Turkey Day Rewind

Turkey Day Rewind

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. Sorry Jesus Christ. Your birthday has been around a lot longer than Thanksgiving, so we can give some homage to the turkey for a little bit.

The other day I tried to recall as far back as I could, my earliest memories of Thanksgiving. I’m not sure why, but I could only get back to age 10. The more I think about it, I don’t think I even had a favorite food at that age. We had just moved to Baytown, Texas from Covington, Louisiana and that fall my mom was 8 months pregnant with my brother Dan. We ordered takeout Thanksgiving dinner at Wyatt’s Cafeteria. Mom probably said to my dad, “Screw this. I’m pregnant and I’m not cooking.” Having had to deal with a pregnant spouse twice before (me and my sister Amy), I’m sure Dad knew to choose his battles and did the smart thing. I remember going to the cafeteria with my sister and Dad bringing home a big ole box ‘o Thanksgiving. My Dad’s parents came over and I remember posing for pictures with my Oklahoma Sooner shirt and my high water, corduroy pants.  Fashion and me never have got along too well.

On to Turkey Day memories…..

Thanksgivings of Day’s Past

Seems like Thanksgivings got better as I got older. No more sitting at the kid’s table has a lot to do with it. In the early 80’s, I had my own apartment in Baytown, Texas and I sponsored a couple of parties called “The Annual Tim Guest Day Before Thanksgiving Party”. Big times with a keg of Old Milwaukee beer and loud music. How I managed to cram 60 people into my 1 bedroom apartment I will never know. Dink and Laura Stephens had been married about a year and when they arrived Dink asked where he could put his jacket. I didn’t have a closet so he put it inside the dishwasher so he wouldn’t forget it. Genius. I recall someone (name withheld to protect the stupid) showing the partygoers that if you breed 2 Igloo Playmate coolers you get a 20-quart bigger one. I know, I’m scratching my head right now too. My neighbor below me must have detested me, because Baytown’s finest showed up around 11:00 that night and things quieted down from there.

Another time back in Baytown, me, Robert Burch and Chris Hastie went over to Chris’ mom’s house for Thanksgiving and ate ham. I don’t think I ate so much ham in my life. One tended to get really hungry hanging out with those two, if you know what I mean. Cough, cough….

The year my brother was married, the whole family went to Austin in order to remind Dan to never do this again. Dan and I fried our first turkey and for some reason, it came out fantastic.  The only hitch we discovered was what to do with the oil. We then hatched a covert operation that even Dick Cheney would have been proud of. Since Dan’s neighborhood was still under construction, we took the oil under the cover of darkness to a vacant lot and poured it out. I love the smell of warm peanut oil in the morning. Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now reference…..

Susie and I had our first Thanksgiving the year before we were married. She lived in Austin and I was still living in Seguin. Her brother managed to get us tickets to the Texas A&M-Texas game in College Station on Thanksgiving Day. Susie’s sister Dalia and her future husband Jerry drove to Austin Wednesday night and we all cooked Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday. After lunch we drove to College Station and froze our arses off in our end zone bleacher seats.  These were the bleachers that faced directly north. Into a 30 mile per hour wind. I don’t think I could have been colder. We drove back to Austin with sleet and snow the whole way and somehow made it back dent free.

Since we have moved out west, we don’t have the gigantic, multiple family celebrations as in past years. It’s really a pleasure to have a quiet celebration, but I do miss our relatives. The first year back in California, we had our first Thanksgiving with just the two of us. We couldn’t find a stunted growth, malnourished turkey so we went with a chicken. Why couldn’t the turkey growers cross a chicken with a turkey and come up with a smaller version?  Anyhow, we cooked an amazing roast chicken with olive dressing. Susie made a couple of pies and I cooked the dressing and potatoes. We also had green bean bundles wrapped in bacon. Nothing is bad with bacon. Duh. Bacon on a truck bumper would be delish. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

PS-Dump the turkey oil in cat litter next time. Much less mess and smell. Your neighbors will love you…..