Thanksgiving

I have come to realize that Thanksgiving and other holidays are not such pleasant events for much of the populace. So bear with the hallmark card version of Thanksgiving and blessings.

Memories of the oh-so-traditional turkey, dressing, mashed taters, gravy, rolls, broccoli casserole or green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, a lime jello dessert, pumpkin and various fruit pies. My Mother fixed a melding of her family's traditional dishes and my Father's family's dishes.

Grandmother Heatherly had awesome mashed potatoes with brown and cream gravy, green beans that were home canned and fixed with bacon and onion, cole slaw, and she made a great pumpkin pie and apple pie with whipped cream and spiced applesauce that always caused goodnatured skirmishes with us grandchildren.

Granny Davidson made "to-die-for" potato casserole - her recipe notes to add "as much cheese as you can afford." And of course she also fixed mashed potatoes, brown and cream gravy, relish plate (Dad I and fought over the olives). Mincemeat pie with generous rum was her standard pie in addition to the pumpkin pie with ice cream. Ham was laced with cloves, copious brown sugar and pineapple. Margarine NEVER graced her table, although my palate was never sensitive enough for me to care.

We always went to one grandparent's for noonish dinner and the other for evening dinner - ye gads and little goldfishes - talk about stuffing!!! And I thought it was normal. Wherever we lit for the evening dinner was where the family stories were told. If there were bad feelings, I never knew about them. For the holidays, the hatchet was buried outside in the snow or dirt somewhere and not in some one's head. Made for those warm snuggly memories of holiday, family, and food. We did everything but hold hands and sing Kum Bay Yah.