It has been four years since I wrote my third Thanksgiving post on this blog. All three of those posts addressed the memories of Thanksgiving at my grandfather's house. They told of the huge Hill family gathering together to sincerely give thanks for all of our blessings as a family. All my uncles and aunts were there and the distance between the families was not spread out as they are now. Back then my uncle Dan lived the furthest away but everyone else seemed to be within a four hour drive of the old house on 54th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri. Death was relativity rare in the Hill family in those days when I was young and so grandpa's house would be totally filled and noisy with laughter and good talk. Since then the family has changed. Four of my uncles have passed, Melvin, Buster Dan and Bill, and two aunts have left us, June and Jane. The family has spread out into Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Colorado and the glue that held that family together, the two people who brought that huge gathering to their home, grandma and grandpa are gone as well. Very seldom does the family have gatherings like it use to on Thanksgiving every year.
I sit here thinking about Thanksgivings past. When thanksgiving use to be observed in school every year. In elementary school the teachers would have us make Pilgrim hats or Indian head dresses and we would observe Thanksgiving sitting there dressed in our little construction paper hats and learn about the Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock and how two different cultures came together for that magical first Thanksgiving. It was not ACTUALLY the way things happened but it was a good story for a second grader learning about and falling in love with history at such an early age. I visited Boston some years ago and made a point to visit Plymouth since I was going to be close to there when I visited Quincy to soak in some John Adams history. I saw what was said to be THE Plymouth Rock, protected by a greek structure and with "1620" engraved into it. It was magical to see it after hearing about that rock since I was six years old, but in reality, I knew that it was just a rock that had been chosen to represent the day the Pilgrims landed in the name of religious freedom onto a new land. I had learned more of the true history of those days between the westerners and the Indian cultures and how they did not get along as well as we were taught. History has a way of making itself known. Sometimes it takes a while but it is there ready to burst out with truth instead of idealism.
Thanksgiving has become lost in today's society as Christmas continues to spread itself earlier into the fall months and I think that is a bad thing. Thanksgiving is important. Thanksgiving should be a time of reflection, not on the past year necessarily, but on years past, all the way back to as far as you can remember.
The world seems to be in turmoil. This country, the United States, seems to be in turmoil. A midst all of the turmoil though, there are organizations made up of ordinary people who care for the sick, the homeless and the hungry. The television stations come out at this time of year to show what an organization is doing to help those in need, but in reality, they are helping those people all the year around. Thanksgiving is important because it reflects what these groups do every day of every year. It isn't the government helping these people, but ordinary citizens who see a problem and step up to give relief to those who need it. Yes, the government does do a lot to help people, but the true resources of help come from these people who see the problem and take measures to help fix them.
Thanksgiving is important and needs to be set aside from Christmas. Thanksgiving needs to be kept as it was intended. To give thanks for the blessings we receive. To be thankful that this country, either through government aide or through citizens stepping up, will continue to see the problems and the injustices that people endure, and will continue to take measures to right the wrongs. To help the helpless. To feed the hungry.
Thanksgiving is important to help remind us of where we came from, where we are, and where we can be as we continue to help those who can not help themselves on a year round basis. To be thankful that as we continue to see the wrongs, we continue to fix them.
Thanksgiving is important to remind us of how important and special are the people we have been influenced by. The people who were and those who still are in our lives. They can older than you or younger than you and still have influence on your life that helps you to grow as a human being. I have always believed that you can learn as much from someone much younger than you as well as from someone much older. I have learned something that helped me from everyone in my family, both the maternal and paternal sides. I have learned from my wife and son. My nieces and nephews have taught me so very much about life, especially Justin and Mei. Aunts, Uncles and cousins have always had a word of wisdom when I need one as well as my parents,grandparents and my siblings. Pastors and fellow church members have been there when I needed them. I haven't had in the past nor do I have now many friends, but when I need one, they are there. I truly am thankful for all of these.
Thanksgiving is important. Do not let it slide by as another benchmark in our march towards Christmas. Make it what it was meant to be. A time to be thankful inspite of all the hard times we all endure.
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Friday, November 25, 2011
THE TABLE
The table was made out of dark wood and looked heavy. It had massive legs that held it up off of the floor. It was the center piece of Grandma Hill's dining room. It seemed that everything that went on in that house centered around the dining room table.
It was where Grandpa held court when there was trouble between his children in the early years. It was where report cards from school were discussed. The table was where thousands of checker games were played and hundreds of Monopoly games were played. Strange card games with titles as "Rook" and "Pit" were carried out on this table. Grandpa did his writing on this this table. He would write poems and letters to the local newspaper there. The surface of the table never seemed to wear out over the years even with all of this activity going on upon it.
The accessories in the dining room for the table included a china cabinet and a buffet, Grandma's bell collection around the plate rail and my uncle's violin hanging on the wall. One whole side of the dining room were windows that looked out on the flower garden. A window seat went the length of the wall sitting just below the windows.
It was a beautiful room. Grandma had entered a competition one time with Better Homes and Garden in which she described the table and the room and the importance it had held over the years for the family. I went over and took pictures of the dining room for her to send in with her article. she didn't win, but in my mind she captured the importance of the table and what surrounded it wonderfully. This room was indeed the central control room of the house. It was where anything important occurred.
It was at the holiday season when the table really showed it's importance. Grandma would fix big Easter dinners that would be consumed at the table as well as even bigger Christmas dinners. Both of these events made my Grandmother's talent at cooking and setting a table shine. But the most important day of the year for the table was Thanksgiving.
There were not any other trappings during the Thanksgiving holiday except for Thanksgiving itself. There were no Easter egg hunts or Christmas tales of what we all got for Christmas to take away from what the table's role was. At Thanksgiving it was all about the table.
Grandma would spend all day cooking getting things ready. The best plates would be pulled out and set upon the great table. Standard dishes would be made that we could not get anywhere else. Her homemade cranberry sauce along with her creamed potatoes and a small dish of oysters. She enjoyed cooking and cooking for the Thanksgiving meal just brought that much more joy in her heart.
The Hill family took Thanksgiving very seriously. The family would gather that night and food filled every inch of the table. Grandpa always sat at the head of the table. As the family grew, smaller tables would be set as accessories to the main table in the living room. The important thing was that the family was together and together for one purpose. That purpose was to be thankful.
Lest we forget what the purpose of that day was, my Grandpa would send up a prayer before dinner that reiterated what that day was about. Thankfulness for the entire family each and every member whether they were able to be there or not. He would thank God for our good fortune at having each other. He would be thankful for all that we were provided. The food, our shelter and the ability to help others. He would be thankful that God had looked down on this family and protected us and provided us with what we needed, not what we wanted.
Televisions were seldom turned on at Thanksgiving. Instead the entertainment may be a board game or card game or just spending time talking with those you loved. Talk of what had happened over the past year and summarizing the events were often the topic of a lot of talks. Politics was probably the hottest topic of all every Thanksgiving. I can remember sitting on the window seat while my uncles and grandpa discussed, read argued here, the politics of the day. I sat and quietly listened and received my first lessons in history and in political thought.
It was tradition for Grandma to leave a few things out on the table after dinner was over. Turkey was always left out for a while as well as bread and other foods that could be eaten with fingers. This was important because all this talking made people hungry. The uncles were the worst culprits. They would pick at food during their "discussions" on politics The thinking and making a point would bring up their appetite. The worst of these was my Uncle Melvin. After dinner he would hover around the table talking and listening to his brothers and his father picking at food the whole time. I think he must have eaten a whole second meal and a part of a third before the evening came to a close.
As I sat at my mother's table yesterday for a small Thanksgiving meal I could see parallels to past Thanksgivings at Grandma and Grandpa's It was a much smaller scale and there were no discussions involving politics and the food was picked up and put away. There was not any lingering and picking of the food after the meal was done. It was just over.
Over the years, the Thanksgiving holiday has lessened in it's meaning. I tried to watch the Macy's parade Thanksgiving morning and saw very little of it. The televised parade has become a long commercial for the networks shows and Broadway shows. Very little of the parade itself was actually shown on the television. I turned it off halfway through it.
The commercialization of Christmas has over shadowed and over taken the Thanksgiving meaning. Thanksgiving has become lost since the stores and people in general have started the Christmas season the day after Halloween. It is all about money and there is no money to be made on Thanksgiving.
It is a shame really. When I look back on Thanksgivings in the past and the meaning that Thanksgiving meant and the way we were taught to truly be thankful for all that this country has given us, all that God has blessed us with. All of this seems to have faded into the background.
We have one day now to show our thankfulness and to think of what we are thankful for. There is no way you can think of all that you have been blessed with in one day. Those weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving are just as important as thanksgiving Day itself. It should be used as a time to reflect and prepare to truly give thanks and be thankful for our blessings.
I was pleased to see a lot of my Facebook friends give a reason for being thankful every day since Halloween. It was a good exercise for all of them as well as me. We have so much to be thankful for in this country even with the hardships that we face right now as a nation. This country is still that city on the hill and each and every one of us are blessed to be able to live here.
Over the past year I can point to many things that I am grateful for. connections remade with family members. Still having my job even though the company went through some very difficult times. My wife and son who watch out for me. I have had food and shelter and have been able to give help to others when it is needed. I was able to make three trips down south this year. One for a funeral, one for a wedding and one because my sister needed someone to be there in a rough time for her. I am thankful that I was able to make those trips because each of them were important.
I am thankful that I have those memories of Thanksgivings past and being able to be truly thankful. I am thankful I can still have memories of those that are gone who influenced my life so greatly. Memories of both my Grandmothers, of my Grandpa, of Uncles Duane, Dan and Bill, Buster and Melvin and Aunts Jane and June among others.
I do long for the days when we have a few weeks to think of our blessings and to be thankful for them before we begin the maddening Christmas season. I am afraid those days are gone though.
It was where Grandpa held court when there was trouble between his children in the early years. It was where report cards from school were discussed. The table was where thousands of checker games were played and hundreds of Monopoly games were played. Strange card games with titles as "Rook" and "Pit" were carried out on this table. Grandpa did his writing on this this table. He would write poems and letters to the local newspaper there. The surface of the table never seemed to wear out over the years even with all of this activity going on upon it.
The accessories in the dining room for the table included a china cabinet and a buffet, Grandma's bell collection around the plate rail and my uncle's violin hanging on the wall. One whole side of the dining room were windows that looked out on the flower garden. A window seat went the length of the wall sitting just below the windows.
It was a beautiful room. Grandma had entered a competition one time with Better Homes and Garden in which she described the table and the room and the importance it had held over the years for the family. I went over and took pictures of the dining room for her to send in with her article. she didn't win, but in my mind she captured the importance of the table and what surrounded it wonderfully. This room was indeed the central control room of the house. It was where anything important occurred.
It was at the holiday season when the table really showed it's importance. Grandma would fix big Easter dinners that would be consumed at the table as well as even bigger Christmas dinners. Both of these events made my Grandmother's talent at cooking and setting a table shine. But the most important day of the year for the table was Thanksgiving.
There were not any other trappings during the Thanksgiving holiday except for Thanksgiving itself. There were no Easter egg hunts or Christmas tales of what we all got for Christmas to take away from what the table's role was. At Thanksgiving it was all about the table.
Grandma would spend all day cooking getting things ready. The best plates would be pulled out and set upon the great table. Standard dishes would be made that we could not get anywhere else. Her homemade cranberry sauce along with her creamed potatoes and a small dish of oysters. She enjoyed cooking and cooking for the Thanksgiving meal just brought that much more joy in her heart.
The Hill family took Thanksgiving very seriously. The family would gather that night and food filled every inch of the table. Grandpa always sat at the head of the table. As the family grew, smaller tables would be set as accessories to the main table in the living room. The important thing was that the family was together and together for one purpose. That purpose was to be thankful.
Lest we forget what the purpose of that day was, my Grandpa would send up a prayer before dinner that reiterated what that day was about. Thankfulness for the entire family each and every member whether they were able to be there or not. He would thank God for our good fortune at having each other. He would be thankful for all that we were provided. The food, our shelter and the ability to help others. He would be thankful that God had looked down on this family and protected us and provided us with what we needed, not what we wanted.
Televisions were seldom turned on at Thanksgiving. Instead the entertainment may be a board game or card game or just spending time talking with those you loved. Talk of what had happened over the past year and summarizing the events were often the topic of a lot of talks. Politics was probably the hottest topic of all every Thanksgiving. I can remember sitting on the window seat while my uncles and grandpa discussed, read argued here, the politics of the day. I sat and quietly listened and received my first lessons in history and in political thought.
It was tradition for Grandma to leave a few things out on the table after dinner was over. Turkey was always left out for a while as well as bread and other foods that could be eaten with fingers. This was important because all this talking made people hungry. The uncles were the worst culprits. They would pick at food during their "discussions" on politics The thinking and making a point would bring up their appetite. The worst of these was my Uncle Melvin. After dinner he would hover around the table talking and listening to his brothers and his father picking at food the whole time. I think he must have eaten a whole second meal and a part of a third before the evening came to a close.
As I sat at my mother's table yesterday for a small Thanksgiving meal I could see parallels to past Thanksgivings at Grandma and Grandpa's It was a much smaller scale and there were no discussions involving politics and the food was picked up and put away. There was not any lingering and picking of the food after the meal was done. It was just over.
Over the years, the Thanksgiving holiday has lessened in it's meaning. I tried to watch the Macy's parade Thanksgiving morning and saw very little of it. The televised parade has become a long commercial for the networks shows and Broadway shows. Very little of the parade itself was actually shown on the television. I turned it off halfway through it.
The commercialization of Christmas has over shadowed and over taken the Thanksgiving meaning. Thanksgiving has become lost since the stores and people in general have started the Christmas season the day after Halloween. It is all about money and there is no money to be made on Thanksgiving.
It is a shame really. When I look back on Thanksgivings in the past and the meaning that Thanksgiving meant and the way we were taught to truly be thankful for all that this country has given us, all that God has blessed us with. All of this seems to have faded into the background.
We have one day now to show our thankfulness and to think of what we are thankful for. There is no way you can think of all that you have been blessed with in one day. Those weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving are just as important as thanksgiving Day itself. It should be used as a time to reflect and prepare to truly give thanks and be thankful for our blessings.
I was pleased to see a lot of my Facebook friends give a reason for being thankful every day since Halloween. It was a good exercise for all of them as well as me. We have so much to be thankful for in this country even with the hardships that we face right now as a nation. This country is still that city on the hill and each and every one of us are blessed to be able to live here.
Over the past year I can point to many things that I am grateful for. connections remade with family members. Still having my job even though the company went through some very difficult times. My wife and son who watch out for me. I have had food and shelter and have been able to give help to others when it is needed. I was able to make three trips down south this year. One for a funeral, one for a wedding and one because my sister needed someone to be there in a rough time for her. I am thankful that I was able to make those trips because each of them were important.
I am thankful that I have those memories of Thanksgivings past and being able to be truly thankful. I am thankful I can still have memories of those that are gone who influenced my life so greatly. Memories of both my Grandmothers, of my Grandpa, of Uncles Duane, Dan and Bill, Buster and Melvin and Aunts Jane and June among others.
I do long for the days when we have a few weeks to think of our blessings and to be thankful for them before we begin the maddening Christmas season. I am afraid those days are gone though.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
AND SO IT BEGINS
One night we are sitting relaxing watching our favorite television shows. The commercials during these shows are full of scenes of happy little kids dressed in costumes trick or treating. The next day the commercials suddenly are playing Christmas carols at us with suggestions on what the people on our individual Christmas lists really want for Christmas.
The stores go from a black and orange motif with bite size candy bars filling the shelves to aisles filled with Christmas trees and eggnog filling the milk areas. It has been this way for a while now, I know. There is still something inside of me that really gets irritated at the moving up of the Christmas season though.
When I was growing up after Halloween was finished, we went back to school and began learning about Thanksgiving. Art classes were spent making turkeys using the outline of our hands. We spent the next four weeks looking forward to a family get together that would remind us how lucky and thankful we are to be related to these people. When you think about it, we probably do need a time or two to remind us why we are so thankful to have siblings that you fight with the rest of the yesr.
When thanksgiving finally arrived and was over with, they turned on the Plaza Lights in Kansas City. Kids knew that it was now time to start logging your days of being good. All you had to really do was be good for one month and that would pay off with the coming of Christmas morning. Kids did not begin to get excited about Christmas until after the Thanksgiving meal.
On Thanksgiving morning we would watch the Macy's parade and at the end of the parade would come the great benefactor, Santa. Then and only then did you even begin to think about Christmas.
Times have changed though. While we only had to wait for Christmas four weeks, little ones today will be waiting for Christmas to arrive a full eight weeks away. We only had to be good for four weeks. Today's children are under the immense pressure to be good for eight weeks. That, my friend, is a lot of pressure for a six year old to carry on his shoulders.
Lewis Black has described the modern timetable as Thanksgiving being Christmas Half time. He is right. That is exactly what Thanksgiving has become. By the time you get around to being thankful for all of your blessings and your brothers and sisters you have already spent four weeks preparing for Christmas.
Maybe it is a good thing to down play Thanksgiving a little. I have given it a little thought and perhaps we can now use Thanksgiving as a practice time for getting along with all these people that you spend the rest of the year wondering how you became your sister could possibly be related to you. We spend Thanks giving by getting everyone together. We sit around a big table and eat a meal together without any bickering (because that would not be classified as "being good"). We practice spending the whole day with them, smiling and making jokes until the day is done and we go back to our respective corners and figure out how well we did so that we can do even better on Christmas morning.
To me that is what Thanksgiving has become. A rehearsal for Christmas. Of course there is more to contend with at Christmas. You have to give gifts and hope that you get your loved ones something that they will be happy with. You have to pretend to be overjoyed by the gifts that your loved ones give you while at the same time they are performing the same act about the gifts that you gave them.
Thanksgiving use to be a special day. I don't think that it is anymore. We spend all the days leading up to Thanksgiving worrying about Christmas. Isn't there enough pressure dealing with Christmas when we only had to deal with it four weeks instead of the current eight?
I know it is all about money. Just as in sports when you use to have to end up in first place to go to the World Series, now you can end up in second or third place and still have a shot at the world championship (read St Louis Cardinals here). The NCAA Basketball Tournament use to only invite sixteen teams and it was played over the course of a long weekend. They worked that up to thirty two teams and then sixty four teams to get more games played and to stretch it out over a month to garner more money. Since then they have added a sixty-fifth team. Every game brings in money.
Same thing with Christmas. Instead of limiting themselves to four weeks to talk people into shopping and spending more money then they can afford to, they tacked on another four weeks so you have the opportunity to go even further into debt than you ordinarily would.
Every year it seems that Christmas moves further from a Religious tradition into just a another tradition. A big tradition to be sure, but still just another tradition. I know that Christmas does not cover all the religions, it is mainly a Christian one. But hey, we were willing to share it with all the other religions. I see it as an opportunity for store owners that may not be Christian to be able to cash in on the deal. I have no problem with that.
I just wish that there were someway to trim Christmas back to four weeks. Wait until after Thanksgiving before the onslaught of commercials that pressure us every year. Put some meaning back into Thanksgiving. I know that we have learned that the first Thanksgiving was probably not as nice and neat of a package as we were originally sold on but then again, government offices still close on Columbus day, and we know he wasn't a Saint.
That is all I want. I want things to slow down just a bit. Take the time we have in November to make Thanksgiving truly a time to spot and think about how blessed we all are. Leave December for The birth of Christ, Santa and all the commercial trappings that come riding into our lives on the coat tails of Religion.
Personally? I would be satisfied with just celebrating New Years as a holiday. Get all the Major football bowl games back to that one day and spend the day resting up before starting another year of ordinary daily stress that we deal with all year long instead of recovering from the stress that we just put ourselves through over the previous eight weeks.
The stores go from a black and orange motif with bite size candy bars filling the shelves to aisles filled with Christmas trees and eggnog filling the milk areas. It has been this way for a while now, I know. There is still something inside of me that really gets irritated at the moving up of the Christmas season though.
When I was growing up after Halloween was finished, we went back to school and began learning about Thanksgiving. Art classes were spent making turkeys using the outline of our hands. We spent the next four weeks looking forward to a family get together that would remind us how lucky and thankful we are to be related to these people. When you think about it, we probably do need a time or two to remind us why we are so thankful to have siblings that you fight with the rest of the yesr.
When thanksgiving finally arrived and was over with, they turned on the Plaza Lights in Kansas City. Kids knew that it was now time to start logging your days of being good. All you had to really do was be good for one month and that would pay off with the coming of Christmas morning. Kids did not begin to get excited about Christmas until after the Thanksgiving meal.
On Thanksgiving morning we would watch the Macy's parade and at the end of the parade would come the great benefactor, Santa. Then and only then did you even begin to think about Christmas.
Times have changed though. While we only had to wait for Christmas four weeks, little ones today will be waiting for Christmas to arrive a full eight weeks away. We only had to be good for four weeks. Today's children are under the immense pressure to be good for eight weeks. That, my friend, is a lot of pressure for a six year old to carry on his shoulders.
Lewis Black has described the modern timetable as Thanksgiving being Christmas Half time. He is right. That is exactly what Thanksgiving has become. By the time you get around to being thankful for all of your blessings and your brothers and sisters you have already spent four weeks preparing for Christmas.
Maybe it is a good thing to down play Thanksgiving a little. I have given it a little thought and perhaps we can now use Thanksgiving as a practice time for getting along with all these people that you spend the rest of the year wondering how you became your sister could possibly be related to you. We spend Thanks giving by getting everyone together. We sit around a big table and eat a meal together without any bickering (because that would not be classified as "being good"). We practice spending the whole day with them, smiling and making jokes until the day is done and we go back to our respective corners and figure out how well we did so that we can do even better on Christmas morning.
To me that is what Thanksgiving has become. A rehearsal for Christmas. Of course there is more to contend with at Christmas. You have to give gifts and hope that you get your loved ones something that they will be happy with. You have to pretend to be overjoyed by the gifts that your loved ones give you while at the same time they are performing the same act about the gifts that you gave them.
Thanksgiving use to be a special day. I don't think that it is anymore. We spend all the days leading up to Thanksgiving worrying about Christmas. Isn't there enough pressure dealing with Christmas when we only had to deal with it four weeks instead of the current eight?
I know it is all about money. Just as in sports when you use to have to end up in first place to go to the World Series, now you can end up in second or third place and still have a shot at the world championship (read St Louis Cardinals here). The NCAA Basketball Tournament use to only invite sixteen teams and it was played over the course of a long weekend. They worked that up to thirty two teams and then sixty four teams to get more games played and to stretch it out over a month to garner more money. Since then they have added a sixty-fifth team. Every game brings in money.
Same thing with Christmas. Instead of limiting themselves to four weeks to talk people into shopping and spending more money then they can afford to, they tacked on another four weeks so you have the opportunity to go even further into debt than you ordinarily would.
Every year it seems that Christmas moves further from a Religious tradition into just a another tradition. A big tradition to be sure, but still just another tradition. I know that Christmas does not cover all the religions, it is mainly a Christian one. But hey, we were willing to share it with all the other religions. I see it as an opportunity for store owners that may not be Christian to be able to cash in on the deal. I have no problem with that.
I just wish that there were someway to trim Christmas back to four weeks. Wait until after Thanksgiving before the onslaught of commercials that pressure us every year. Put some meaning back into Thanksgiving. I know that we have learned that the first Thanksgiving was probably not as nice and neat of a package as we were originally sold on but then again, government offices still close on Columbus day, and we know he wasn't a Saint.
That is all I want. I want things to slow down just a bit. Take the time we have in November to make Thanksgiving truly a time to spot and think about how blessed we all are. Leave December for The birth of Christ, Santa and all the commercial trappings that come riding into our lives on the coat tails of Religion.
Personally? I would be satisfied with just celebrating New Years as a holiday. Get all the Major football bowl games back to that one day and spend the day resting up before starting another year of ordinary daily stress that we deal with all year long instead of recovering from the stress that we just put ourselves through over the previous eight weeks.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
REQUIRED THANKSGIVING WRITING
Thanksgiving. Lewis Black said it best when he said "Let's face it. Christmas starts at Halloween. Thanksgiving is Christmas halftime.".
Looking back on my life, I can remember a time when Thanksgiving was it's own holiday. A time when we gathered at grandma and grandpa Hill's and various family members started arriving. I don't recall many Thanksgivings with my dad's side of the family. Maybe there wasn't time, I really don't know. But I do remember the Hill's Thanksgivings.
The big dinner was always in the evening, although people would start arriving a lot earlier to catch a ballgame with Grandpa before we sat to give thanks.
We would gather in the old house on 54th Terrace in Kansas City. We all didn't arrive at once. Great Grandma and Margaret would be there. Aunts and uncles would tow my cousins in at a pretty decent pace. Most of my them would be there. Dan didn't come home for Thanksgiving that I recall, saving his trip back home for Christmas. Jack and June would be there with quiet Phil, talkative Dawn and cute Tim. My family would arrive after Jack and I immediately sought out my Aunt Sue for company. Mel and Eva would parade their family in led by Pete with Drew bringing up the rear and numerous other cousins (Ellen, Jean, Judy, Jim, John and Jerry) in between. At this point the house was beginning to get just a little crowded.
We would set up a table at the end of the dining room table and another table off of it into the living room of the small house. Food would begin to show up on the big table and plates and flatware would be placed all around. Then we would all stand around and talk. I use to enjoy listening to Grandpa talk to Mel and Jack about whatever topic they happened to land on. It could be football or politics or stories from the railroad where Granpa was still working actively and helping to run the union down there.
Inevitably, someone at some point in time would bring up the annual question of "Where's Bus and Jane?" After what seemed an eternity after that question was asked Here he would come. The last remaining hold out. Bus and Jane along with Tommy, Denny and Liz. I remember at Buster's funeral my cousin Pete making a comment that for once, buster wasn't late. Pete said it and it got laughs, but there was a lot of truth to it as well.
Once Buster was there I knew that dinner would commence in about an hour. There was time needed for Bus and his brothers and Grandpa to talk about some new topics that Bus had brought to the gathering. Soon though, Grandma would announce that we should find out places and that Thanksgiving dinner was about to begin.
My grandpa was a very spiritual and religious man. I always saw him as more spiritual than religious but that is a debate for another time. At ordinary dinners over the course of the year, grandpa had pretty much a standard prayer that he would say to bless the food before we ate and sometimes it just seemed a little like a habit, although deep in his heart I know it was more than a habit when grandpa prayed before eating no matter what the words were. He was very sincere in every prayer I ever heard him say.
There were times though when his prayers would come from deep within and his emotions would be let loose as he prayed. Christmas was one of those times as well as Easter. Thanksgiving was one of those times as well. Grandpa understood thanksgiving. He had a lot to be thankful for and he knew it.
Looking back on those Thanksgivings from years ago, Grandpa's prayer before the dinner was probably the highlight of the holiday. I wasn't old enough to appreciate what was being prayed through his words though. His prayers displayed a love of God, family and country. He knew he wasn't accomplishing anything by himself but accomplishing things with a lot of help from those he was thankful for.
When his prayer was finished there always was just a slight moment of silence as the final words of his prayer sank into the hearts of those gathered with him. Then Thanksgiving began and the family became one as we ate and talked, played and argued, or just sat back and enjoyed.
What am I thankful for? I am thankful that I grew up in a time when Thanksgiving truly meant giving thanks and I am thankful that I had grandpa there to teach all of us how to be truly gracious and thankful with humility and love.
Looking back on my life, I can remember a time when Thanksgiving was it's own holiday. A time when we gathered at grandma and grandpa Hill's and various family members started arriving. I don't recall many Thanksgivings with my dad's side of the family. Maybe there wasn't time, I really don't know. But I do remember the Hill's Thanksgivings.
The big dinner was always in the evening, although people would start arriving a lot earlier to catch a ballgame with Grandpa before we sat to give thanks.
We would gather in the old house on 54th Terrace in Kansas City. We all didn't arrive at once. Great Grandma and Margaret would be there. Aunts and uncles would tow my cousins in at a pretty decent pace. Most of my them would be there. Dan didn't come home for Thanksgiving that I recall, saving his trip back home for Christmas. Jack and June would be there with quiet Phil, talkative Dawn and cute Tim. My family would arrive after Jack and I immediately sought out my Aunt Sue for company. Mel and Eva would parade their family in led by Pete with Drew bringing up the rear and numerous other cousins (Ellen, Jean, Judy, Jim, John and Jerry) in between. At this point the house was beginning to get just a little crowded.
We would set up a table at the end of the dining room table and another table off of it into the living room of the small house. Food would begin to show up on the big table and plates and flatware would be placed all around. Then we would all stand around and talk. I use to enjoy listening to Grandpa talk to Mel and Jack about whatever topic they happened to land on. It could be football or politics or stories from the railroad where Granpa was still working actively and helping to run the union down there.
Inevitably, someone at some point in time would bring up the annual question of "Where's Bus and Jane?" After what seemed an eternity after that question was asked Here he would come. The last remaining hold out. Bus and Jane along with Tommy, Denny and Liz. I remember at Buster's funeral my cousin Pete making a comment that for once, buster wasn't late. Pete said it and it got laughs, but there was a lot of truth to it as well.
Once Buster was there I knew that dinner would commence in about an hour. There was time needed for Bus and his brothers and Grandpa to talk about some new topics that Bus had brought to the gathering. Soon though, Grandma would announce that we should find out places and that Thanksgiving dinner was about to begin.
My grandpa was a very spiritual and religious man. I always saw him as more spiritual than religious but that is a debate for another time. At ordinary dinners over the course of the year, grandpa had pretty much a standard prayer that he would say to bless the food before we ate and sometimes it just seemed a little like a habit, although deep in his heart I know it was more than a habit when grandpa prayed before eating no matter what the words were. He was very sincere in every prayer I ever heard him say.
There were times though when his prayers would come from deep within and his emotions would be let loose as he prayed. Christmas was one of those times as well as Easter. Thanksgiving was one of those times as well. Grandpa understood thanksgiving. He had a lot to be thankful for and he knew it.
Looking back on those Thanksgivings from years ago, Grandpa's prayer before the dinner was probably the highlight of the holiday. I wasn't old enough to appreciate what was being prayed through his words though. His prayers displayed a love of God, family and country. He knew he wasn't accomplishing anything by himself but accomplishing things with a lot of help from those he was thankful for.
When his prayer was finished there always was just a slight moment of silence as the final words of his prayer sank into the hearts of those gathered with him. Then Thanksgiving began and the family became one as we ate and talked, played and argued, or just sat back and enjoyed.
What am I thankful for? I am thankful that I grew up in a time when Thanksgiving truly meant giving thanks and I am thankful that I had grandpa there to teach all of us how to be truly gracious and thankful with humility and love.
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