In the over the fence chat thread for this week, Teri mentioned that Canada's Thanksgiving weekend is in this month, October. That inspired me to ask you all what your own family traditions are for Thanksgiving, whether here in the States, or further north.

Being from northern Wisconsin, Thanksgiving usually found us with snow on the ground. Usually not a lot, but definitely snow. The hunters like snow on the ground, so they can track the deer. Deer season (gun, that is -- bow hunting runs much longer, before and after gun season) is overlaps with Thanksgiving. That's one reason I'd like to see Thanksgiving moved. The men folk and sometimes a woman folk or two would go out hunting all day long, wouldn't see them at all until dark, then they were too exhausted to do anything but eat -- well, they still had enough energy to watch the football games, but that was about it. We seemed to have mostly segregated holidays. The men would go hunting and eat and watch TV (having fun) and the women would cook, clean, eat, clean up (mostly work!). At least we got to eat together! Okay, enough complaining.

When we were young, there were still lots of relatives alive and living in our town. Most often, everyone would come to our place. Not sure WHY our place except that possibly we had the MOST room, though not a whole lot. Mom's table could hold 8 comfortably and 10 max, if you crowded two in on each end, so we often had 2 or even three card tables set up in the living room. Usually the kids sat in the living room with such adults as volunteered to sit with us yard-apes -- usually our childless aunt and uncle.

Amongst me and my sister and brother, we had some of our own traditions, which included the absolute NECESSITY of getting out the 3 sets of salt/pepper shakers in the shape of pheasants and arguing over which set would go where.

For food, we HAD to have a turkey, although sometimes, especially when there were a lot of people, we'd have something else too, such a ham. Other foods (some or all of these, depending on who was bringing what) that were traditional were cranberry sauce (in 3-4 various incarnations), white potatoes (boiled and/or mashed)with butter or turkey gravy, candied sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, stuffing, turkey gravy, creamed onions, wild rice pilaf, and for dessert, PUMPKIN pie and mince pie, with whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream. Oof, I get logy just thinking about it.

I'll leave it to Julie to tell about her Thanksgiving cooking adventures and tell you about mine. I never had the "first disastrous turkey" that is such a cliche. My (now-ex) husband and I like turkey, and I had practice roasting them long before Thanksgiving rolled around. However, our second Thanksgiving after getting married, we were living way down in Missouri, and my parents, aunt, sister Julie, and brother and girlfriend all came down to share Thanksgiving with us. We decided on yet another segregated holiday -- the menfolk went off to see the Cardinals play (back when they were the St. Louis Cardinals), and the womenfolk prepared dinner for the evening. Our plan was to get most everything ready to cook, put the turkey in the oven to slowly roast all day, and run off to the St. Louis zoo for the day. Mother cleaned up the turkey and put it in the roaster pan and got it in the oven while the rest of us were doing other food prep. Then we took off for the zoo.

Had a great time at the zoo, but left in time to get home and get the other stuff cooking so that it would all be ready together. EXCEPT, when we got home, there sat the turkey, in the oven, but cold, completely uncooked -- Mom had never turned on the oven!! She claimed that she thought I was going to turn it on, but I still think that was just her excuse for forgetting it. So here we were, 5 p.m. and the turkey hadn't even started.

I don't know if we even thought about botulism, but we turned on the oven anyway and cooked the darn thing. We spent the evening snacking on the venison sausage and cheese that they'd brought along, until we finally ate dinner at 10 p.m. And we weren't even hungry anymore because of all the cheese and sausage we ate. We had good leftovers though!

For many years now, my brother and his wife have had Thanksgiving dinner at their house. One memorable year I was driving up in a snowstorm ON Thanksgiving day when the waterpump went out on my car, and I had to go to a service station in a tiny little town about halfway in my trip. Called Julie to come and get me, because there was nowhere to stay in this town, and no way my car was getting fixed on that day (no parts stores open). I had to wait hours for her, not just because of the distance, but the driving conditions, and she had to feed the horses before she came. The station operator was wearing a snowmobile suit (that's how cold it was in there). I got out my heavier clothes from the car and every blanket I had in the car, and sat there swathed to my ears. The only book I had to read was one by Alistair MacLean, called Endless Night, which involved the survivors of a plane crash on Greenland. NOT the book I would have chosen for the circumstances -- something in the tropics would have been much better!

Finally, Julie came, in my Dad's old blazer (parents had gone to Florida for the winter), wretched thing. Didn't have shift on the fly to 4WD, and even when trying to switch it when stopped, you needed the strength of a gorilla to get it into 4WD. So we were going on 2WD. Slid on ice on a bridge, did 360 plus and ended up heading over the right shoulder down a steep hill with a fence at the bottom. I was sure that was the end of our lives. Poor Julie was driving, and was even more frightened than I, since she had the steering wheel. Fortunately, there was already a lot of snow on the ground, and the amount we plowed up in front of us stopped us before we went down the hill.

A pickup going the same way as we also slid and spun out, but further down the road, while we were outside the Blazer trying to dig ourselves out. That's when I started worrying about someone sliding and hitting us. The two guys in that truck came over and dug us out, used their 4WD to get themselves out, and then came and pulled US out, all the while other cars going by, with gawking occupants. Those two guys were half-way drunk and wouldn't take any money for helping, although they insisted on kissing each of us. It was a very bizarre experience. We finally arrived, late but alive, for dinner at my brother's.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

Answers

...and Joy sends Teri into a frenzied search to find the Canadian meaning of Thanksgiving....I dunno I thought it was about the Mayflower for us too!!!!!HA!... how did I get to be 43 and not know this stuff????Its okay my kids say we live in the state of Ontario and our president is Chretien,Yikes!!!

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

Wonderful post Joy!!!! I loved it.

We had a weird tradition at our house. My dad would always get home late for dinner {Drunk}. My mom would always run around screaming at him. Ha! Ha!...

But this isn't one of those poor me Thanksgivings because my sister and I would sit down together and give thanks and eat the wonderful turkey and mashed potatoes. My relationship was with my sis and the FOOD!!!! ....Kirk

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001

When I was young, we used to have Thanksgiving by my grandmother's house. She would feed my grandfather and send him off to work (they owned a tavern) She would set the table up, lay out the food in the diningroom, then sit in the kitchen. Never understood that one.

Later, I went to my in-laws for dinner where the basement has two large tables across the whole room and people keep coming and going the entire day. Appetizers, pasta, salad, then turkey, finally dessert. She asked me to carve the turkey and everyone raved on the good job I did (I never knew you could mess up turkey, I just figured you cut it up.) I now get to cut up all the turkeys, roasts, hams...they complained once when my bother-in-law cut the turkey while I cut the ham. I guess there is something to slicing that white meat that people like.

It's not the same anymore. I guess kids grow up, people move. My husband, son and I were the only ones there last year. Felt really strange, more like a regular dinner than Thanksgiving.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001

You guys this is precious and beautiful , thanks. Our thanksgiving meal consists of Turkey and Dressing, and rolls and mashed potatoes and gravy and greenbean cassorole, and sweet potatoes, Oh Yah! And Pumpkin pie! Oh Gosh, I can't wait! Love TREn

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Joy, I normally am not the type to get my jollies off of other peoples misfortunes, but you know, right now I'm laughing so hard I can barely see to type. I totally know the guy hunting thing here too. My dad, uncles, brothers, and cousins would be gone most of the day hunting, only here it was rabbit and pheasant season. And yep, after cowing on the dinner, they would all start watching football in their recliners and within probably 20 minutes the snoring would be so loud it would wake the dead. Now I demand the traditional Thanksgiving food--turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie, etc. But my husbands looney tune clan, has chop suey EVERY THANKSGIVING. Now even though I want my turkey, I could understand a ham or a beef roast, but chop suey?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

HaHa Vicki, chop suey, that's really funny!!Is there a colorful explanation for why they eat that stuff for Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving reminds ME of hunting too, and that is one thing we will definitely NOT miss about being on the farm! It was nerve-wracking listening to all the guns, seeing the fields crawling with orange people, trying to keep all the critters up close to the buildings so they wouldnt be mistaken for deer, answering the door to yet another request to hunt on our land, 'shiners' disturbing our sleep, even driving up our long driveway and out to the hayfields like they owned the place!! Really got me riled; I got so mad the first couple years to see people out in the fields without permission, I'd jump in my pickup and tear hell out there at top speed, bouncin all over the place, and pull up right in their face and start a yellin! I got better later, calmed down, decided it was kinda stupid to confront people with guns......ha...... We only let people we knew really well hunt, and chased lots of em off who didnt give a dingdong about all our NO HUNTING signage. Had a guy out in the woods we caught shooting off firecrackers to scare deer! Idiot......

I remember too the first time I cooked Thanksgiving dinner; it is a sweet memory, cuz it went so much better than I expected. I was 21, it was the first Thanksgiving with my new husband (wait a minute, it was the ONLY Thanksgiving with him!). My family had all moved to Seattle, we lived in a little one bedroom apt and I decided I was gonna cook a holiday dinner for all our friends. Did all the traditional stuff,and I have no funny stories to tell about it! It went like Martha Stuart did it! (I don't think that's happened since). All our young friends were amazed, and I had proven my worth as the good wife. :>)

Now we always go to my sister's, who lives about 20 minutes from me now. Her husband does 80% of the cooking, he loves to cook, and he also is fun to cook for, cuz he's a foodie. He likes to come over early on Christmas, which WE do, and help out in the kitchen, which is fun. My sister is allergic to domesticity.

This isnt about Thanksgiving, but I almost NEVER do a traditional Christmas meal. I usually do something ethnic, love to do finger foods or grazing style, with lots of variety and always something really weird that no one has ever tasted before.

My poor mother. Her kids dont do anything the regular way. And now her granddaughters are lookin like they're gonna turn out the same way. Whatever did she do wrong?

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Thanksgiving when I was a little kid was always a boisterous affair with all the relatives within a state or two showing up at our house. My mom would get up at 4:30 or some ungodly time to stuff the turkey. I can still see piles of celery on the drainboard, and picture my mom mixing bread crumbs with the water she used to cook the giblets in...mixing it all up in the big wooden chopping bowl with her hands. I think the turkey would always have to cook for something like 6 hours! We always cooked LARGE ones!

We kids would be parked in front of the teevee to watch the Macy's Day Parade while the parents drank coffee and the moms would assemble food to cook. After the parade, we would usually go outside to play (in the Pac. NW, it's usually mild around Thanksgiving.) Sometimes we would roller skate in the basement (we had a finished basement with concrete floors) if it was raining real hard.

I remember smelling food cooking all day. I would be asked to help assemble the relish tray sometime about a half hour before dinner. I usually ate about half the olives and lots of the pickles, especially sweet baby gherkins, before getting any to the table. Smelling that food cooking all day just fired up my little appetite something fierce!

For dinner, the adults all sat at the dining room table (with all the leaves and extensions so it could seat twelve.) We kids sat at one or more card tables in the living room. Dinner was always loud! After dinner, the moms would all crowd into the kitchen to wash all the millions of dishes. That would seem to take hours.

At 17, my best friend and I decided we would cook a big Thanksgiving dinner for my family (my friend had moved in with our family b/c she was sort of on the streets...) We used a James Beard cookbook (which always starts out with "Melt one pound of unsalted butter," no matter what recipe it was!) We basted the turkey with butter and vermouth. For some reason, we also had champagne for dinner, and my friend and I "tasted" just enough to be too silly to finish the preparations. My mom ended up making the gravy....at any rate, it was a wonderful dinner, taste-wise.

Later in college, we would sometimes have potlucks for all the friends. These were tasty, and sometimes weird (I don't get all the stuff that vegans eat, I guess.) After dinner was always the most fun, as we would play pictionary-type games or charades.

Mr. S. made our first Thanksgiving dinner together for me the year that my dad died. My mom flew to Florida and I can't remember where my brother was, but it was just the two of us. He made duck a l'orange plus did all the cooking and cleaning up. I moved all the living room furniture around (this was at my Dad's house, you see...) and *I* watched football all day. It was strange, yet wonderful. Mr. S. was, and still is, one special guy.

These days, we buy a pre-cooked turkey at Safeway; eat dinner in about an hour; maybe watch a video; come home from Mom's and go to bed early, stuffed too full. Not really fun. I intend to change that this year if I can make the time! Your posts have been inspiring....and thanks for letting me tell you some of my history...

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Hey, Sheepish, we always did the relish tray thing too, with Julie and me in charge of arranging it, and also taking it out to the folks sitting and waiting for dinner (not ALL the women folk could fit into mom's kitchen. The olives were hard hit before they every got out to everyone else! We also made the pumpkin pie filling while mom made the crusts. That started with my (older) brother and me, but he soon opted out, and even though Julie is 3 years younger than I am, she was a precocious cook. Should have seen the writing on the wall, she's STILL a better cook than I am.

Vicky, laugh all you like, I don't mind. I laugh about some of it sometimes too. It certainly makes for memorable stories -- as long as you live through them! I laughed the time I dropped a dish of baked beans and hot dogs, and beans flew all over, including up the wall and onto the ceiling. The dish hit the angle where the wall meets the floor, which caused this interesting bean explosion. I laughed when the beans started dropping off the wall and ceiling. I stopped laughing when I had to clean it up. ;-)

I don't make it home a lot of years lately myself. Usually cook a mini-T-day dinner though, since I love it so. Turkey breast, sweet potatoes, wild rice, and cranberries, with a purchased slice of pumpkin pie for dessert, or sometimes I just make the filling and bake it without the crust. I don't like crust, so why bother?

Oh, now I've thought of another interesting T-Day story. Just a few years ago, 1998, I think, Julie, Mom, and Auntie came down to stay with me and have Thanksgiving holiday together. I wanted to have lots of turkey for left overs and to send home with them. So I ordered two organic turkeys. They were supposed to be no more than 18 lbs (okay, I'm not good at estimating size). I should have gone to look at some Butterballs before ordering.

When I went to pick them up, it turned out that the farmer who had raised them had unusual success with the growth of his turkeys. I ended up with TWO 22 pounders! Mom had to cut them in half to get them into my oven, so for dinner we had half a turkey on the platter. We had TONS of turkey, made tons of soup stock with lots of turkey chunks, and still had half a frozen turkey in the freezer. I didn't cook it up the next T-Day, when I was on my own. Geez, never again! Good thing I LIKE turkey!

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001