Thanksgiving 1972

I’m Stuffed!

Turkey, dressing, giblet gravy. Did I mention the dressing?

Thanksgiving has always been a special time for me. When I was a little kid, my family and I would spend Thanksgiving in Tennessee. Wednesday night after school my house was a mad house! My dad and brother Gary would be running around grabbing all our stuff and loading it into my dad’s ‘66 Buick Wildcat. My mom always fried chicken for our dinner on the road. My sister Kim and I had to make sure we had the right coloring books for the trip. Hey I was only eight!

Mom and dad would go over their mental check list of things they needed to do and or pack for the trip as we backed out of the driveway. Normally we would be half way down the street before one one ask, “Did you turn off the coffee pot?”

Cincinnati Ohio was half way. I loved crossing the Cincinnati Ohio Bridge at night. All the lights from the buildings, the traffic, the excitement of being four hours from Mamaw Brooks’ house. (Mamaw is hillbilly for Grandmother)

We would normally get to Mamaw’s house around midnight. I love the smell of coal smoke. It has this manly musk smell with just a hint of “sweet” to it. I don’t think there is another smell quite like coal and it would be hanging heavy in the cold midnight air when we would pull into the driveway.

No matter what time we would get there, everyone was always up early Thanksgiving Day. Mom, Mamaw, and my aunts would be making breakfast. My dad and uncles would be getting ready for the shootin’ matches! We are going to go into some detail of these “shootin’ ” matches a little later. My sister Kim and I got to play with Mark and Suzie Lay who lived down the road from my Mamaw.

Now, back to the shootin’ matches. Let me set the scene for you. We are in the hills of Tennessee on some red dirt road over in Stinking Creek. There is a bunch red neck hillbillies named Jebbo, Ampey and Bubba J who all have an arsenal of guns that would make the Michigan Militia drool. They’re sippin’ on moonshine, spittin‘ Beechnut, and shooting at targets located down in the “hallar” for frozen turkeys and smoked hams.

Back home in the kitchen the women folk are cookin’ Thanksgiving dinner. Roast turkey, dumplings, sage dressing, buttermilk biscuits, corn bread, sweet potatoes; and lets not forget desert. Pies, hundreds of pies, and my favorite, peanut butter cake!!!! All this was cooked on a coal cook stove in a house that didn’t have indoor plumbing and water that came from a creek about a quarter of a mile away.

All us kids were outside sliding down the slate dump on an old wash tub. I guess you are wondering what a slate dump is. Well, it’s a mountain high pile of slate that is dug out of the ground by coal miners while digging for coal.  My dad spent nearly half his life digging for coal. All I cared about as a kid is that I could go sledding year round!!!!!

After dinner my dad and uncles and who ever else showed up that could pick and sing would gather in the dinning room and play music till way past bed time. It was like “Hee Haw” Live!!!

My mom, dad, mamaw, aunts and uncles are all gone now. My aunt Fay who was my last living relative on my dad’s side of the family died last week. Even though everyone is gone, I love all the memories they gave me and am thankful that I can make holiday memories for my own kids. I just wish we had a slate dump and a wash tub to play with, that would make Thanksgiving complete.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.