From Where I Sit

By Pat Spilseth, Columnist

November is the month of the year when we celebrate Thanksgiving, the traditional holiday featuring all the many blessings we enjoy…family, friends, food, shelter and good health.

Thanksgiving is a gentle reminder that we have much to be thankful for. Perhaps some of you recall a picture, which hung in many dining rooms, kitchens and churches, of an elderly man praying before his simple meal. Entitled “Grace,” the photograph portrays an attitude of thankfulness. Photographer Eric Enstrom said, “I wanted to take a picture that would show people that even though they had to do without so many things because of the war, they still had much to be thankful for.”

This time of year radio stations will be playing that memorable Thanksgiving song, which has already begun to spin endlessly on my head’s turntable:

“Over the river and through the wood,

To Grandfather’s house we go;

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh

Through the white and drifted snow…”

I’ve saved an article about turkeys from The Saturday Evening POST:

*Skin hanging from a male turkey’s beak and neck can turn pink, white or blue when the bird gets excited.

*George H.W. Bush was the first president to “pardon” a turkey. That’s a rather ridiculous “national” duty for the President, but some folks do enjoy a seeing a turkey strut around his territory at the petting zoo.

*Benjamin Franklin never proposed the turkey for a national bird, but he did say that the turkey was “a much more respectable bird” than the bald eagle.

*Only male turkeys gobble when they wish to attract a mate. He’ll spread his tail feathers like a peacock, appearing more attractive from a distance than a closeup look. Perhaps most turkeys don’t have a perfect 20-20 vision.

*The heaviest turkey ever weighed in at 86 pounds.

*A group of turkeys can be called a crop, a dole, a gang, a posse or a raffle.

*Wild turkeys were nearly extinct in the 1930s.  Because of forest restoration and breeding programs, they’ve bounced back to around 7 million today.

*Eating turkey doesn’t make you any sleepier than any other kind of meat.

Part of the Thanksgiving tradition is to prepare a meal featuring turkey  as the main entree…whether you like turkey or not. Mom did not like to cook turkey meat, even if it was Thanksgiving. It always tasted too dry to her, and she didn’t care for the aroma. If she had to eat a bite of turkey, she’d choose the white breast meat. With gravy smothering the mashed potatoes and turkey, the taste was camouflaged enough that she didn’t object. Cranberries made the meal not only colorful but gave it a tasty zing. She preferred ordering a Capon from a local farmer for the holiday. She’d stuff the Capon with a dressing of diced onion and dry bread cubes, some sage and a bit of the diced up heart and gizzard, then roast the bird in the oven for several hours. Smells emanating from the oven made my mouth salivate. Mom served the stuffed bird with mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with melting marshmallows browned on top, niblets of corn and a small green salad.

After the meal came the cherry on top, the icing on the cake! Following the meat and potatoes meal, Mom served a yummy dessert baked especially for our Thanksgiving holiday. She was the original “dessert queen,” a label I’ve inherited in my neighborhood because of a preference for tasty, sweet desserts made with real cream, butter and sugar.     

On Thanksgiving, Mom baked her warm cranberry cake with a sweet drizzle of rum covering the cake. That dessert was a tradition at the jail, our home when Dad was sheriff of Pope County. Even the jail prisoners were treated to Mom’s Thanksgiving feast.

We have so much to be thankful for.

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To contact Pat, email: pat.spilseth@gmail.com.