Dear Reader Column 11-21-07

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Dear Reader,

Holidays are wonderful because they bring family together. Unfortunately, at every holiday, some of our loved ones aren't with us any longer, but isn't it funny how they always seem to show up in spirit?

Every Thanksgiving when our family sits down to eat dinner, someone--usually my son--retells the story about the year my mother cooked her now-famous Turkey Drumstick Thanksgiving Dinner..

In memory of my mother...

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 "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.

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 sounded okay in theory, but either Mom 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. Those were some tough birds. We ended up dueling with our turkey drumsticks instead of eating them. And the next year--nobody in our family fought over drumsticks. Nobody even wanted to look at a drumstick, the memories were still too fresh in our minds.

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

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

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Comments

[Kim]

Hey Suzanne!
Kim here from Alabama! Blog, huh? Terrific!! I love this piece about the turkey legs! I think it would put the right perspective on all of the hub-bub is we all ate one!

Tomorrow is our "big" meal, but you know what I'm looking forward to? The wienner roast on Friday night! Those hot-dogs around the fire will top the turkey and dressing fru-fru by a mile!

Happy Happy Thanksgiving! I am so very, thankful for YOU!!!

Kim

[Sheryl]

Suzanne, I have a sneaking suspicion your mom knew just what she was doing ... ;-)