Talk about turkey

As I was reading through newspapers and opinions this week, I noticed a lot of opinions of what Thanksgiving means to different people.

Since I was educated in a public school system, the Thanksgiving myth and stories of Indians and pilgrims was something I learned to deal with early on.

I realized I haven't placed a lot of emphasis on Thanksgiving and it's historical account with my own children. To us, it always meant good food, visiting and being lazy for a day. And I can't forget the turkey and whatever trimmings we pulled together. The majority of the time, to us Indians, it seems that is the only time of the year we eat turkey.

How I celebrated Thanksgiving with my children was something I followed from the traditions of my mother and father celebrated it with their children, which was the same way, turkey and good food and eating together.

That was how my mom's family celebrated it back in the 1920s and 30s. There were times I heard her speak gently of the her childhood days when her family and the neighbors would pull their holiday food resources together and gather together at the Inestimable Gift Episcopal Church at Allen for food, service and song for the holidays.

Pies were big on the menu with my mom. Back before the frozen pies and the Walmart bakery, my mom would bake her pies. It took a lot of hard work, I distinctly remember that, all the scattered pieces of pie dough and bowls dripping with apple pie syrup.

Then there were the mincemeat pies with the forgotten raisins laying about that I would snatch up and pop in my mouth.

I will never forget the Thanksgiving when I was eight-years old.

It was my mom and my adolescent sisters (four of them) that were busy in the kitchen, cooking turkey and making pies and other dishes that just smelled too delicious for an eight-year old to resist.

I saw my mom put a black cast iron skillet of something on the kitchen window ledge to cool. It smelled too good to resist.

My curiosity got the best of me and I climbed a chair to peek and see what tasty dish was there and to inhale up close the delicious smell of whatever it was.

I lost my balance on the chair and tipped over towards the window ledge. In my fall, my upper lip banged against the hot cast iron skillet and seared a burn across upper lip and my gum beneath.

I didn't get a chance to enjoy the food that day because of the burned lip. My disappointment that day was not my injured lip but not getting to taste the array of food that was laid out.

After all, this only happened twice a year in our family, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I developed my own menu for my own family and tried to keep the tradition of food, family and fun. Times were tough back on those days, when as a young couple we were still learning how to do manage on a tight budget. The local pastor's wife me how to be thrifty with food, even the turkey.

She showed me how to keep the turkey carcass and boil the heck out of it and whip up a batch of homemade noodles out of commodity eggs and have homemade turkey and noodle soup and freeze it for later. She taught me how one egg can make a difference in a pie crust.

My daughters now have their own families and create their own menus. They watch the Food Network Channel or log onto Internet and come up with some pretty fancy recipes that make my basic menu seem bland. My children are grown now and have their own families and it is a rarity to have them all together for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving meant being thankful for family, food and fun.

At a recent family event, I realized how much family were there and I took that chance to remind them of family.

I told them their Grandma died a wealthy lady. She didn't have a lot of money nor did she have a lot of material wealth but she left a legacy in her children and grandchildren and her great children. She died a rich old lady.

Her and my dad had 12 children, 68 takoja and more than a 100 great grandchildren and tona great-great little ones.

As we grow older and gain more children, then takoja, we are leaving a legacy that will last a long time and bypass all the money we can ever make.

We all have our memories of Thanksgiving and we all have our opinions of what Thanksgiving really is and no matter how we celebrate it or not celebrate it, it is how we promote it to our children and families that can make a difference.

With that said, here are some interesting turkey facts.

Ever wonder why you feel sleepy after eating turkey?

Turkey contains an amino acid called tryptophan.

Tryptophan sets off a chemical chain reaction that calms you down and makes you sleepy. That's why when we eat too much turkey we get lazy afterwards.

Turkey, like poultry, is lower in cholesterol than beef and many other meats.

The dark meat like the thigh and legs contains more fat and cholesterol than white meat. So, that's why dark meat tastes so good!

Here is another astounding fact, Americans eat more than 675 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving Day.