MEMORIES OF THE 



THANKSGIVING 



" When Summer is mislaid and lost among the leaflets dead, 

 And Winter, in white words of frost, has telegraphed ahead, 

 'T is then good prosperous folks display a reverential cheer. 

 And thank their Maker one whole day for all the previous year." 



Holidays were few, being Christmas, New Year, Thanks- 

 giving, Washington's Birthday and the Fourth of July. Of the 

 whole list, Thanksgiving Day was the only one that was always 

 respected and observed at our house. It meant an annual 

 gathering of the whole family, children and grandchildren, and 

 in the early days of my memory they were all able to be there; 

 later they moved away and scattered to different parts of the 

 Union. Services were usually held Thanksgiving morning in the 

 church at the ''Huddle," and we attended if the roads were not too 

 bad, but the real interest and pleasure of the day v/as at home. 



The preparation for Thanksgiving was an elaborate one, a 

 big dinner being the great event of the day. The principal dish 

 was chicken-pie, which required for the baking two twelve-quart 

 milk-pans, one for each end of the table, which was loaded with 

 all kinds of good things known to country cooking. I will not 

 undertake to describe the Thanksgiving dinner at home; it is 

 beyond my ability to do the subject justice. The tables were 

 lengthened so as to accommodate at the first table eighteen or 

 twenty people; this, of course, left the children to be provided 

 for at the second table. That was a long, anxious wait, and it 

 seemed that the old folks would never get through and let us 

 have their places. 



Being the youngest of mother's family, I was always assigned 

 to the second table with the grandchildren, some of whom were 

 nearly my own age. While these older people enjoyed their 



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