Retroflections

I awoke at 4:30 am this morning to start the traditional holiday cooking. I like to cook my apple, cranberry, walnut, nutmeg stuffing and the broccoli and cauliflower au gratin the day before.  The pies, potatoes, and everything except the turkey I do the day before because that makes Thanksgiving so much easier to sit and enjoy. As the smells permeated my house, and I kept picking the crusty yummy top off the stuffing, I got to thinking…

 I clearly should do a great story about a retro Thanksgiving. You know, what did everyone eat on Thanksgiving Day? I went on the internet and hit all my research dives, but there wasn’t anything really. I searched the retro databank that I keep on hand, still there was nothing. I yahooed, googled, and asked Jeeves, I found nothing. Well nothing of significance that is.

 How can this be? Did people not eat Thanksgiving dinners in the 50s and 60s? Why wasn’t there lots of information? What the heck is going on? Then it dawned on me that some things, no matter how old they are, never change.

 That’s right, traditional Thanksgiving is about turkey, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, and family and friends. Yes side dishes change occasionally through time. Lime jello with green olives might not be the side dish of choice today. And music has changed; The Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson might not be the soft sounds in the background playing on the hi-fi. It might be more like John Mayer or Brandi Carlile playing on the Ipod console. Of course, the attire will be quite different: Poodle skirts, leather jackets, and ducktails might not be the fashion worn at the table, but for the most part, the tradition of Thanksgiving really hasn’t changed.

 We may change. We get older and hopefully wiser. Our families grow, or, in many cases, sadly, they shrink. We bring in new blood, new family, new friends, new fashions and trends, but traditions seem to just be that; traditions.

 So Happy Thanksgiving everyone and be grateful that some things are not meant to change, just get better.

Enjoy this video of an old fashioned Thanksgiving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4X8sqXlxq4