While driving in the car last week heading home from the grocery store after seeing the first signs of frozen turkeys, I had a great Thanksgiving Day flash back from the yesteryear. When my sister and I were kids we used to spend every Thanksgiving with our Dad’s side of the family while spending Christmas Eve with my mom’s side of the family. For Thanksgiving we’d do a city swap. One year it would be in Portland to celebrate with our Great Uncle and his family the next year they’d come up and we’d celebrate Thanksgiving at our Grandparents house.
This tradition went on for years. I got to experience giblet gravy every other year (something I hope never to repeat ever again… blech), LONG car rides, and lots and lots of over eating. As a kid, this was probably the most boring event in childhood experiences ever. We did get to see our cousins, but there were only 4 of us. Being the youngest pretty much guaranteed me to be ignored for most of the day and made the day extra boring. Not to mention having to sit at the “kids” table all the time. And by “kids” table I mean the little table off to the side. It was a lottery drawing every year to see who had to sit at the “kids” table. Guess who got picked almost every year without any other kids there? (Is my bitterness showing yet?)
Where is this story leading, you might ask? I’m just about to get to the point. About 20 years ago (give or take a few years, my childhood memory is a bit fuzzy from time to time) the last family Thanksgiving came to a screeching halt. (Insert huge smile here. I know what the punch line is and it makes me smile every time). The last Thanksgiving get together was held at my grandparents place. Their old house wasn’t very big so for sure we had to separate tables. One in the dining room, the other table in the living room. The 2 rooms were separated by walls and the kitchen. This time the kids table was an actual kids table! We got to sit out in the living room. I think it was a cleaver ploy of my Grandparents doing. Then they didn’t have to listen to us all complain if we didn’t like the food this year…
As we sat down to eat, a very interesting thing happened. One by one, our plates started arriving in front of our noses. One by one, we all got a very confused look on our faces. My grandfather apparently had begun to hold a grudge against the thanksgiving traveling tradition. This year was his retaliation against the family and tradition. On our plates that year there was no turkey and no gravy.
NO TURKEY!!!
What did we get that year for Dinner? Stuffed pork chops.
Thus ended the Portland/Seattle Thanksgiving tradition!
I always knew Grandpa was a crafty man. It’s taken me 20 years to really appreciate how crafty he was!
4 comments:
Felix says we can have tuna this year. i say we can have pizza
You must be bitter! I barely remember any of this. And we ate giblet gravy?!? Really? Gross! Who made that? Although, I probably didn't have any, since I didn't like gravy back then.
That would be Unc's giblet gravy... I remember asking mom what the chunky stuff was in the gravy. Never ask what chunky stuff is!
That's disgusting.
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