Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Thanksgiving Memories

I suppose it shouldn't be much of a surprise that this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun is about Thanksgiving, as it was only two days ago.  Randy Seaver is usually very topical:

1) We just celebrated Thanksgiving in the USA, and many of us have celebrated it every year for decades.  For this SNGF, please share a favorite Thanksgiving memory; it can be sentimental, humorous, reflective, etc.

2)  Share your Thanksgiving memory with us in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post, or on Facebook or Google+.

I don't remember any specific Thanksgiving from when I was growing up.  I do recall that when my family still lived in Southern California, my mother's "sister" (my mother didn't have a sister of her own, so her close friend filled that role) usually came over for Thanksgiving.  Sam liked ham (not green ham, though!), so along with the turkey, we always had ham.  (And Sam usually celebrated Christmas with us, so we had turkey and ham then also.)  My mother was not the greatest of cooks and not particularly adventurous at that time, so the accompaniments were the traditional green bean casserole, yams with marshmallows, mashed potatoes, and canned cranberry sauce.

My favorite parts of the turkey are the neck and the tuchus, or pope's nose.  If my grandmother was celebrating with us, she got the neck and the tuchus.  So I was always torn between happy to have her with us but not getting the parts I wanted.  Now that she's passed, I think about her when I do have the neck.

I hated the yams.  They were mushy, and they tasted nasty, and I didn't even like the marshmallows.  One year my mother conned me into eating some by telling me they were "candy."  When I had a bite, I realized I'd been tricked and yelled at her, "They're yams!"  She smiled and said, "Yup, candied yams!"  Talk about ruining your faith in your parents!

The first big holiday meal I cooked in the house I'm living in now was for Thanksgiving in 1993.  My housemate and his mother (who was living in the house with us at that time) were there.  My aunt and uncle drove in from the San Joaquin Valley, and my friend Joe came.

My most important Thanksgiving was in 1994.  My mother was terminally ill with cancer, so all three of us children went to Florida to be together with her before she died.  Not the happiest of holidays under the circumstances, but it was good to know we were able to see her.

This year a friend invited me over for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a small gathering, only six of us, but the food was delicious, and we had plenty of wine to go with it.  I educated my friend's "lady friend" about the joys of watching "football tushies" on TV, and we closed the day with a rousing game of Cards against Humanity.  That's a lot to be thankful for.  What more could anyone want?