As a child, Thanksgiving was a big tradition living in New England. We learned of the first Pilgrims that came over on the Mayflower in school and from other adults. On Thanksgiving morning we would play out in the woods behind our house and pretend that we were Pilgrims coming in on the Mayflower. There were eight children in our family.
We were hungry most all the time so this was an exciting event for us. This would also be a day for all of us to fill our bellies full. We would play outside until the food was ready, usually about noon time.
We always got a turkey, potatoes, squash, celery, bread and butter that would arrive at our house from social services the day before. Mom would make home made bread stuffing for the turkey. She would break up the bread by hand, add cut up onions, celery and seasoning. I hated celery but I would eat it anyway. She would stuff the turkey the night before, put it in the oven and the turkey would cook all night. Dad had to keep getting up in the night to put wood in the stove not only to keep us warm, it was our only source of heat, but to bake the turkey. The next day all the other food would be cooked on the wood stove. Mashed potatoes with home made gravy, and mashed squash with lots of real butter. Everyone wanted the drumstick because it was so big. Dad and my older brother, Bobby, usually got to have them. There was always conflict over who would get the wish bone so mom usually wouldn’t let any of us have it and she would keep it for herself. Mom would make fresh pumpkin and squash pies from what she had canned the summer before. She made cranberry sauce from the berries that the whole family had picked down by the ocean bank the summer before. Mom would can enough so we would have the sauce during the holidays. If she had enough bread left after making the stuffing she would make bread pudding for later on that evening. After Thanksgiving and Christmas, we had no more canned food left. We were thankful of the food that we had for that day.
We ate until we could barely move then it was time to go outside to play to help wear off the food we had eaten. We would have to make room for more food later on that day. We always had snow on Thanksgiving and most of the time it would be snowing on Thanksgiving. I don’t eve remember of a Thanksgiving with no snow or it not snowing. We would make angels in the snow but sometimes it was hard to get back up because we had eaten so much, we couldn’t move. Besides Christmas, Thanksgiving was the most looked forward holiday in our family.
My dad got to take off from his job to be home with the family but he still had work to do at home. It took a lot of wood to keep the stove going all day and dad had to slit more wood that day to keep enough for us to stay warm. Some times he would have to kill some hens or rabbits that we raised—skin and clean—to put in the freezer to eat later. Thanksgiving for him and my mom was another day to work. My grandfather and my aunt would come over at some time on Thanksgiving Day. Dad would also take us up to see my grandfather, aunt, and cousin. My dad and grandfather would go rabbit hunting out behind his house. I would watch them skin the rabbits when they got back. That was his fun time of the day.
The Pilgrims had the right idea to have a day for prayer and fasting. It should not be a chosen day. It should be when each person feels it is a needed day. I look back on the time in my life when I was hungry; our family was the poorest family in our town. I would not like to go back to those times but the love we had during the holidays I would take in a minute. That is what Holidays are about to me, sharing, loving, giving and being together, not just on a given holiday but any day.
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