10 or 11. It was a great Thanksgiving.
Another great Thanksgiving was when Ruth was in high school and John & Kathy were pre-marriage. We went to PV, then traveled on to Austin to spend the night, then on to San Antonio to have a parallel trip with John, Kathy, and Gus. Gus was in a soccer tournament that weekend. We all stayed at Embassy Suites, and on Saturday afternoon, we made a trip back to Austin to see the Arlington Colts beat Spring in a really tight play-off game! That game was decided by # of first downs. Arlington won by one first down, I think. It was probably the most exciting high school game I ever saw. (I really like high school FB--but not pro FB).
Another great Thanksgiving was the year of the javelina hunt! Zack and Gus were 16 and 17 and I learned of a Texas Parks & Wildlife sponsored teen javelina hunt in South Texas. Clu Flu, John, Gus, and Zack were pretty excited. They bought feeder corn, discussed which guns to take. Gus and Zack had visions of a mounted javelina head! We had dinner at John & Kathy's. Elena was about four at the time. We drove down to South Texas in two cars that evening and stayed in a non-chain motel next to a truck stop on I-35. It was the only place to stay in the vicinity. It was run by a couple who were both on dialysis. In the back of the front desk, there were two dialysis unit chairs where they administered their own dialysis. This was pretty much an isolated spot about 50 miles north of Laredo. Friday morning came early, we ate breakfast at the truck stop, gathered up everything and made it to the game warden's headquarters about 7:30 for a briefing on the rules of the hunt. Kathy, Brooke, Elena and I were to go on to Nuevo Laredo for a day of browsing the market. As the men prepared for the hunt, we left for Laredo.
Elena decided she didn't want any part of the market experience. She cried, wouldn't walk, had to be carried, and was just plain feeling miserable. About 10 AM, Kathy & I had margaritas! Kathy bought Elena a little Mexican dress, which Elena decided she must wear right in the middle of the market!
We got back to the hunt site, waited on the men, talked to one of the game wardens who told us that there was a Border Patrol on-foot man-hunt in the game reserve in the assigned Lusk area. It was getting close to dusk--mandatory stop time. About that time, we could hear a long round of gunshots. Pow, pow, pow, pow. The game warden said, "Oh that can't be good." A group came in to the reserve office with a javelina. That was the only one shot that day. If you weren't going to dress your javelina, the game wardens would take it, dress it, and have the carcass butchered for meat. The meat was given to a needy family. I didn't know that javelina was killed for food.
Our men came back empty-handed, the boys were frustrated that they didn't see any javelinas. But they got to shoot their guns. That prolonged gun blast we heard was Zack and Gus obliterating a cactus. The men saw the Border Patrolman on foot in chase through the brush. An exciting day for all--except Brooke. If it hadn't been for her Walkman, I don't know how she would have done.
But I guess the best Thanksgiving I ever had was 2004. Ruth and Chad had begun to seriously talk about marriage. We made plans to spend the week-end in Concan in a cabin on the Frio River. We packed up gear, food, firewood, and beer and made the trek down to Concan below Garner State Park--twenty miles north of Uvalde. It was the first time Chad had prolonged contact with us. It was a GREAT trip. We ate Thanksgiving Dinner at the Koffee Kup Kafe in Hico. We arrived at the cabin late that afternoon, unloaded and set about getting organized. We had fires in the firepit each night, waited for the deer to show up, flashed lights at them so we could count them by the reflection of their eyes. The cabin was in a pecan grove at the base of a huge mesa. At night, you could hear the river flowing. We had breakfast burritos, hamburgers, grilled chicken, and on Saturday night, I roasted a Chateaubriand for dinner. It was great. We went to Bracketville to see the Alamo mock-up, saw lots of Border Patrol cars out---one time there was a van trekking through a cloud of dust in some brush off-road. Saw some on horseback. On our trip home on Sunday, we stopped in Luckenbach. And of course, I had to make a trip to the Uvalde H. E. B for cold food supplies. while in Concan.
If you have made it through this entire post, you are to be commended for perseverance. I don't expect anyone to read the whole thing...but I enjoyed writing down some favorite memories. I've had a great many things in my life to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!
