Remember November

7 Comments By 

Thanksgiving

Maybe I’m just getting old, there is certainly no debate on that subject, but I feel like we skipped a month between October and December with the election taking up a small part of November. As I was hiding the leftover portion of Halloween candy on November the first, homes around the road were putting up Christmas lights and trees. I was still getting toilet paper out of the front maples to save for an emergency, but the neighborhood was already heating up hot cider, putting Frosty on the roof and burning my retinas out with super bright lights in their bushes that are supposed to use less energy, so says GE.

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It seems to me we are missing something somewhere, and I don’t know how to slow this modern-day process of pushing time. We should all be thinking of good memories of family, our many blessings in life, home-cooked fattening foods, bad football games in the yard and, most of all, how we can combine all of these wonderful experiences into one jam-packed day called Thanksgiving. Instead, we are replacing it with Black Friday and several days of Gray Tuesday, while forgetting about the holiday that we are involved in counting our blessings before counting our stuff.

Thanksgiving used to be very important to me as a child, because I knew as soon as it was over, Christmas was just around the corner. Today, we straighten the corner out and put a freeway in right to the discount store. True, back in my day as a kid, we did farm work on Thanksgiving like killing hogs, gathering corn and stripping tobacco, but during that weekend our family gathered together to give thanks for our many blessings and enjoy family. No one left to go to a sale, and Christmas seemed to be months away.

However, today, children do not have the same understanding of Thanksgiving as I did, because of our current society’s commercialization of the holiday period. Beginning after the Fourth of July celebrations, you can order the Christmas Holidays Traditional Music DVD collection over the TV. If that is not bad enough for pushing the season, you can select your favorite genuine artificial Christmas tree at Wally World in the next aisle over from school supplies around the first of September.

It sure wouldn’t hurt to re-examine what Thanksgiving is all about. It is a time to give thanks for our many blessings, and our country, as a whole, has been well blessed. Thanksgiving is a time to share those blessings and thank God above for the families we have and the hopes we have for the future.

One of our greatest blessings we have as Americans is the abundance we enjoy in this country. Every Thanksgiving, as families gather around their dining room table, many will enjoy a safe and affordable bounty of food products. Nowhere else in the world will the amount and variety be found like what will be exhibited on tables across this country. From the turkey to the pumpkin pie and the cranberry sauce to the dressing, America’s citizenry will enjoy a day of eating like no other.
I am sure many of you noticed I used the term “dressing” in the last sentence. I still say stuffing is something you would find in a couch or a previously live animal that now hangs on the wall.
Dressing is made from a mixture of cornbread and other great-tasting items. Both my mother and wife could make the best dressing ever, and they taught me how to do dressing, so that blessing will continue in our family. No matter where you live or what you call it, you have the freedom to do so without any problem or fear.

For me, I’ll keep my pumpkins out front, fall colors on the door and put the two family traditional Native American carvings on the dining room table, while my neighborhood goes Ernest Saves Christmas in its entire splendor on November one. I’ll just make Christmas wait until December and do Thanksgiving, as it should be celebrated, as well as enjoy leftover dressing without Frosty on the roof.

7 Comments

  1. TAMILLA GOODSON says:

    I want the Peach Cake with Cream cheese frosting Recipe and I want the Cook Book. I made the Peach Cake with Cream cheese frosting them for Christmas Party. I like the Peach Butter and I can’t find the Peach Butter at stores and Grocery shopping. How you made the Peach Butter? I need the Cook Book
    . I need the recipes of Peach Butter.

  2. Linda A Kinsman says:

    What a great reminder to slow down and enjoy the moment. We love Thanksgiving here as well and don’t start decorating for Christmas until December.

  3. Jack Smith says:

    To Pettus Read —

    Pettus your comments on Thanksgiving were outstanding — !!! I was born in 1934 and grew up on a dairy farm in southern Middle Tennessee, and your comments brought back many, many memories — THANKS — !!!

  4. Rita Wilhelm says:

    I agree with you Pettus. As well, We all need to pause and observe Thanksgiving by thanking God for our family and friends,the bounty He provides, and our wonderful country and the freedoms we live by!

  5. Teresa Keen says:

    I agree with Pettus Read 100% on Thanksgiving and the way our culture rushes the Christmas Season! And I miss his musings in the TN Magazine so much!!!

  6. Steve Taylor says:

    This brought back some memories that I dearly miss.My parents are gone but they made sure we enjoyed each and every holiday and the meaning of each.

  7. Nancy says:

    Fort Lauderdale native of Michigan Yankees here so maybe a different bent. Turkey, oyster stuffing(!), and always a basket of mixed nuts. I would sit on newspaper spread on the floor cracking away! Family, church, school – it was all about getting together and giving thanks. Christmas would come later.

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