HAPPY THANKSGIVING ONE AND ALL

Salmon House: A General Thanksgiving Declaration offers the history of the pilgrims. It isn't the same read any of us learned in grade school. It wasn't like the plays we did with Squanto coming to camp with his friends and eating with the pilgrims. It does not offer history, as our plays did, that the Native Americans and the settlers were friendly. Go to that site if you want the sobering account of what was happening.

If not, and you are simply caught up in the wonderful spirit of being thankful, then think about your own thanksgivings with family. Think about how in grade school, we colored dittos, which when cut out, were place card settings of cornucopias, (then referred to as a horn of plenty).

Think about the steaming windows and look back on howyou mother may have gotten up in the middle of the night--about 5A--to put the turkey in, a big one--at least 25 pounds to cook until noon and the stuffing was IN THE BIRD.

Some of you may have gone to the turkey processing plant belonging to Land O Lakes in a dark brick building behind what was Piggly Wiggly at the time. You may have watched the live turkeys being taken from the truck and hooked by the feet and zapped with killing voltage before it even got inside the building. Although I do not remember the removable of the head and the bleed out process, I knew what that was all about because I had watched grandma behead chickens with a hatchet for years before. So the governor of Alaska does not stand alone on this one.

There were NOT turkeys running around New Solum township when my grandfather was a boy. If there would have been, not many had shells for a turkey shoot. Memoirs of grandpa include snaring rabbits; perhaps they trapped sharp tail grouse in the same fashion. The grouse lived in the open prairie and were plentiful in northwestern Minnesota. The early newspapers talk about the sport of shooting hundreds of them.

Old Trunks happens to like thanksgiving. It is a holiday to gather loved ones without the hype of gifts. Perhaps it is my favorite because it can be simple.

Now, mother took over Thanksgiving while the grandmothers continued to have Christmas Eve and Christmas day. She did not appreciate it being called "TURKEY DAY". She was one of those mothers who were up in the middle of the night and cooked for hours for one meal. It was a fine China meal, so to speak.

The bill o fare was always the same: Lime jello with shredded carrots and finely diced celery set on a lettuce leaf with a dollop of mayo on the top sprinkled with paprika. Daddy always set it aside saying, "Why eat that, when I have meat and potatoes?"

The cranberries where made the day before and if you were in the house, one could hear the !pop pop pop! of the berries as they cooked on the stove, (and according to mother, made a mess on the back splash).

The stuffed turkey was cooked in a roaster and basted. The gravy would be made from the drippings in the pan. I have that roaster, it has many memories! The potatoes were always riced with a bit of butter in the middle of the heap and MORE paprika. The first scoop out, messed up the artistic value of the creation. I do know there were vegetables but I don't remember candied yams. The pie was pumpkin and the whipped topping was real cream beaten with the mixer.

How did mother know when the turkey was done? Was there a thermometer? Grandma just wiggled the leg, if it was loose, it was finished.

There is much to be said about how hard it is to cook a turkey. There really isn't much to it. Buy it, thaw it in the fridge, take out the innerds, put it in a brown bag, put the bagged turkey in the roaster pan, put it in the oven and let it cook. The HARD part is the dozen other things that are traditional and without them Thanksgiving just isn't quite the same.

What do we do here? Tom makes Thanksgiving dinner. ALL OF IT. And as I told the dental hygienist, he makes what he feels is a feast. And I am thankful. See how simple that is?

Happy Thanksgiving!

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