“By the time the 22-pound turkey shown above was done roasting at my grandmother’s house, all of us eager grandchildren had done our part to help fix the feast. (I’m the hungry lad in back, third from left.) My dad, Vin, captured our family’s typical Thanksgiving celebration in this 1963 photo (above).
We grandchildren had the “privilege” of polishing the pans, mashing the turnips and potatoes, and making sugar cookies out of the extra homemade piecrust. I assure you Grandma’s pie was made with rhubarb from her garden and had the flakiest crust. She would never use a boxed crust mix or canned fruit. Grandma always lamented, “You just can’t get a good loaf of bread today.”
Hours before this photo was taken, it’s safe to say we were all glued to the TV set to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
After dinner, our Thanksgiving tradition had everyone piling into their family’s station wagon to drive to downtown Bridgeport for the traditional first lighting of the Christmas lights,” writes Mike Simko of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
DOUBLE YUM! “In 1958, Thanksgiving celebrations were especially happy days for the Stevens family living at Whiteman Air ForceBase, Missouri,” relates M.R. Stevens of Huntsville, Alabama. “It also happens that Annemarie, 3,(pictured at left) got her Thanksgiving turkey leg and a baby sister on the same day!”
WILD TURKEY. “My father took this slide (at right) on my Argus C3 35mm camera before our family’s Thanksgiving celebration in 1950 at our home in Moline, Illinois,” writes Scott Wood of Monrovia, Maryland. “I’m holding our dog Pupsy—obviously intimidated by the commotion—as my sisters Judy Wood Mitchell (middle) and Sally Wood try to get control of our Thanksgiving turkey (unnamed as far as I recall).”
PROUD RE-ENACTORS. “Pictured in this slide (at right) from 1959 are my father, Henry Anderson, and me at our home in Westfield, New Jersey,” relates Don Anderson of Santaquin, Utah. “I was 7 and part of the Indian Guides club. We learned a lot of American Indian history and customs from interested fathers, including mine.”
