Thursday, November 23, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's hoping all of you enjoy a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

It will be strange for me to celebrate it without my mother, who passed away back at the end of February. But I'm very thankful that she lived so long (almost 96 years), and that I was able to celebrate just about every Thanksgiving with her. That's her at the top of this post, putting a bird in the oven on Thanksgiving 1973 – 50 years ago.
And here's the 'after' shot. Love the giant fork and spoon on the wall.
In the photo of Mom at the top of this post, I noticed the salt and pepper shakers on the back of the stove. Mom was not one to have any kind of knick knacks around the house, but she did have those little birdies out when I was a kid. (They were her mother's.)
Anyway, she gave them to me years ago, and I display them occasionally. I can't help but smile when I look at them.

9 comments:

Rae said...

Memories sweet will always remain. Happy Thanksgiving to you and the family.

Dan Brady said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Rae!

Don Hilton said...

My Dad died 37 years ago on November 22. He'd been increasingly ill for a few months and while it was very sad, it was no surprise. He was buried the day after Thanksgiving and so we skipped the big meal that was always held at our house.

The next year, Mum put on the usual big feed for all the cousins and family. At the end of the meal she said, "I have an announcement to make. I've been feeding you lot for the last 40 years and this is The Last Thanksgiving meal I'm cooking. Find somebody else to do it next year!"

Nobody ever picked up the task. For the rest of her life, until she was 93, we took Mum out for Thanksgiving dinner. Every year she'd smile and say the same thing: "This is better than cooking for all those Hiltons."

Dan Brady said...

Hi Don! Great story. I did the same thing with Mom the last few years before she got sick. We would go to Blue Sky in Amherst and have a great meal, it was much better than dealing with the big mess of pots and pans. Happy Thanksgiving!

-Alan D Hopewell said...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone; enjoy the food and the fellowship, and cherish the memories.

Don Hilton said...

Thanks, Dan!

We did the "Hometown Buffet" with our in-laws for several years, but our Big Holiday Meals here at the Ohio Hilton's have run the gamut from traditional to homemade pizza (especially fun when the kids were little). This year it's shrimp scampi over pasta with a crispy green salad. Should be yummy!

Also... I like your birdies. When we cleaned out Mum's place, she had a crap-ton of stuff, much of it very nice. Besides all the photos, I kept a small number of items that I'd coveted since childhood. I think the less you have the more precious it is.

Anonymous said...

Memories,pressed between the pages of my mind.
Memories,sweetened through the ages just like wine.
Glad to see you keeping the spirit of your mother alive Dan.She was one of the good ones at 95.I'm thankful for having memories of my own mother who passed a few years back at 79.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone out in Dan's memory land.
Memories, memories,sweet memories.
Memories.

Buster said...

Lovely memories, everyone. I do miss having holiday dinner with my mom, who died 15 years ago. But there is a photo of us taken at Thanksgiving right across the room. She is always with me.

Dan Brady said...

Great reminisces and kind comments, everyone. Hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving – I sure am. It's a beautiful fall day up here by the lake. And I just listened to Elvis Presley sing "Memories" on YouTube. Great tune!