My Thanksgiving memories…

When I was a child most of my holiday meals were at the mess hall. I am not sure what the reason was but I can only speculate. Maybe the commissary didn’t stock turkeys and all the fixings. Maybe the stoves in military housing couldn’t accommodate a turkey, or the turkey burned every year. Whatever the reason, we would get dressed in our Sunday clothes and go to the mess hall.

At the mess hall there was a special area for the dependent families. This doesn’t mean a special room it was just a sectioned off part of the hall. The tables were decorated with paper turkeys and pilgrims to commemorate the holiday. Now these tables were not the usual dining table with chairs, they were cafeteria tables. I remember how hard it was to straddle across the bench to set down for dinner. However, I have no memory of how my Mother did it in a pencil skirt. I guess I am left with a mental picture of a 30 something, 5’11” in heels and a pencil skirt straddling a bench. Anyway, back to my Thanksgiving eating memory. Once we had settled at our table we would wait till the chow line had diminished enough for us to go through. We would get our standard chow tray, plates and utensils and place them onto the tray slide. This was cafeteria style so you would hold out your tray and the cooks would place your dinner on the plates. There was no customizing…you got what you got.

I had no idea how delicious a home cooked Thanksgiving meal could be till I married into the Colloton family. Mrs. Colloton made the best turkey, gravy, potatoes, stuffing, pies, and macaroni and cheese. When dinner was over I was always amazed at how this woman could pick every morsel of meat off the turkey till the carcass was bone dry. It was quite the art form to watch. The next week it was all about turkey soup! Mrs. Newland could also make a mean turkey and the family would bring a cover dishes. Everything was yummy and the Newland boys were always entertaining.

So, if you are doing the math we are up to almost 40 years and I have yet to make a turkey dinner. This is probably a good thing as the only way I know to cook is mess hall style. What are your Thanksgiving memories?