Getting Ready for Turkey Day

It takes more time now--as does most everything else I must do these days, from getting dressed (and undressed) to walking across the street to the coffee shop to ... well, as I said, "most everything."

In the Days of Youth we pretty much did all of Thanksgiving prep in a single day--Turkey Day itself. No problem.

Of course, in the early years of our marriage, we frequently went elsewhere for the holiday--to Joyce's folks (in Akron), to mine (in Des Moines, Iowa). Nothing much to do but to show up, to find a good seat for the TV football game(s), to eat so much that a nap was an inevitable--and welcome--consequence.

Many of my wonderful boyhood Thanksgivings were with my maternal grandparents (Enid, Oklahoma) and, later, in Hiram, Ohio, with my parents' dear friends, Ed and Ruth Rosser and Paul and Rose Sharp (Hiram College colleagues). Oh, could those people cook! (And, oh, in youth could I eat; I still can, but the consequences are a bit more ... evident.)

One of my great Thanksgiving memories of all? The first year I was teaching at the middle school in Aurora, Ohio (1966-67), I could not get "home" (Des Moines) because we had only Thursday and Friday off from school, so I feared I would be alone. I could afford only hot dogs and Kraft Dinner. But Mrs. Rosser--out of the blue--called me from Hiram (only eleven miles away) and invited me to their house. I gratefully accepted. Then wept in gratitude ...

Our son and his family are going to join us on Thursday this year. And we have "outsourced" to them some of the items on the menu. Other things we have done in advance. I baked the cornbread a few days ago (for stuffing, for munching); I baked the sourdough dinner bread a couple of weeks ago (it's thawing right now); Joyce is doing the sweet potatoes today. The Day Of I will peel the potatoes to boil before son Steve smashes them for us; Joyce will prep the turkey & pop Tom in the oven. The cranberries she will do today or tomorrow.

So Thursday, for the most part, will be a day of assembly, of presentation rather than preparation.

Clean-up will be ... "fun."

Oh, for the Days of Youth! When the men would light their postprandial cigars and go for a walk while the women cleaned up everything.

That sort of thing no longer flies--and never should have.

Which reminds me ...

When we were first married (December 20, 1969), I behaved, at first, like Dad: After supper I figured I would go out to the living room and watch the news while Joyce, presumably, was cleaning up the kitchen.

This behavior did not last even a single day. I went to the living room; she followed me. I looked at her, asked her what she was doing, and she replied: "I like to watch the news, too. Then we can clean up."

That we resonated like a bell strong enough to thrill Quasimodo.

I looked at her. Realized I had landed upon a Brave New World.

For which, on Thursday, I will offer thanksgiving.