Saturday, November 29, 2014

A Belated Happy Thanksgiving!

As I sit here writing this post, I'm smelling the turkey in the oven.  Yes, I'm a couple of days late. I was sick on Thanksgiving and didn't feel well enough to do the work.  While prepping the bird this morning, I was reminded of a couple of Thanksgivings that were quite the adventure.

  Back in the early 70s, my dad was racing horses.  The meet closed where he usually raced, and since the horses were still fresh (meaning they hadn't raced a lot recently), he decided to take them to a track in Montreal and race until they closed their meet for the winter.  Dad was there for Thanksgiving, so mom, my brother and I drove up to have a meal with him.  It's a quick, easy 3 hour drive from home to Montreal.  That said, taking the interstate did have us going through the mountains...do you see where this is going? LOL  Anyway, we had our meal and decided to head back to VT as it was supposed to snow later in the day.  Mom thought it would be a good idea not to take the interstate back because of the mountains.  So, we head off on another road (can't remember what the number was, but it was one number off what the interstate is).  We drove, and drove, and drove...until the road just ended!  Right there...there were no exits, no left or right turns...it just ended.  We were in the Northeast Kingdom of VT!  Let's just say that's an area that God made and forgot about.  If you want to avoid the snow, that's not where you want to be.  We finally found someone to ask for directions, and got a map.  From that we were finally able to make our way to Montpelier and on home.  Six hours later we are walking in the door to the phone ringing.  It was dad checking to make sure we arrived home safely.  No more navigation for my mother!

The second story is from the late 80s, early 90s.  It starts out with a 40 pound turkey...our vet decided to raise some birds for Thanksgiving.  Evidently, he over fed them.  LOL  We knew we were not going to have Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving day as we had horses to race a few hours south of us.  When my husband left at 5 am, it had already started to snow.  Of course, back then there were no cell phones, so once he made his destination, he called to say he was ok and that it had taken 10 hours to get there.  It should only take 3-4 hours.  All the while he is on the road, the snow is just piling up by the foot.  He has the truck that the plow goes on.  It wouldn't have made any difference as I have no clue how to put it on anyway.  So, every few hours, I go out and shovel enough of the driveway so he can get the rig off the road when he comes back.  In between that, I'm pulling pin feathers from the 40 pound bird!  I decide to put the bird in the oven with the temp down some, as I have no clue how long to cook a bird that big.  Around 1am, I'm out shoveling AGAIN.  This pickup truck with a plow comes around the corner, toots and drives on by.  How rude!  LOL!  One would think that he would stop to see if I needed help.  I know my husband would!  At that time of the morning, unless it was necessary, I don't imagine too many people are shoveling a driveway when it's still snowing.  I would have gladly paid him to clean out the driveway.  Oh well, his loss.  To end the story, my husband finally made it back home at 5 am Friday morning...24 hours after he left.  We ate the turkey...it was a little dry, but not bad.  And, we had sandwiches for the whole week.

I hope you all have a story or two about your Thanksivings.

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