By Dennis Richardson
President of Magic Valley Publishing
Most businesses and all government institutions and banks will close Thursday. Some will also close Friday to take advantage of a four-day weekend.
It is the fourth Thursday in November. It is Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is one of my all-time favorite days.
Throw the diets out the door. Dieting can wait. After all, it makes good fodder for those New Year’s resolutions.
I grew up on a mini farm in Davidson county. We raised pigs and chickens and planted a big garden. Mother would put what extra veggies that we raised in the pressure cooker and line the basement shelves with mason jars full of beans, tomatoes and the like. The basement is where the salt box was parked, too.
We had a smoke house, a chicken house and a well house. Everything except an out house. There were plenty of those around though so we were all quite familiar. That is a different story.
Dad passed away too young at only 42. I was a toddler, the youngest of seven, and regret that I never really got to know him. He built our house with indoor plumbing. Mother never remarried.
We had a huge barrel placed beneath the downspout on the corner of the back porch to catch all kinds of rain water.
We didn’t think at the time how healthy we were eating. Those free-roaming chickens are a big hit today.
There was very little that made it to the table that wasn’t home-grown. Extras like coffee, tea, and milk were brought to our door. A “Jewel T” driver came by regularly and we had a “milk man” who brought milk in glass jugs and took the empty ones back.
Soft drinks came in 6 ounce or 10 ounce bottles that required a deposit that we would get back. Almost everything was recycled by necessity.
Sometimes we would get the huge 16-ouncer soft drinks.
I remember that the bottling companies would put special prize offers beneath the cork liners of the caps.
People could win a free carton of soft drinks or a single drink and it was always exciting to look under the caps to check for prizes.
Paper products were burned in the burn barrel behind the smoke house. There is also another story related to that.
The Thanksgiving meal consisted of ham and/or turkey and all the trimmings. If there was an especially mean rooster sometimes he would be served, too. Normally those were the menu for Sunday meals. Since we raised pigs, ham was a mainstay.
We wish for each of you a very happy Thanksgiving.
The day after is “Black Friday” where folks will swarm favorite stores, Then there’s “Small Business Saturday” and “Cyber Monday.”
It will be non-stop through the end of the year. Take time to breathe. And read more newspapers.
