“I never have really liked Thanksgiving food,” said my daughter.  I stopped dead in my tracks reeling in the surprise that sometimes comes with a flip statement from prodigy.  “What’s not to like?” I say knowing that our experiences of Thanksgiving food live in different times and places.

 

I often day dream about the very traditional table my grandparents prepared for almost a decade – turkey, roast beef, and lamb (raised by my grandfather), cornbread and oyster dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, homemade rolls, pecan pie, and pound cake. (ice cream and honey – optional).  

We all pulled out the dining room chairs and situated ourselves around two tables and said a brief blessing, seventeen personalities talked and ate – some more than others.  Looking back, the stories, year after year; were well, repetitive. The predictability of the annual gathering: same food, same people and same stories in combination produced a warm spot for me despite the fact that there were never any surprises.

 

Similarly talking to Cleo Mayfield, a neighbor and family friend for a lifetime is comforting.   My Mother and Cleo owned and operated The Creative Cook from 1977 until 1981 here in Columbia.    After an early demise of the kitchen store, someone commented, “Ahead of its time.” Cleo remains an enthusiastic cook and local culinary expert.  She recently shared an important bit of local cooking history with me that she inherited from the library of Mary Jane Yeatman Whiteside.  The beautiful old hard cover book announces:

 Columbia Cook Book

 675 Tested Recipes

 Its Merits Are Told By The Number Sold.

 

In honor, one can gingerly turn the pages of the old Columbia Cook Book and read, “ The many recipes have not been gathered at random from doubtful sources, but represented the actual experiences and practical tests of the many grand old housekeepers of our town, who give them to you over their own signatures.” – Respectfully, The Ladies Auxiliary, First Baptist Church, Columbia, Tennessee.

 

No date for publication was included and none was needed, as sponsor advertising sited:

For The Sake of The Economy,

Your Good and Ours Too

Call And Let Us Sell You One

  Robinson – McGill Carriage Company

 822 South Main Street Columbia, TN

 

The included and once thriving contributors are also proudly stated along with their recipes, some poignantly familiar and now have all flown away.  Their enthusiasm for food (most of which had been locally grown) and community are palatable. Least we forget, the Thanksgiving event of that era was not for the faint of heart.  In retrospect, we now can fully grasp the significance of a fulltime someone in the kitchen.  Recipe from The Columbia Cook Book, Page 28:  To Prepare A Turkey For Roasting – Cut the head of the turkey off with a sharp ax or hatchet; tie the feet together and hang it up to bleed well….Slit a place in the back of the neck to remove the craw.  This is a great improvement for the looks of the turkey when stuffed and on the table - Mrs. Octavine Alison

 

We see through a glass darkly that traditions from back in the day were necessitated often times by the slower pace required for almost every task. My children did not experience the same sort of slow daily repetition that even my husband and I experienced in our young lives.  In part, I realize though entirely not by choice and not withstanding my hyperactive nature, my shot at parenting was swept up by a world exemplified more by take out menus than carriage rides.  

 

Though the past informs many of my ways, I have found that if we depend entirely on tradition, we must prepare for the fall; people at that Thanksgiving table move onto their reward, the world spins faster, and if we are lucky: we awaken to other cultures and customs.  Thanks to The Almighty, the significant truths of a Thanksgiving gathering are in fact timeless and it all has very little to do with the food served –

 Thanksgiving stands for the sacred:  Loved Ones, Memory, Prayer, Storytelling and

And OK Mrs. Alison, maybe a local turkey and a casserole or two.