Thanksgiving Memories

In just a few more days, Thanksgiving will kick off the holiday season. Thanksgiving always comes to me with a certain sense of nostalgia. Back in the day, we were always at my aunt and uncle’s house and there was usually a crowd. The men would spend the morning in the woods hunting deer, the women would spend the morning cooking and setting the table and the kids would spend the morning watching the parade. Most of the meal was prepared by my aunt and two grandmothers and those women could cook, though to be honest, they did go a little overboard. Each year you could count on being able to sample at least six different kinds of pie; apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue, mince, chocolate and graham cracker.

You see these magazine spreads that show a table gleaming with polished silverware and sparkling glasses; one for wine and one for water. It was not like that at our table. We ate off of mismatched china, and at least one person got a glass with McDonald’s Grimace on it but none of that mattered. It was the family that made the difference; even those who did not exactly get along lent something to the atmosphere. There was lively conversation and not a little competition over who made the best pie. My vote always went to my grandmother’s graham cracker pie and I would love to have her recipe though I would not exactly trust it. She was one of those women who guarded her cooking secrets jealously and if she gave out a recipe, it was likely to be just a bit “off” on one or more ingredients so as to make sure yours never turned out better than hers.

Once the meal was over, the men would usually head back to the woods, and the women would clean up the kitchen. I think the process of sorting out the leftovers took longer than cooking the meal to be honest.

In 1995, my husband and I had purchased our first home, the aunts and grandmothers were getting old enough to not want to do all the cooking so we hosted our first Thanksgiving. We had eighteen at the table that year, only two weeks after moving into the house. It was a bit frantic but it went off without a hitch, the baton was passed. Each year after that for the 13 years we lived there, our numbers dwindled as we began losing members of the older generation. A few years ago, we moved 500 miles away to be nearer my husband’s family and now our Thanksgivings are a much quieter affair.

Since there are so few of us, the tableware now matches and we only have two kinds of pie. I still hear those voices from the past though, and while I am happy to be with my family at any time, a piece of Grammie’s graham cracker pie would not go amiss.

Please feel free to send us your Thanksgiving memories and if you have a good pie recipe, we would love to post it!