Thursday, November 27, 2008
Make good memories today
From the RoundTable blog
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Maggie Stevens
Stevens is retired from Kroger and is a grandmother living in Roanoke.
I love all the winter holidays, but I think my memory of one particular Thanksgiving is the one I hold closest to my heart. Our families were alive and well then and always came from Winston-Salem, N.C., for the day and, of course, for turkey dinner and all the trimmings, especially oyster dressing.
This was the year they were to bring the turkey already cooked and the broth for the dressing. When they arrived and the car was unloaded, we sat down to talk before Nanny Ruth started the oyster dressing. Probably an hour later, we started looking for the turkey. No one had any idea where that silly bird was.
Finally, we decided they must have forgot to put the turkey in the car. The men and the children all jumped in the car and off to North Carolina they went.
An hour later, I happened to see the cat paying special attention to a bag leaning against the wall in the corner. I knew instinctively that I had found Thomas T. Turkey. Sure enough, there it was.
I knew that it took an hour to get to Martinsville and would take another hour if they had to go on to Winston-Salem, so I decided to call the state police in Martinsville and have them stop the car that my husband was driving and turn them around.
My mom asked me if I was going to tell them exactly what happened. I said no, I think we ought not to bother the state police with such minor details. After thinking a few minutes on this thing, I decided to have them tell my family it would save them a two-hour drive if they would turn around and come back to Roanoke.
My husband said that was exactly what the police told him. As the state police were pulling them over, my family said in unison, "They found the turkey."
If you're wondering about it, that turkey had been in a paper bag for three hours, and then another hour before we got dinner ready. We never gave it a thought and, best of all, it didn't make us sick.
You might wonder why we just didn't go to K&W or Kroger instead of chasing a turkey all over North Carolina and Virginia. This all happened back in the good old days when nothing was open. Way back when.
Then, as we were middle ways through dinner, it started to snow. Our already road-weary relatives fixed dinner to take with them and hit the road once again. What a holiday that was!
Thanksgiving is the best day to mend bridges and forget the past, and above all give thanks to the Lord for food, and friends and family who love you. As the years go by, the people you love the most might not be there. Say "I'm sorry" now.
