Thoughts on Thanksgiving
Busy days grocery shopping, hustle and bustle; preparing in advance for expected guests. Baking pies, bread and rolls to accompany the belt loosening, tummy groaning feast, topped off with cakes, torts, fruit salads, ice cream and nummy munchies only made once a year, and put on the buffet along with the overflow specialty dishes brought by the guests.
The table gets decked out with the best linens and china; not that cheep flatware used every day, but the good silver and cut crystal. The children's table is set with a vinyl imitation of the linen cloth, and grandma's good willow dishes that every child is fearful of breaking.
Coats, scarves, sweaters and outerwear are all piled on the bed in the master bedroom. Boots and such are lined up on the porch. Wet shoes in a line on the floor heaters to dry from the heavy snowfall left overnight.
Dad and the uncles went hunting early Thanksgiving morning in hopes of bagging some additional game to share with the family while they are visiting. Funny, they never seemed to bring anything back on Thanksgiving day, but no one ever minded. It was a tradition with the men in the family, just as the women sharing gossip and recipes while in the cooking and baking frenzy together; all very happy the men were out of the way.
I remember the year I was invited to the adult table. My father even invited me to go groundhog hunting with him on the weekend. Being the oldest and a girl; I was so proud I could have busted my buttons.
That was the year my aunt Mary, God Bless her, brought some of her home made bread for our feast. It became a doorstop we later Varnished and laughed about for many years to come.
Ohio winters can be brutal, but they all fade into the background when I picture a happy time with family gathered around a Thanksgiving table, where we never took one bite until the little artificial loaf of bread that held individual cards with scripture verses on them were read; one by each person around each table.
Then anyone that felt the nudging to give a prayer of thanksgiving offered their prayer(s).
Thanksgivings then were followed with children's complaining about doing dishes; who would wash and who would dry and who would put them away. Adults played games on that same table stripped down to the shiny mahogany top, and were later joined by the children when their chores were done.
We just never thought of television then; after all, there was enough to play a good game of canasta, monopoly or scrabble or poker or, or, or.
Oh for that simple time with loving family gathered around.
But you know what? I like my simple Thanksgivings now too; because, I can relive those times and laugh, as I pop my TV dinner into the microwave and eat my thanksgiving dinner watching It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story. No football in this apartment thank you.
My birds fly free and crap wherever they want. I laugh and belch and fart whenever I want, and I remember Thanksgivings past and am truly thankful I don't have all that work to do anymore. Thank God times change!
Amen
posted by Jan myrz @ 10:32 AM
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