Thursday, November 22, 2007

Remembering Thanksgivings Past

I think of memorable thanksgivings. What's routine is eating too much, sleeping too much, and talking to people I haven't seen for a while.

Some Remembered Thanksgivings include:

When I was a child, before the big day we got 2 feet of snow (or at least is seemed like 2' to a 10 year old). I trudged off to the movie in Downtown Ellendale. Cars didn't make the trip but we did it on foot.

Another was at the Rudebusch home in one cold fall day. The turkey was on the top of the oil heater. It was being basted. It had been cooking for over a day at low heat. It was the best I ever ate.

There was a time when at my Grandma Lee's dinner was cooked on a wood stove. It was fabulous. Pies, turkey, baked potatoes, baked bread. This was not because it was fashionable. There was no REA yet. Electricity.

It was a fall after we were married and Tim was a little guy, we didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving. We were pretty poor. We were married about 5 years. It was not a plentiful time. But, there was thanksgiving and joy. I've remembered that as one of the best.

Once we were the family Redlin, we put 3 pieces of corn on every place and every person had to say 3 things they were thankful for. It was a joyful time.

There is much I have to be thankful for, I have memories. It's just that life is changing, people are moving along. I don't know what to make of all this.

There is not much more I can say other than I am thankful but I think we make Thanksgiving more work and eating and sleeping and basketball than we should.

Have a good thanksgiving what's left of it all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey, hey, hey watch it with that basketball talk. This country was founded by basketball players. In fact the first thanksgiving was a tailgate party right before a Lakers/Celtic game. The native people being from the "Minnesota" were naturally rooting for the Lakers while the Celtics had a broad fan base across the north east as they had been occupying that land for some time.

The natives brought deep fried turkey, yams with marshmallow and a nice jello mold. The invaders brought guilt, disease and fruit cake. A good time was had by some. Sadly the Lakers star player was involved in a lawsuit so the rules dictated they “give” the game to their opponents who were obliged by law to shake the Lakers hands and say "thanks".

The work aspect was hastily thrown in years later to appease a growing Protestant insurgency who felt they weren’t being properly represented in the celebration.

Even though most Protestants have fully embraced the spirit of Jello, many to this day harbor feelings of ostracism and restless leg syndrome.

After hard fought negotiations broke down, Lakers fans splintered off to start a motor company with its star player as CEO and that is where Pontiac got its start. To this day you can still see them down by Lake Shore Drive in their Firebirds (Fire Bird was the well liked power forward on their first championship team ironically his second cousin Larry would later become a Celtic super duper star) and shouting Celtic Suck.

And that is the true story of the first Thanksgiving.

I would love to chat about this with you at length about Thanksgiving but my War on Christmas counter insurgency helmet and camouflage super soaker just arrived and my unit is being called up soon.

Hi Ho O’Rielly…away!!!!!!!