Looking at Turkey Day traditions

By MURRAY MONTGOMERY

Staff Writer

Many folks will be celebrating Thanksgiving in a few days, and for many nothing much changes from year-to-year. In my family as folks got older and passed away, our way of observing Thanksgiving has evolved over the years. Things are much different now than the fantastic meals that our parents and grandparents created back in the day.

 But as kids grow up and move away, starting families and traditions of their own, it is harder to get everybody together for that one special day. So we are left with our memories of those good times and we have to accept the fact that in this old life, nothing ever stays the same. That is not to say that the younger folks do not carry on the family traditions because most of them do. And that is a good thing because granny no longer has to do all the cooking.

The thanksgiving dinner in our family is about the same every year. Our daughters do a great job preparing the feast - we have a turkey expert, a dressing expert, and a cookie expert - it is all good. The menu consists of the bird with dressing, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, home-made cranberry sauce, corn dishes, and squash casserole. Then there are the extras including green olives, black olives, pickles (sweet and dill), and my personal favorite, deviled eggs. After that, it is time for some dessert including pecan pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, ice cream and some of those delicious chocolate-chip pumpkin cookies. As for me, I wash all this down with some sweet tea and I am a happy man.

Ultimately, after this is all said and done, it is time to loosen the belt, head for the recliner, and go to sleep while pretending to watch a football game. As hard as it is to believe, there are those who really do not care much for football - they had rather play board-games instead. 

While doing a little research on how other folks observe the Thanksgiving holiday, I came across some mighty interesting things - some of them a little strange to a traditional old boy like me. But you really cannot write about this holiday without including a little history. The Smithsonian website supplies this about the beginning, “Most Americans are familiar with the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving Feast of 1621, but few realize that it was not the first festival of its kind in North America. Long before Europeans set foot in the Americas, native peoples sought to insure a good harvest with dances and rituals such as the Green Corn Dance of the Cherokees.

“Most of the credit for the establishment of an annual Thanksgiving holiday may be given to Sarah Josepha Hale. Editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey’s Lady’s Book, she began to agitate for such a day in 1827 by printing articles in the magazines. She also published stories and recipes, and wrote scores of letters to governors, senators, and presidents. After 36 years of crusading, she won her battle. On October 3, 1863, buoyed by the Union victory at Gettysburg, President Lincoln proclaimed that November 26, would be a national Thanksgiving Day, to be observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November.”

Finally, I am going to share some of the more untraditional things that people like to do for Thanksgiving. Good Housekeeping magazine wrote an article and asked their readers to send in some of their family traditions. Here are a few of them listed below.

* Turkey Bowling - This is something that you might have thought about doing, but never did. It’s basically what it says it is. You get some pins and set them up and use your frozen turkey as a bowling ball to knock over the pins.

* Turducken - It was always mentioned during NFL games on Thanksgiving, but if you have never had it, a de-boned chicken is stuffed into a de-boned duck which is then stuffed into a de-boned turkey. According to the FoodNetwork, the turkey wings should be left attached to the meat and the bone-in drumstick should be disjointed from the boneless thigh meat and left attached to the meat. The final product should be a flat boneless turkey (except for the wings and drumsticks). Plenty of leftovers will come of this too.

* Turkey Eating Contests - These are well known in certain areas of America, and if you want to know what the record is, Joey Chestnut currently has it as he managed to gobble down 9lbs (4kg) in just 10 minutes.

* Eating Crab Instead of Turkey - Yes this happens in San Francisco, CA. The usual Thanksgiving feast of turkey and stuffing is switched in favor of locally sourced dungeness crab (a species of crab inhabiting eelgrass beds and water bottoms along the west coast of North America.) People eat it steamed, boiled, and even microwaved.

* My father would buy maybe a dozen drumsticks and before roasting, sew them at odd angles all over the bird, making it a centi-bird or perhaps a porcu-bird. He hated cranberries and so he made kumquat jam.

Thanksgiving is a great time for families to come together and recall all the memories of their loved ones who are no longer here to celebrate. In my opinion, we should also take this time to be grateful for all those who have touched our lives over the years, while giving thanks to all those serving in the military, past and present, who protect our right to celebrate and worship as we please.