CHRISTMAS BREAK

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours

Thanksgiving Remembered

My Grandmother never baked a turkey. She served chicken and dressing made from the left over cornbread and biscuits of meals past and a speckled hen from her own yard. We had red potatoes smothered in butter churned in her lap in a fruit jar. The screened in porch sheltered a table heavy with desserts. Berry cobbler with crust somewhere between flakey and chewy cardboard made with berries she harvested along the fence row and soaked in sugar. Dark chocolate pie so rich you could only eat a small sliver at a time. Washed down with heavy goblets of iced tea.

As the six grown children arrived with their wives and children in tow the yard filled with trucks and cars resting under the giant oak tree that dwarfed her little white frame house. The cousins checked out the old moma cat and counted her kittens and shared cautions like don’t go near the rooster “cause he’ll flog ya”. Then everyone was called inside to pray. Most of us didn’t hear much more than Amen cause we were twenty strong in a three room house but we bowed our heads and listened just the same. Then the kids went back outside to play until called so the MEN could sit down to eat. In her house the men ate first, then the kids were served and finally the women who had slaved to prepare everything, sat down to eat their meal, before they began the massive clean up.

After the feast was over adults reclined along the walls in cane bottom chairs like beached whales. All to full to make much conversation. My grandmother would take off her apron and sit down for the first time in hours. I know she was tired but she never complained. She would try to coax one of her sons to eat one more piece of pie but they would just tell her how good it was and they were just too full for another bite. The white cloth would cover the desserts and one by one the folks would leave for home amid hugs and goodbye tears. And that was Thanksgiving in Kanawha.