Thanksgiving Memories

Well another Thanksgiving has come and gone. We feasted on the usual, baked turkey with dressing, homemade egg noodles, mac and cheese, mashed taters, green beans and a multitude of desserts and snacks. All in all everyone left very satisfied and content with their meal.

As usual I watched the Macy’s parade with Mom; I still love seeing those balloons come’n down the street. One day I hope to go see it live! Wouldn’t that just be super exciting? But then again that would mean spending the holiday away from the family.

Before everyone started rolling in me and Mom reminisced about holidays gone by. She laughed about one Thanksgiving when my aunt’s husband and father in law were here. You see Thanksgiving morning used to consist of a rabbit hunt. The “men folk” would all get up early and go out rabbit hunting together. But one year, we’re not really clear on how it happened but my Uncle Allard’s dad shot him full of buckshot in the backside. No real damage done, but it is a rather amusing memory for Mom to think back on them digging buck shot out of Allard’s behind. It doesn’t take much to amuse country folks as you can tell.

Then my sister was here remembering a time when we were all down at my Grandma Riddlebarger’s house for Thanksgiving. We all loved going to Grandma’s too. She made the very best chocolate pie! The kind where the pudding formed that thick layer of chocolate on the top, boy howdy do I miss those pies, and of course I miss my Grandma, haha everyone says I was always her favorite! Grandma didn’t make egg noodles though; she made the most delicious dumpling! Then Uncle June he always made the mashed potatoes, nothing like good lumpy fresh made mashed potatoes! Oh well, enough drooling over food memories, back to the story! We were at the dinner table and my Dad was eating rolls and he scooped up a big spoon of cranberry sauce and lathered up his bread and took a big bite only to find out someone left the jello on the table instead of the cranberry sauce. Of course Dad in all his grace is like I’ve always liked my jello on bread, he was just too cool to let anything bother him, so he just ate his jello covered roll like he’d been doing it forever.

Grandma and Dad are no longer with us, but the wonderful times they shared with us will always be passed along on the holidays. So the new members of the family will always get to hear the tales of the good old days gone by while creating their own memories.

This year was a difficult one for me, putting on a smile and facing everyone like everything was wonderful in the world. My Thanksgiving memories aren’t all the best, two years ago my husband and I were flat broke, he was taking chemo for his colon cancer and nothing was going very well. But a dear friend went to the food line and brought us dinners so that we too had something for the holiday. Even though it was difficult we realized we still were thankful we had each other. Then last year, well this is when he suffered his breakdown and we weren’t even able to be together at all. And this year is my first holiday season since his passing. Not easy to handle everything that’s happened but I am very thankful that I have my daughter and grandson to keep my mind busy and they give me so much love and comfort it’s just hard to put to words what it means to me. But still I do miss Bobby Gene, more than anyone realizes.

So another November is behind us, and two more holidays to survive. I still have two more holidays to get through and with the help of my daughter, grandson and a multitude of online friends I’m sure things will go ok. Seasons change, just as life so for now I just have to await those changes and say lots of prayers for the future and keep the good memories in the forefront of my mind.