Well, let's see, I wrote a story for Halloween and I have one in my head for Christmas. Now I need to write something about Thanksgiving when we were kids. We always had nice traditions during this time as I'm sure many people have for the holidays. The first thing Tim and I liked about Thanksgiving was that we got Thursday and Friday off of school, which certainly enhanced our holiday experience. We may have gotten Wednesday off too, but I don't recall that for sure. We probably didn't or I would have remembered! Now days, kids probably get most if not all of the week off along with a Spring Break that we never had! Oh well, be that as it may, we did look forward to the two days off from school at any rate.

 

The first thing that happened at Thanksgiving would be the Annual Thanksgiving Hunt. Our Uncle Gerald and Uncle Dick would show up at the farm Thanksgiving morning and Tim and I would go hunting with them back in our, what we call "The Thicket" which was a great place to kick up rabbits and pheasants. I guess like Briar Rabbit, for some reason rabbits like to be among the thorns. That's probably to protect them from hunters like us. However, this ploy didn't work because we forged ahead through "The Thicket " where it was the thinnest. Even still our thick coats would bear the scars of the scratch marks from rubbing past all the thorns. Sometimes we would get our faces scratched by thorns if we weren't paying attention. As one could deduce, I had a lot of thorn scratch marks on my face. Rather than being a bothered by this, I took it to be a badge of honor as tangible evidence of our hunting excursion. Although Tim and I have been lifelong gun enthusiasts from childhood on, we really looked forward to going hunting with Uncle Gerald because he always brought two 12 gauge shotguns for Tim and I to use. This was a real step up from our usual 410 shotguns we usually toted. Uncle Gerald and Uncle Dick used 16 gauge shotguns which to us looked like twin cannons. The one time as a small kid that I did shoot a 16 gauge, the kick knocked me right flat on my back! But it was fun and very cool to shoot a big grownup shotgun. Now, "The Thicket" has grown into woods. I just walked through part of it yesterday and there are very few thorn bushes now since the trees have taken over. I really enjoy walking through it now because it rekindles the great memories of yesteryear. By the way, I didn't kick up any rabbits. The main reason for this is that the "goofy" coyotes have eaten them all. I was planning to shoot them all recently, but Tim figured they keep the woodchuck population under control so I didn't. I was looking forward to being a sniper and getting a bead on them through the scope of one of my powerful rifles. There's even a deer stand in one of the trees so if I wanted, I could "snipe" from the trees rather than around 200 yards away by the house. Tim was right, it's better to have less woodchucks than rabbits because woodchucks are such a nuisance.  However, the first time any of those mangy coyotes try to eat any of my cats, they are "dead meat"! Tim and I used to shoot woodchucks from our barn ramp. Those long distance shots of over 200 yards were fun and deadly! Whoops, I'm getting off on one of my notorious "side tracks" again. Now, let's see, where was I?… Oh yes:

 

The one thing neat about Uncle Gerald was that when one of us would get a rabbit, he would pull off their "cotton tail" and give it to Tim and I. We thought this was pretty neat to have a rabbit tail in our coat pockets. Both uncles had hunting vests that had a place to put the shotgun shells that looked like the old west cowboy outside slots where they kept their shells. They also had a rear pocket to hold the rabbits we had shot. They were dark tan and made out of the same material as Carhearts. In those days we didn't have to wear the hideous florescent orange colored ones like today. I'm not sure if either Uncle ever had a hunting license, Tim and I never did since we always hunted on our own land and always heard that we didn't need a hunting license. We probably needed one, but we never bothered.  Incidentally, we never bothered to ever get a fishing license either. Hmmm, I wonder what the statute of limitations is for that? One Christmas both Tim and I got our own hunting vests which was very thrilling for us. I don't remember a time that we didn't get a few rabbits and an occasional pheasant on our hunting trips.

 

After we completed our hunting expedition, Uncle Gerald would take the rabbits home with him to clean and eat. I never cared for the taste of rabbit, but always ate some anyway so Uncle Gerald would be pleased.

 

After hunting, it was time to get ready to go to Ma's (Grandma Sommers) place in Norwalk to have a Thanksgiving feast that was legendary. Boy could she ever cook! The turkey was always an Albright  turkey which tasted the best since it was never frozen, just refrigerated. The turkey she baked was always huge! I used to love the smell of it cooking in the oven when we first got there. The meat was very tender and juicy and GOOD! She always had peas that were very green and very tasty. At home our peas were always light green and tasted bland. Tim and I always figured the reason for this was that she cooked with gas and not electric like we did. We found out later that the reason her peas were so dark green and good was that she always cooked frozen peas and we always had canned peas at home. Since that time I have always cooked frozen peas most of the time. "Ma's" gravy was legendary too. I don't know what her secret was, but since then I have never had any gravy that tasted as good! Many of our "kin folk" were there every Thanksgiving when we were kids. We always ate from a big long table in the basement, or as "Ma" always called it, "The Cellar".

 

When all of us were finished eating the delectable cuisine, we all waddled upstairs. When we all got up to the living room, the grownups would talk over drinks and we kids would be left to our own devices which was a risky thing with Tim and I around. Whenever we would go to Ma's house to eat Sunday dinner, afterwards they would give us some money and send us to "The Show" which was a movie matinee at Shine's Theatre in downtown Norwalk. It was quite a walk from Ma's house at 145 Whittlesey Ave. to the theater so they always told us to leave plenty early! For some reason we always got to the theater way before the movie started. I guess the grownups were mistaken about how long it would take us to get there, don't you think? Since the theater was closed on Thanksgiving, they were stuck with us, heh heh!

 

Well, these are some of my Thanksgiving memories. This Thanksgiving we are going to stay home and have our Thanksgiving dinner catered. I get to go to Norwalk and pick up everything from the caterers on Thanksgiving morning. I guess that shows how important I am!  J What a far cry from the "Old Days" when we were kids! Tim and I can't even go hunting in "The Thicket" since the coyotes have eaten up all the rabbits and pheasants! Alas, how I miss the "Old Days"! Hmmm, maybe I can talk Tim into going coyote hunting with me in "The Thicket" on Thanksgiving morning. Now where did I put that dusty old 410 shotgun?…