Dear Reader Column 11-22-05

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Dear Reader,

Some people want the white meat, some will only eat the dark, and for years our family members used to argue over who was going to get the turkey drumsticks on Thanksgiving. Every year it was the same routine. My mother would ring her china bell, "Dinner is ready. Come to the table," and we'd all start calling out "dibs" on a turkey leg. When there are only two turkey legs, but ten people want one...well, it used to be a huge problem until the year my mother made her famous Turkey Drumstick Thanksgiving Dinner. Now nobody in our family even wants to look at a drumstick. The memories are still too fresh in our minds.

It seemed like a normal enough Thanksgiving meal, until my mother announced, "I've got a surprise. No one will be disappointed this year. Everybody gets a drumstick, because that's all that I cooked." And Mom plopped down a serving platter, piled high with 20 turkey legs, in the middle of the table. "Dig in."

This felt a little strange. What, no bird this year? Only drumsticks?

Mom was smiling, so proud she'd finally found a solution for the annual turkey leg squabble. Apparently she'd begun working on this year's Thanksgiving surprise the day after our last Thanksgiving dinner. Clipping coupons, and always keeping an eye out for a turkey leg sale, my mother had been buying up turkey legs for the past year. It all sounded okay in theory, but either she didn't wrap the legs in freezer paper, or the turkey legs were on sale because they were near their expiration dates, or it was just a bad year for turkeys--because when we tried to stick a fork into our drumsticks, we couldn't.

I'm not exaggerating here, the turkey legs were nowhere near fork-tender. The tines of our forks actually bounced off of our drumsticks when we tried to pierce them. A table knife wouldn't even saw through the sinewy--who knows how old--freezer burnt, turkey legs. My son suggested we fire-up the chain saw.

Sometimes when you try to solve a problem, it merely shows up in another form, and unfortunately that's what happened the year of the Turkey Drumstick Thanksgiving Dinner. None of us fought over who would get a drumstick, instead we ended up dueling with them. Those were some tough birds.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
www.DearReader.com

Comments

[Dorothy O'Donnell]

Hello and Good Morning,
I thoroughly enjoyed the "Turkey Leg" story. Started my day with a chuckle. Thank You and Happy Thanksgiving to all.