PERSON: Got turkeys?

Regardless of the circumstance, the fact remains that it is Thanksgiving and you’re reading this column. A meal that took three days to prepare will be devoured in less than an hour. The turkey carcass will await pickers bearing cookbooks that will help determine how many different ways the products of the noble bird can be presented and not still be the leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Before the leftovers have been dispatched, Black Friday shoppers will be planning their strategy, setting their clocks, or pitching their tents outside their favorite store.
Footballers will have replaced the parade watchers while decorators begin pulling out the Christmas decorations. One can never begin to decorate too early for Christmas, you know.

One thing that will happen before, during or after the Thanksgiving meal will not vary regardless of where you live, how you plan to spend your holiday, or with whom you spend it: You will remember Thanksgiving Days gone by.

You will reminisce about Mama’s chocolate pecan pie or the cornbread dressing your daddy insisted be served every year. Aunt Martha’s sweet potato casserole will have been the hit of the meal while Uncle Joe “snuck” to the pantry to make sure the after-dinner wine had not spoiled.

Thanksgiving was always observed in the Arnold house, but the big get-together was reserved for the day after Christmas. Because my grandfather was Winder’s Assistant Postmaster, the Christmas season was extremely busy for him. Thanksgiving was his last day of sanity before December 26th. Avid gardeners, my grandparents made use of Georgia’s usually mild Thanksgiving temperatures to clean up the fallen leaves for the last time before Christmas.

So it became a tradition born of necessity in the Arnold household to rake leaves on Thanksgiving Day. My grandmother would make a dinner with all the trimmings to celebrate the day, but there were no televised parades or football games. In fact, there was no television.

When their sons married and began families of their own, my grandparents’ tradition of working in the yard on Thanksgiving Day was handed down to the next generation. By the time I came along, we had television that broadcast the big Christmas parades in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

Like my grandfather at the Winder Post Office, our Christmas seasons at City Pharmacy were flurries of activity. So much of our time was spent at the drug store that, when I think of the holiday seasons gone by, my mind’s eye more often than not sees City Pharmacy in downtown Winder. We had such fun as customers came by to wish us greetings of the season. Many customers came by at Thanksgiving to purchase one of the decorative stuffed animal turkeys or Pilgrims we carried at the store.

I was working at the back counter of the drug store one Thanksgiving Eve when a frequent customer came by. She stopped to talk briefly with Daddy before turning to me for the real reason for her visit: a turkey centerpiece.

“Helen, you got any turkeys I can take home with me for Thanksgiving?” she queried.

“Yes, ma’am, but if we all go home with you, we won’t have anybody to work.”

She shook her head. “You’re a smart aleck just like your daddy.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I was thrilled. My father had a legendary wit I can only hope to emulate. The faded family recipes handed down through the generations will not be the only traditions that survive the passage of time. So, too, are the memories of the people and the celebrations that define your family’s observance of each holiday.

Be sure to wrap yourself in memories this Thanksgiving. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll remind somebody of a favorite someone from your past and what a blessing will be yours. I am honored and humbled that, as you’ve read this column, you have celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and me.

Here’s wishing you the blessings of a warm and Happy Thanksgiving.

Helen Person is a Winder native residing in Farmville, VA. She can be reached via email at HAPerson.VA@gmail.com