Thanksgiving is almost upon us, and this year a good number of my siblings and our families will be getting together for the holiday. Three generations, spanning sixty some years. It’s got me reminiscing about the Thanksgivings of my childhood: The family, the setting, the menu, the activities.
For the earliest Thanksgivings I can recall, in the early to mid fifties, dinner was set on a squarish table, perhaps initially a card table, later a kitchen table with metal legs, then around 1960 a maple drop leaf table, followed by a custom built table that covered a large expanse of the eat-in kitchen, with a more formal but not as large table in the dining room off the kitchen. As the family grew, from me, to Bob and Dan, to Kathy, Mary, and Chrissy, to Jim, Susan and Sharon, to spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, the Thanksgiving table of course had to continue expanding, multiplying, and tri-locating to several rooms in the Davis Avenue house built by Mom and Dad in 1963 and inhabited until the fall of 2011.
For the earliest Thanksgivings I can recall, in the early to mid fifties, dinner was set on a squarish table, perhaps initially a card table, later a kitchen table with metal legs, then around 1960 a maple drop leaf table, followed by a custom built table that covered a large expanse of the eat-in kitchen, with a more formal but not as large table in the dining room off the kitchen. As the family grew, from me, to Bob and Dan, to Kathy, Mary, and Chrissy, to Jim, Susan and Sharon, to spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, the Thanksgiving table of course had to continue expanding, multiplying, and tri-locating to several rooms in the Davis Avenue house built by Mom and Dad in 1963 and inhabited until the fall of 2011.
In my memories of early Thanksgivings, I recall an ivory colored damask tablecloth, and damask napkins. I don’t have any memories of the crockery. We used Mom’s silverplated cutlery, “Community” silver in a daffodil pattern. (I have that silverware now.)
And for the children there were clear glass cordials in a hobnail type pattern, filled with grape juice, like the one below, currently on Ebay.
In the middle of the table were china salt and pepper shakers, in the shape of a turkey pair. They live in my dining room corner cabinet now.
And a cornucopia, filled with fruit or flowers. The one below, with mice, was artisan crafted, sourced on Ebay several years ago.
Today, wading through old pictures, I came across two photos that must be Thanksgiving 1954. Bob is in his highchair. Dan won’t have been born yet.
The damask tablecloth is there, but the napkins look to be paper, printed in a turkey design. No mini glasses of grape juice, though there is a straw-wrapped bottle of Chianti on the table. I can also see one of the turkey salt and peppers. The cutlery is clearly stainless steel. And I can see a bit of the cornucopia, filled with yellow mums, on a table against the wall. So some of the things I remember about Thanksgiving must post-date 1954 at least.
In terms of the menu, I see a handsome turkey. There is gravy in a ceramic dish, and potatoes of some sort in a square-shaped yellow Corning Ware bowl . There is cranberry sauce in a red bowl, also Corning Ware. There is a strawberry jello mold, with canned peaches. There is a basket of rolls. These menu items will continue to appear on the family Thanksgiving table for the next fifty some years. There is also a sweet potato and marshmallow dish. And in the foreground is something that I’m completely baffled by. Is it savory or is it sweet? Could it be mashed potatoes surrounded by something? Lady fingers and whipped cream?
Later Thanksgivings evolved to include:
Later Thanksgivings evolved to include:
- Turkey cookies, using Grandma Wolinski’s sugar cooky recipe, frosted in bright colors. (Now made for their families by my daughter and my nieces.)
- A grapefruit centerpiece arrayed with toothpicks holding pieces of Vienna sausage, cheese, and olives
- A pineapple centerpiece contrived to resemble a turkey, with felt head and feathers
- Turkeys cut from canned jellied cranberry sauce, using Mom’s aluminum turkey cooky cutter
- Gherkins and olives in a slender glass dish, a favorite of Dad’s.
- Devilled eggs.
- Mom’s homemade bread, made using Grandma Wolinski’s recipe and served on a wooden cutting board.
- “Heavenly hash” – Canned fruit cocktail and marshmallows, with whipped cream.
- Pumpkin pie.
- Chocolate cream pie.
Dinner was at noon, or a bit after. At some point, no earlier than 1955 when we got our first TV, we started watching the NBC broadcast of Macy’s Christmas parade.
I do recall one or two years when Bob and I, and possibly Dan, riding in his stroller, went with Mom to watch the local pre-Christmas parade, within walking distance of home. We ate frosted animal cookies, covered with sprinkles, sent to us from Chicago by Grandma and Grandpa Wolinski. The parade location we chose was close to a flat-roofed shopping area that had a toy store, where at the age of five I won a Ginny doll wearing dungarees, with braided hair. That store also had wonderful tiny dollhouse accessories, in tiny see-through bags with a blue cardboard label. Santa of course was the main attraction.
Music features in my early Thanksgiving memories. Sometime before dinner we would listen to Perry Como singing “We Gather Together to Ask the Lord’s Blessing.”
And Thanksgiving afternoon, generally after dinner, was our official kick-off for listening to Christmas carols. (Football kick-offs not so much. Dad was not a fan.) I can recall some 78’s owned by Mom and Dad, though I’m not sure what was on them. But I think the Christmas records I remember, and can still hear clearly in my head, were 33 and a third's. The Robert Shaw Chorale, Nat King Cole, Mantovani – at least for my first ten or eleven years, there were only a handful. These were the sounds of Christmas.
Also after dinner, there would be some new coloring books, punch out books, and dot to dots. In later years, perhaps a Christmas jigsaw to share.
And Thanksgiving afternoon, generally after dinner, was our official kick-off for listening to Christmas carols. (Football kick-offs not so much. Dad was not a fan.) I can recall some 78’s owned by Mom and Dad, though I’m not sure what was on them. But I think the Christmas records I remember, and can still hear clearly in my head, were 33 and a third's. The Robert Shaw Chorale, Nat King Cole, Mantovani – at least for my first ten or eleven years, there were only a handful. These were the sounds of Christmas.
Also after dinner, there would be some new coloring books, punch out books, and dot to dots. In later years, perhaps a Christmas jigsaw to share.
When it got dark, we’d pile into Dad’s car and drive around to look at colored lights on stores and houses, and strung across downtown streets. We might also look at the animated displays in the large plate glass windows of various stores.
Below, touring the Norfolk Botanical Gardens holiday light display, in 2013. The closest thing I can think of to the magic of those Thanksgiving lights.
A couple of years ago Gary and I, with our daughter and son-in-law, toured a display of animated carolers, elves, Santas, and furry animals in Downtown Portsmouth, store displays retired back in the sixties. They brought to mind those Thanksgiving evenings, now decades past.