Happy Thanksgiving

Today, I am thankful for so much, but I want to tell you about a memory of Thanksgiving that I am thankful for...

I have to start the story in August...my mom always had a huge garden, and one year, we had a bumper crop of watermelon, however, we got a really early frost this particular year, so the watermelon vines were frozen, thus, causing us to loose all those watermelons...they were barely even light pink...so...my dad put all the melons in the wheelbarrow and would bust one open every morning and evening for our chickens and turkeys we raised to eat and enjoy...

Fast forward to a day or two before Thanksgiving...my dad picked the biggest Tom Turkey out of the bunch to butcher for our dinner. This sucker was huge! After he was all plucked and cleaned, he weighed 40 pounds (try finding a 40 pound turkey in any store, biggest I've ever seen was like 13 to 15) He was so big, my mom had to break his drumstick legs to get him to fit in the oven, and she had to get up at like 4 in the morning to get him in early enough to cook all day long.

So, cook all day he did. Well, when my dad went to get him out of the oven, there were no fat drippings in the bottom of the pan. Boy was my mom mad. She made the best turkey gravy from scratch from those drippings, and we figured we weren't going to have any gravy. What's a Thanksgiving dinner without gravy? My mom was stomping around the kitchen, grumbling (maybe even swearing), so my dad just wanted to carve the thing and get out of her way. Well, when he cut into the turkey, the thing sprung a leak! For some reason, all the fat drippings had just stayed inside the skin; the roasting pan filled up, my mom and dad were grabbing every last remaining available bowl to pour the drippings in; it was coming out of our ears at this point! We had enough drippings for about 5 times the gravy we needed. I think my mom even ran out of flour she made so much gravy! Everyone was just laughing and amazed at the amount of juice the bird had.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, complete with the best gravy we'd probably ever had, and since that Tom was so big, we still had pounds of turkey left. My mom spent the next several days after thanksgiving making turkey soup, turkey enchiladas, turkey sandwiches, turkey, turkey, turkey. She canned, she froze, she "Seal-a-Mealed", she gave away, she probably even fed some to the cats and the dog. We were sick of turkey when it was finally all gone. And it was several months before we could bring ourselves to use any of the frozen or canned stuff.

We attributed the size of the turkey and amount of fat to the watermelons he ate for 3 months. We'd never had turkeys like that in the years before or after, just that year.

Every year, I remember this experience, and am so grateful for MEMORIES, especially now that my mom is gone. I am thankful for my great parents, and for the wonderful memories they helped me create as a child.