To finish Thanksgiving week, I'm going to post three Thanksgiving themed stories I've written today, Thursday and Friday. (One for children on Thursday) The story today is one my family still refers to now and then. It was my worst Thanksgiving disaster but it also held a little lesson for our family.
By
Nancy Julien Kopp
One Thanksgiving dinner stands out in neon lights in
my memory bank. It can bring a blush to my cheeks, even many years
after the fact.
My husband’s father passed away in the spring of
1972. I knew the first holiday without him would be difficult for my
mother-in-law. She had not been adjusting well to a life without her spouse.
What better way to help our children’s grandma through Thanksgiving than to
gather her three sons and their families at our house for the day? Five of the
seven grandchildren were preschool age, and two were slightly older. The house
would be filled with children playing, adults talking and the soothing balm of
a turkey dinner. We’d make this a good holiday for Grandma. I issued the
invitations via phone and began to plan a special day.
By Thanksgiving Day, I’d baked and done the pre-cooking.
Now the turkey, filled with a moist sage stuffing, roasted in the oven. White
potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and a green bean casserole
were close to being ready. Nutmeg and cloves scented the corner of the counter
where the pumpkin pies cooled.
“When do we eat? When do we eat?” the kids pleaded
more than once.
I consulted the scrap of paper where I’d jotted down
the amount of time the turkey needed. “Pretty soon,” I told them.
The aroma of the roasting meat added to our hunger,
and I placated the entire clan with sodas, juice and appetizers and some adult
beverages.
Finally, it was time to take the turkey from the
oven, and what a beautiful bird it was-- big, browned, and beckoning. I called
my brother-in-law, known as “Best Carver in the Family,” to the kitchen. One
sister-in-law mashed the potatoes, while the other made the gravy. Toddlers
scurried around us yelling, “Is it time now?” My husband and his oldest brother
were glued to a football game on TV. Grandma sat stone-faced on the sofa, bent
on feeling sorry for herself and being as miserable as she could on this day
when we were gathered to count our blessings and spread a little love. Chaos
was beginning to form here, and I began to feel a little flustered.
As I was trying to move the little ones into the
family room, my brother-in-law uttered words that sent a chill straight to my
bones.
“This turkey
isn’t done. It’s raw in the middle.”
Silence suddenly reigned. No one said a word, but
all eyes were on me. The unspoken question “Well, what you are going to do
now?” reverberated in my head.
So what does a person do with a partially cooked
turkey, side dishes ready for the table, and a houseful of very hungry people?
I flew into action. First, I put the cover on the roaster, popped the bird back
into the oven, and turned up the heat. Lids went on the already cooked dishes,
and we fixed hot dogs for the children, who probably enjoyed them more than the
big dinner anyway.
An hour later, we resurrected the turkey, reheated
the side dishes and sat down to eat, minus hot-dog stuffed children. The seven
adults gathered around our dining room table ate to satisfaction and then some.
The children appeared like magic when the desserts were served. Grandma managed
to eat her dinner and join in on the conversation, not exuberant but not crying
either. I hoped she counted her blessings, for many of them sat nearby.
I’d sensed complete disaster when I knew the turkey
wasn’t cooked through, but in the end the family togetherness took precedence
over all other things. I’d planned the day so that Grandma would be surrounded
with those she loved, and it didn’t really matter that I’d miscalculated the
time for cooking the turkey. But I’ve never forgotten it, and every now and
then, the story of turkey in the raw generates laughter and some good-natured
teasing—one more bond within our family.
