Good day to YOU, faithful reader!
I hope your Thanksgiving festivities were happy and warm and filled family. I spent some time reminiscing about my past Thanksgivings this week.
My dad used to wake up really early and start working on the turkey and stuffing. He would fill the bird then fill a full, old style, oval pressure cooker with bread and celery and mushrooms and whatever else he used for spices. My brothers, sister and I would wake up to the aroma of cooking turkey and voices of laughter and happiness emanating from the kitchen below.
After breakfast my family would sit and watch the Hudson’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We loved to talk about the different floats and ballons and of course the marching bands. My mom would tell us that if wanted to join band in school, maybe someday we would be marching in the parade. How right she was. I did join band and in 1990 I marched in the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit, MI! I was excited but freezing! It was so cold, that my lip stuck to my trumpet mouthpiece and in a panic I yanked it free and proceeded to bleed for most of the parade. I marched but barely played. It didn’t matter. All I was thinking about was my family. They did not come down to watch me march live. They stayed home, where it was warm and toasty, to try and record me (or the band) on the television. When I got home later that day, my parents were super excited for me, my siblings couldn’t care less.
As for the rest of Thanksgiving, my dad was engrossed in only two things. Cooking the turkey, and watching football. He was a sports fanatic, and he loved the Detroit teams, but was willing to watch whatever teams were playing any sport. I hated it when he would watch sports. It was so hard to get his attention. Ah well, it’s all in the past now.
When I look at my kids, I regale them of stories of my youth and I hope that someday they will do the same with their kids. I hope they will look back fondly on these holidays and wish they could back and do them all over again. I know I do.
TTFN