Thanksgiving Past and Present

This morning I was thinking about a few of my PAST Thanksgiving Day.

I do not know what year it was, I just know it was in the 1970's probably 74 or 75. My parents lived in Tuscola, and I was living in an apartment in Decatur, 40 miles away. I had planned on going home for Thanksgiving Day, but when I woke up that morning there was 8 plus inches of snow on the ground. I knew my small car would not make it. But, my older brother, John lived in Finlay and he said he would make the effort to come get me even tho it was out of his way.
Back then they allowed cars to use chains to get around in ice and snow.

He picked me up and we went the 40 miles east. The roads were bad. When we walked in at home just as Mother was getting things out of the oven for dinner. She said, " I didn't expect you guys to make it." My answer was, "Mom, the roads are bad, we are here to eat and run."
And that is exactly what we did. We didn't even stay to help clean up the mess.

Then comes to mind the one that I experienced after Bud and I got married. His family always went to Peoria to Marie and Bob's for Thanksgiving. Now that they are gone, Bud says Thanksgiving is just not the same as it was where they all got together with Pat and Donna and his folks and family.

Then in 1979 we were living in the Southern part of Illinois and we wanted to move from an apartment into a house. So, we were working on moving that week end..... But, we didn't have any food in the house. We could not find anybody who had a turkey breast that I might cook for our meal.. SOOOOOOOOO we did second best We had "White Castles" for Thanksgiving dinner.

Yes, you read it right "WHITE CASTLES" ...... and we were thankful that we had something to eat.

Now for current.......
I am in Canistota, South Dakota. The restaurant here is closed for the day. But, before I left home I already had an invite from my friend Katie here to join her and Ivan and their family at the church fellowship hall for a Thanksgiving Meal.

So even tho the weather outside is frigid. I walked the 6 blocks to the church and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.
Katie and I are friends on facebook. So it was really neat to get to meet Katie.

THANKS KATIE, for a wonderful dinner. I know you put a lot of time and effort into feeding a lot of people. I believe you said there were about 62 of us total and over 1/2 of us were from out of town and you had never seen us before.

One familiar face was Joni on the left. She so kindly came to Sioux Falls last Sunday and picked me up at the airport. And will take me back to the air port on early Saturday morning.The other lady I believe they said Dr. Lon's mother.

I wish I had my camera ready when Dr. Tom's wife spilled a container of clean silverware on the floor. So we ended up having to rinse and dry them too.

I am thankful for Katie and Ivan that they provided such a great Thanksgiving meal for us. And invited us to be part of their Thanksgiving festies this year.

Before I left the church and walked back to the Hotel to my room I heard Katie say she thinks she will do it again next year.