Thanksgiving with Winnie and Russell
What do YOU need for it to feel like Thanksgiving?
Hello friends and Fairely and Minehart relatives,
Do you recall making turkey art as a child in Sunday school?
Thanksgiving used to be one of my favorite holidays. Unless I have a false memory, I recall going to church on Thanksgiving morning or the evening before. I loved singing “We Gather Together.”
I once heard a proud atheist say that he liked Thanksgiving because It wasn’t tied to religion. I thought he was crazy. It’s our national day of thanks. Who did he think we were thanking? I suppose non-believers could be expressing gratitude.
When I interviewed my mom about Thanksgiving, she said they did not have a turkey or get-togethers with relatives. I found that kind of surprising, given how close the family was with extended relatives, but I suppose a holiday on a Thursday wasn’t something Russell could partake in if he had to drive a few hours. Russell had to work every day. I would have to dig into my research to see when unions came in for railroad employees and he started getting time off or at least Sundays off. I know he often drove to Gayville on Sundays.
What do YOU have to have to feel like you have celebrated Thanksgiving?
For me, it has always been turkey, squash, pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce.
Lately, for me, it has morphed into a nicely roasted squash stuffed with wild rice and mushrooms or a sweet potato side dish.
When I lived in Seattle, a friend who we were visiting said she had to have baked beans. Baked beans! That was news to me.
Janette (Mom) told me that as a child, they once cooked a “big fat goose.”
When I interviewed Gordon about Thanksgiving, he said.
“Thanksgiving...turkey wasn’t that big in those days, so the folks would try different things. One year, it was fried oysters. Sometimes, we would have a goose, or chicken or big roast. The turkey thing came later.”
Those of you who knew Gordon can probably hear his voice saying “The Folks,” Janette and her siblings used “The Folks” as a term of endearment and respect.
All five children had their usual places around the table. Janette rubbed her feet on the pedestal foot so much that it became worn.
Nowadays, many people call it Turkey Day. In fact, according to the National Turkey Federation, more than 90 percent of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day. (Although I’d take any research from them a little suspect. I suppose the National Squash Federation would say 90 percent of Americans eat squash on Thanksgiving. HaHa.)
According to History.com
For more than two centuries, Thanksgiving was celebrated by individual colonies and states. It wasn’t until 1863, during the Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be held each November.
Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in the United States in 1870.
When Janette was 11 years old the date was fixed to the fourth Thursday in November by an act of Congress in 1941.
According to Thoughtco
In 1939, the last Thursday of November was going to be November 30. Retailers complained to FDR that this only left twenty-four shopping days to Christmas and begged him to push Thanksgiving just one week earlier. It was determined that most people do their Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving and retailers hoped that with an extra week of shopping, people would buy more.
When I was growing up, we lived far away from relatives, but my parents made friends with others at the Methodist church. We often spent Thanksgiving at friends’ houses, or they would visit our house.
In Grand Forks, we often visited Lew and Nancy Schaper and played board games like Pitt ( The most fun you have screaming at your friends) and Scrabble. As a teenager, I once placed the word "surrealism" on the board, and both Nancy and Mom had never heard the word. I learned it in high school art class.
So, for it to feel like Thanksgiving for me, I must have lightly oiled seasoned or stuffed squash and play a board game.
Below, Rebecca and her partner Matt play a board game with me:
Janette also liked to set a pretty table. The table below is my table from 2020. It was simply Terry and me. Notice Janette’s Fostoria plates.
Here is a very short YouTube of my Friendsgiving in 2023
This link to the YouTube is below.
Friendsgiving 2023 Vegan-style
Please share with me what you need for it to feel like Thanksgiving.
P.S. I plan to publish my book with Beavers Pond Press, a Minneapolis-based hybrid publisher. The estimated date of publication is fall 2025.
Alice replied
In wouldn't be Thanksgiving at our home without White Castle stuffing. In the late 1990’s a recipe was published in the St. Paul newspaper for White Castle stuffing, using what else? White Castle hamburgers. The lines at a nearby White Castle were endless the day before Thanksgiving, but my husband was able to buy the eight White Castle hamburgers. needed for this easy recipe. I made the stuffing the next day. We never have stuffed turkeys due to the possibility of cross contamination and getting sick, an unpleasant way to spend the day after Thanksgiving; but I baked the stuffing next to the turkey. It was such a hit, that my husband wanted no other kind.
That worked until we moved to South Texas, where there are no White Castle restaurants. We had lived in our new coastal home a few weeks before Thanksgiving 2005 and I knew how disappointed my husband would be with any stuffing I made. The day before Thanksgiving I picked up cranberries in our island community IGA. All of a sudden my eyes became focused on the freezer compartment where I saw for the very first time :- frozen White Castles! I thawed them and made Sam’s favorite stuffing.
Each year White Castle sponsors an essay contest. In 2006 mine was one of those chosen when I wrote about our miracle of frozen White Castle. Both Sam and I received plane tickets to Columbus, Ohio, corporate headquarters of White Castle.
There we were inducted in the White Castle Hall of Fame!
We will go to the home of one on our daughters in Bemidji on Thanksgiving. Not hard
to guess what we were asked to bring!
Comment from Jim:
Thank you, Naomi, for this trip into nostalgia. As for me, I remember turkey for T day for some years and ham or chicken for others. We always talked about the pilgrims and their good fortune to have the native peoples assist them. We lived outside the USA for many years, and during that time, we sort of forgot about this holiday, as it wasn't celebrated where we were living., except by Americans living in those countries. I know that the American community of Tanzania hosted a big turkey dinner every year for other Americans. We usually didn't go because we thought it was a bit out of place (and, of course, I don't eat turkey).. My Tanzanian son-in-law puts on a huge spread every T day and invites others to partake. I guess he is more American than we are. Mariah, for several years, put on a huge meal in Cairo and invited all her friends to enjoy and discuss what they were thankful for. That practice died a few years ago. The other thing I remember was the boob tube played non-stop football (American, that is). I was a sucker for being glued to the tube, but now it is many years since I have watched any American football.