50+ Lifestyles

PUBLISHER’S CORNER

Treasuring Thanksgiving Memories and Traditions

By Eloise Graham

My early memories of this feast consisted of a noon meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, bread/sage stuffing, sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, homemade rolls and pumpkin pie. Oh, and olives and pickles served in a pressed glass divided dish – which I still have today. Some aunts and uncles of my mom’s showed up in those early years. The china was brought out and washed and the silver polished. This is the first china pattern of my mother’s, but I really don’t remember it, just being told by an aunt that it was my mother’s china. My aunt had the same pattern except in pale blue. The other pattern is the one I remember most. I would help set the table with bread and butter plates, salad plates – the whole works! The silver settings had two forks and individual butter knives that were placed on the bread plates.

My mother’s china

The menu didn’t change too much year from year. Sometimes we had corn or green beens, but not green bean casserole. When my college-aged sister brought a beau home, we were introduced to creamed peas with little pearl onions. That was his family tradition. The great aunts and uncles weren’t coming anymore. They had retired and moved away to new locales.

Then, when I was in junior high school, my dad passed away. My mom and I would go from Kansas to Central Illinois to my aunt and uncle’s place. My uncle had two brothers (with large families) that lived close by so Thanksgiving was truly a big intergenerational event. It was during this time that I was introduced to the other Thanksgiving Day tradition – Football.

I married while in college and now had new traditions to experience. Thanksgiving at Jim’s parents’ home was a huge affair with aunts, uncles, grandparents and a smattering of cousins. In addition to the turkey, dressing, corn, mashed potatoes with gravy there was the addition of fried potatoes, squirrel, and rabbit. A relish tray of celery and carrot sticks and radishes adorned the table. I introduced them to ripe olives. Besides pumpkin pie, other pies were included: lemon meringue, chocolate meringue, banana meringue, cherry and apple. For the non-pie people there was cake: chocolate and angel food.

The china I remembered using.

After college we moved to Michigan. It was now a seventeen-hour drive “over the river and through the woods” so we very seldom made it home for Thanksgiving. We started our own traditions when our family began to grow. Basically the common traditional Thanksgiving dinner with the addition of fried potatoes. Yes, we had three potato dishes: mashed but with no gravy only lots of butter, pan-fried with lots of pepper and candied sweet potatoes. I tried to introduce beets, but got no takers. 

Now, each child has their own home and family. For the past 27 years they have rotated hosting the meal. The meal is seldom at noon anymore. It often depends on the football game as to when we eat. We have had turkey that was deep-fried, smoked, slow-grilled outdoors, roasted in a paper sack, roasted in a plastic bag, roasted breast down and roasted breast up. It was all good. We have had green bean casserole and baked beans added to the meal. Five-cup salad and apple/snicker candy bar salad have also joined the line-up. Cheesecake and apple pie are often on the dessert table alongside the pumpkin pie.

I give thanks that I have a family that can still get together as a group. In-laws and special friends are always welcome. Traditions may change but they always make for excellent memories.