Where does one begin with childhood memories of Thanksgiving? Days of helping Mama clean the house for company and smelling all the wonderful once a year smells in the kitchen? Using all the best china, glasses, and silverware? Mama's own Kentish Tart recipe that has now been lost to time?Those memories linger gently, but the one childhood memory that stands out above all the rest was the year that I was finally considered to be big enough to get a turkey leg to eat! And I ate the whole thing, too!
It was like the right of passage away from the children's table to the grownup's table, a milestone I will never forget.
Mama has passed away now, and the mantle of fixing Thanksgiving Dinner for our family is now mine. It's a shame that I didn't inherit her love of cooking and joy of gracious entertaining, but I do try to provide my children and grandchildren with some memories for them to look back on. I can only hope that they, too, will remember Thanksgiving as a warm time of family love and a celebration of milestones along the way.
In case you're wondering ... No, I was NOT a child in 1982 LOL. The harvest picture is from one of the many lovely vintage kitchen linen calendars we have for sale, and I thought it was appropriate for Thanksgiving Day.
nostalgia, childhood memories, Thanksgiving
2 comments:
Wow, did this ever speak to me. I lost my mother a few years ago. We had an unsteady relationship as far back as I can remember, and her illness and dependence on me for the last years of her life didn't help any. I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner on my own for 4 or 5 years now and suddenly, this year, I was overwhelmed with sadness and I missed my mother more than at any other time I can think of. I cried on and off all day (luckily not when company was around!) and, thinking back, I can hardly remember eating dinner or any of the time I spent with my husband, in-laws and friends. It all seems like it never happened.
Joan, it's really no wonder that the holidays are a time of depression for so many of us. I, too, miss my mother more at this time of the year than any other.
I realize, now that it is too late, that there are family traditions I took for granted, but can't pass on, because I didn't spend the time to learn the recipes, etc.
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