Pass the Turkey
How many of you fight over the Drumstick? We never solved that problem in our house and the kids and some of the adults grabbed for only two available and the resulting spectacle was a sight to behold. But in the days of Atomic Testing and the Cold War, nothing seemed that strange and no one ever used the logic of buying a box of drums and leaving the rest of the bird at the store.
Twenty five or more people all crowded around an Adult Table and a Kids Table, all doing their best to grab everything in sight. Passing dishes in two different directions, so the poor suckers in the middle always got stuck with a pile up of dishes and no place to put them.
Does this sound like your home, or were you at my family dinners too? The three or four times a year ritual when the clan gathered to feast themselves into oblivion, walk away and then not talk to each other until the next happening.
In our family, the big events were Christmas and Easter, followed closely by Thanksgiving and sometimes Fourth of July. It was Mid-Western tradition at its best and its worst. In my early years my Grandparents were the hosts on both sides of the family and I can remember being rushed from one place to the next so we could spend time with both. The utter chaos of the moments compounded by the rituals attached.
Football on the television for the Adults and Football out in the backyard for the kids. There were 26 cousins on one side and 18 cousins on the other. I can’t ever remember a time when all of use were ever at the same place at the same time. On one side, I have cousins I have never met and on the other side I have cousins I haven’t seen since those great gatherings of the 1960’s and the 1970’s. While both families had extremely different circumstances, their roots garnered from some common origins.
Turkey on Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas and Ham on Easter. Home-made dishes and salads that I know had their origins from generations past. Pies, Cookies and other desserts, that made your mouth water and your stomach turn into the endless cave. My grandmothers and my mother could make cookies to die for and pies that should have been National Treasures.
What do you do at your Thanksgiving feast? Do you sing the first Christmas Carols of the season or do you do what we did and pile in the car and go on the search for the first Christmas Lights. When I was a kid, all the stores in Downtown Youngstown used to decorate their windows and it was the big event to go downtown Christmas Shopping the day after Thanksgiving and see all the stores and “Visit Santa”. If you have watched the movie “A Christmas Story” you have seen my childhood in action, except I never got the Official Red Ryder BB Gun until I was 37 and I bought one for myself. I did have a worthless low powered BB Pistol at age 12, but I left it home and borrowed better guns from kids I knew.
How many of you go hunting on the Holidays? Look out Bambi, they’re back!!!!!!!!! I tease you a bit because my family was filled with hunters on my father’s side. I grew up knowing the taste of wild game and liking it. Give me a steaming bowl of Moose and Elk Chili any day. Solid, hunted for country food, made tasty by the grandmothers, a huge tradition that is dying all across this county.
“Tis the season to be Jolly” and I hope you find something to smile at this season. I’ve taken up feeding the squirrels in my back yard and there’s little more funny than watching the antics they will make up to get my attention. A couple of them climb the screen door and peer in trying to see where I am. Ever see a squirrel ride a screen door? Ever hear a squirrel say UH OH!!! ? I have one runt who almost lets me hand feed him. He’s not been afraid since day one. He sits on the fence and stays for the longest amount of time. Just sitting, eating and watching the world go by…..I stand next to him, placing one nut at a time on the post so he can reach them…..Yes, I have named him…..Bucky.
Deck the Halls and keep those traditions alive!
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