When one gets older and I don’t mean 35, I mean 74 or 75, reminiscing seems like it happens more and more.
We need at least one day out of the year not to let Trump and the boot licking republicans live in our brains rent free.
I was thinking of holidays past and it brought a smile to my face. It also brought some memories that feel familiar to todays times.
I remember we went to my maternal grandparents on Thanksgiving in Ga. The aunts all brought a covered dish. They were all delicious. My Mother or Grandmother always cooked the Turkey. ( They were the two best cooks in the family) The Daddy and uncles all sat on the porch until mealtime if warm enough and discussed everything from farming to politics. Most after dinner watched football.
Back in those days discussions were usually a bit heated but more determined than heated. Some were republicans and not like today republicans and others were democrats. 1963 rings a bell in my head more than any year of my childhood. Was it because Kennedy had just been killed? Probably.
The kids , the cousins ranged in age from 13 to 6. Of course the 12 and 13 year olds played music on their transistor radios and talked school and young love interests. The younger kids just played. Playing board games, tag or whatever outside depending on weather.
When we sat down at the table, adults were eating at the big table in the dining room but we younger kids ate at the kitchen table but we still heard the discussions at the big table. They got loud at times because it usually ended up politically. There was plenty of discussion as it was the 28th and 3 days earlier America was grieving..
On Nov. 25, 1963, the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery after a funeral procession through Washington; an estimated 1 million people lined the procession route.
We ate like we were all starved and the homemade Chocolate pies and cakes along with Lemon meringue pies were well worth cleaning your plate.
I can still see my grandfather who looked almost identical to Colonel Sanders, sitting in his rocking chair and holding his pipe as he seemed in deep thought about the assassination even though he was a die hard republican who had almost won the state house of representatives race. The older cousins and my sister cleaned dishes and talked about school and boys and the male cousins ( weather permitting played football) As I remember the weather was cloudy and light drizzle and outdoor fun not permitted. I think they played marbles,
Songs that played on the rock and roll station all the time seemed all good today. We had a country station and a rock and roll station and it was AM not FM. The long hair music was on FM. We kids barely knew station call numbers existed other than WQXI the rock and roll and WPLO the country. Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash was rocking the country stations while the Beach Boys Surfing USA was rocking the rock and roll stations. Talk Back Trembling Lips was big on country and I met years and years later Ernie Ashworth who made it famous at a Nashville radio station and we had a long conversation about that song and 1963, (Never saw that coming when I was a kid).
These were the top 10 rock and roll songs
I can still see my parents, cousins, aunts and uncles all drawing names for Christmas and we were not allowed to swap. ( We wanted to though).
I can’t reproduce that kind of Thanksgiving ever. In today’s world, everyone has somewhere else to be or in a rush, hanging on to their cell phones, or have family living hundred of miles apart and seem so preoccupied with work or some prefer texting or just getting high. I was 13 back then and there was a divide between kids and parents. We knew we were kids and they were authority and don’t get into adult conversations, their concern of problems and finances and divorce was pretty uncommon. Life was simpler and interaction with kids our age was not done on an internet which had not been invented and TV was still pretty new and to me in many ways families were closer or at least the one I was in and the ones I knew. Thanksgiving was a big deal as was any holiday but especially Christmas and Thanksgiving. The MAGA has nothing to do with this time in my opinion. To me, this was when America was great with it’s own cultural problems but not an everyday beat down and no American was considered enemies of the state. The black and brown folks had it rougher than the whites with segregation but racism still exists today.
We were happy to have three days off from school and all the fun for one day on Thanksgiving. All the missing faces at Thanksgiving saddens me but at least I remember the laughter, playing, learning and enjoying a big family gathering. What happened? What the hell happened? It is not just that I was a kid because I remember the adults being happier. At least in my world.
Happy Thanksgiving but it won’t be like Thanksgiving past... I cannot recreate those Thanksgivings….Maybe yours will be as good,