Thanksgiving is a time for being thankful for all the wonderful things in your life. Many people spend the week of Thanksgiving visiting with members of their family. Genealogists can spend this holiday hearing about, and recording, the family stories that are shared over dinner. Does your family have stories about Thanksgiving?
It seems like every family has some Thanksgiving traditions that they do each and every year. Maybe everyone meets for Thanksgiving dinner at grandma’s house. Your family might spend Thanksgiving day itself at the home of your parent’s, and the day before, or day after, visiting with your spouses’s parents. Many families “split” Thanksgiving day, by starting out at one family members house, and then traveling to visit another family member later on in the day. Perhaps you are looking forward to a special dish that one of your relatives prepares every Thanksgiving? Stories about these traditions, and how and why they got started, become treasured family memories, passed down from one generation to the next.
What family stories about Thanksgiving does your family have? Mine has one that makes us laugh when someone tells it now, but was a rather serious moment when it actually occurred. Our tradition at the time was to spend Thanksgiving at the home of one of my mother’s relatives. She was always excited about this, because she didn’t get to see this side of the family very often. My father, however was not enthused.
I am the oldest of four children, and all of us were very young when these events happened. My mother’s family lived in another state, and it was way too expensive to try and fly the family out there. This meant that my dad had to drive through snow and ice for hours to get us there, and then make the same drive in the dark after Thanksgiving dinner was over. Although the drive was unpleasant, especially with four little kids in the car, this was not my father’s biggest complaint. He was unhappy about spending Thanksgiving with my mother’s family because, as he said, the food was always cold by the time everyone was ready to eat!
One year, he threatened to get up from the table after we said Grace, and put his food into the microwave, so it would be warm enough for him to eat. My mother requested that he not do that, because her family would be offended. What happened? The food was cold, and my father put it in the microwave. Everyone was silent for a moment. Then, one by one, all the men in the family picked up their plates, and followed my father to the kitchen. We were not invited to spend Thanksgiving with this part of the family ever again!
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