I originally tried to start this post with my mind fresh on an idea about Momma but the computer GODS decided to play some tricks on me. I guess I might have accidently clicked something to put ALL of my post in HTML language, of which I am NOT adept. A question posted to the community boards and it was soon fixed, and HERE I am, without the inspiration that was upon me yesterday. RATS!
Bare with me as I try to find that place in my brain. Yesterday, I was feeling very nostalgic about Thanksgivings of years past, way past. Trying to remember the fun times, the smells, the sights and sounds. You know it's just Bro and myself that have these memories now. Once we are gone those memories are pffft in the ether of nowhere. They happened, yes, but once we are gone, they will be gone too. It's odd to think about that, about where the memories go, so it's good to write them down.
Thanksgiving memories of MY/OUR past:
It was with great joy that Momma would get all kinds of ready to go to Jay for our yearly Thanksgiving at our great-grandparents. At the time I thought the house was their house but sadly I was informed much later in life that the house actually belonged their son, my great uncle, Big Dan (yes, that is right,) and his wife, Ree. Really crushed my young heart when I found that out. In my mind it is still Greatgranny's place.
Big Dan
Ree
Greatgranny and Great Granddaddy
Momma would buy turkey, celery, onions, make cornbread and pack up all the utensils and pans needed to travel and make dinner happen. Honestly, I do not remember having any kind of pie when we traveled for this, it was all about the turkey and maybe vegetables, creamed corn to be exact. Momma could roast a mean turkey, and I have followed in her footsteps. This will be the first year in eons that I have not done that. We would load up the car on a Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when we got out of school and travel the two-lane road there. In today's time it's only about an hour and a half or less but back then it was at least two hours.
When we rounded the curve to Rattlesnake Hollow, taking the right veer off the highway to their driveway, I was so excited. The beautiful house appeared and my joy to be back again was beyond happy.
Two-seater red door outhouse!
This place was just magical, and on a cold November Thanksgiving even more so. There was not an inside bathroom, until I was a senior in high school, so the bathroom was the red-door two-seater outhouse, or the large coffee cans that were under the beds. Every morning it was Greatgranny's job to empty the "potty's." Finding a place to sleep, well that was the question in this tiny house. You never knew if you would get the big freezer room, which I hated, Greatgranny's bed in her closet (small freezer) room, or the porch off the kitchen, that had NO HEAT! I think there was a bed in the dining room too but I never slept on it. I think that bed came later. Oh, memory flash...before momma dragged her roasting things there, Greatgranny had an electric roasting pan next to her tiny room. She would roast the turkey all night long, getting up every hour or so to baste it. I didn't mind though because it was Greatgranny's bed, with the softest down mattress in the world. We took turns sleeping with her, we three. I think Bro did too, but don't remember. When they still had their cow, Pet, Greatgranny would also get up before sunrise and go to milk her. Oh my, that was my favorite thing ever. She would wake us and we would walk in the dark, with Sandy, the collie at our heals, over the bridge to the barn, and milk her. But that is another
story I went back and re-read that post and I remember now that her room was originally the freezer room, or another freezer room, smaller. The OTHER freezer room had a HUGE chest freezer you could probably put an entire cow in.
Thanksgiving morning would arrive and the smells in that tiny cold house were phenomenal and made your stomach grumble. I wasn't a fan of much that was served in the Jay house. Most things were left out on the table with a tablecloth covering so no flies would be on them, couldn't guarantee a mouse or two would not be up there. I am not a fan of milk in general, and fresh milk even more so. BLECH! Most had cereal, or if lucky, a fried egg that Greatgranny was a master at cooking for breakfast. When I was very young, the only stove they had to cook on was a wood fire stove. I can remember them heating water on it for a bath in the tub they would drag in the middle of the kitchen floor. There is a small glimmer of a memory of Greatgranny baking an angel food cake in it once!!! But mostly I remember the eggs. She eventually graduated to an electric skillet, and then they got an electric stove! There was always something fried on the table: chicken, deer, fish, frog legs, things I never asked what they were!
While the women were cooking the kids, any kids, sat on the couch in the living room to watch a small black and white television in the corner with Great-granddaddy. It was the only room in the house with heat from a wood-burning stove. The kitchen was the next best room but was always full of women cooking. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was always on and maybe a morning show. Honestly I wasn't a fan of the parade but there was not much else to do except play outside in the cold. If the weather was good we would play with the dogs, walk around and dig in the dirt, just in general kid stuff. Then the call for FOOD came and we were in.
There were so many people, cousins, neighbors, friends, hunters and the food was always plentiful. The men ate first, children, then women dead last. I thought that was horrible back then, and still do. Great-granddaddy had a little toaster oven next to his seat at the table, the head of the table, where he would make his toast every morning. Big Dan sat at the other end. We never knew when he would rise to eat but that was his seat, never to be sat in. The minute he would make an appearance at the table the women would fall all over themselves to make him happy. A gigantic glass of iced tea would appear with probably a 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar in the bottom ready to be stirred up. Watching him eat was a curiosity because he didn't have teeth. He wore dentures, sometimes, but never to eat with. We would peek quick looks to watch him gum his food and drink that glass of sugar with a bit of tea. He mumbled too. I never could understand what he was saying but his wife, Ree, did mostly. If there were any men in the house, no matter if they were family they were invited to eat, and they did.
Those few days there were also filled with hunters. They were friends and family that Big Dan helped to dress out their deer. You know I had never seen a live deer until we bought our cabin. I had seen many, MANY dead deer, hanging in trees, gutted and being skinned. Ree would tan the hides, make deer rattles for children from the hoofs but mostly, a lot of the deer ended up in the freezer. I used to love fried venison but not so much any more. If you were outside you knew playing around that you never, NEVER ventured into the woods, you stayed close to the house. There were hunters everywhere, it was very dangerous. You had respect for it all. I never hunted, never wanted to, but we did learn the respect for the gun,s and Daddy showed us how to shoot guns and have that respect. We just knew NEVER to mess around with them.
Okay, I guess that's all my Covid mind can muster this morning. I need to get back to some watercolors to let the mind rest in a different way.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Fox...it was food for them. They lived off the land.
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