When you boil it all down, the Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate today originated in giving prayers of thanks. It isn't about green bean casseroles and who or who doesn't like cranberry sauce that wiggles and jiggles and comes out of a can. Most of us are familiar with the Pilgrim's Thanksgiving feast in 1621, but it wasn't the first festival of its kind in North America. Native peoples sought to insure a good harvest with dances and rituals. While my English ancestors sailed to America on the Mayflower and along with other Jamestown colonists gave thanks, my memories are closer to my heart. It is my favorite holiday hands down.
My grandparents, Carl and Mabel Rolen, shaped my Thanksgiving experiences that I continue to carry with me. My memories began on Rolen Road in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
Growing up, Thanksgiving day was filled with traditions. It was the day where chores were put aside. Mornings began with a hearty breakfast of eggs and thick sliced bacon cooked up in a cast iron skillet...that is if grandpa had his way. Afterwards, Grandpa, dad, and my brother would head out with Zeek, the hunting dog, for a day of pheasant, rabbit, and quail hunting. My grandma and mom would be in the kitchen cooking, and I would be squirreled away in the living room anxiously awaiting the start of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I was in heaven. Between the yummy smells of a turkey roasting and the idea of the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum and Bugle Corps marching into my life, my world was close to perfect. Grandma Rolen, to cover all her bases, would have already baked a pumpkin, mincemeat, and pecan pie . Not sure why we needed so many but she did love her sweets.
When the time came to carve the turkey, we gathered wearing our Sunday finest. You didn't think of coming to the table in your everyday clothes. Nope, not happing. We dressed up for the occasion. Grandpa set up his camera and the necessary flood lights to capture the occasion. Once we heard the "click" it was time to give thanks and raise our forks.
As I celebrate today, I will give thanks again for all my blessings. I will watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Instead of pumpkin pie, it will be pumpkin mousse. Instead of celebrating with family, it will be with dear friends. Friends that are like family. Today my heart will be full. And tomorrow...I won't be eating rabbit, quail or pheasant. Sounds pretty darn perfect.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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