Thanksgiving . . . What it means to me

I believe our Thanksgivings are inherited from the ages past and are a mixture of thanks to God for bounties of food, for peace, and for future benefits. Celebration of the day was and still is, a mixture of religious services and athletic competition, from turkey shoots way back when, to football games of today.
I have a memory of Thanksgiving which I like to remember. It dates back 30 or 40 years to the times on the farm, my grandma’s farm. She had one of the biggest cast-iron cookstoves around. It seemed like it filled up half of her kitchen, or maybe because I was small, it seemed so much bigger. The tasty Thanksgiving meals that were cooked within its walls, I cannot seem to forget. I know I sometimes kid about slaving over the hot stove, but we just don’t in this day and age of mixes and micros.
On a festive day like this, grandma would have vegetables and sauces simmering and steaming on every top plate, plus the oven full of fowl, dressing, squash, and biscuits. We always had about five kinds of pies to pick from. As a young girl, I remember the good things about the cookstove and its good smells and aromas. When we’d come in from playing and were cold, all we’d have to do is rub our hands over that stove and the heat it radiated warmed us up faster than any other kind of heat.
Probably my grandma, like many grandmas of that time, was happy when the time came to trade off those big monsters in the kitchen for easy electric and gas stoves. When I think back now at the room they took and the work involved with the wood and ashes, plus getting up earlier each morning to fire them, I’m sure they were happy with the changing of the times and easier cooking. I do think that some food needs a wood burning stove—they just don’t “cook right” on an electric stove.
When we actually sat down to our Thanksgiving meal, it was grandpa who got the place of honor at the head of the table. Grandpa could be gentle with us and always rocked the smaller grandchildren, but he had a lot of authority in his home.
My prayer for this Thanksgiving Day is that there will always be room for loving grandparents in our hearts. For grandparents are a legacy, not only in what they give to us, but in what they stand for. They are the fibers of which childhood memories are woven—open arms, loving smiles, helpers and teachers, warm cookies, and good feelings. They are examples of all that’s good and worth preserving in life—morality, religion, family, laughter and love, hard work, and good play.

Lake Mills Graphic

204 N. Mill Street
Lake Mills, IA 50450

Office Number: (641) 592-4222
Fax Number: (641) 592-6397

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