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Wednesday, November 21, 2007

What's your favorite Thanksgiving memory or story?

As a Charm City transplant, I'm particularly interested in anyone who has a true Baltimore Thanksgiving story to tell. Maybe a tradition that you and your family followed when you were growing up.

Here's one of my favorite memories: When I was student teaching at Dundalk Middle School, I was excited that the school cafeteria served a Thanksgiving lunch the day before Thanksgiving. After all, I was a graduate student and not being paid for my student teaching, so the idea of a "real meal" (that is, anything other than peanut butter and jelly again) was a joyous occasion, indeed!

I stood in the cafeteria line behind a couple of my students, my mouth watering at the smell of turkey and stuffing. So imagine my surprise when I took my plate from Cafeteria Lady and it included a big heapin' pile of ... sauerkraut! I thought it must have been leftover or a mistake, or something. But when I got to the teacher's lunch room, I was educated on the joys of sauerkraut at Thanksgiving.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey, sue. happy thanksgiving!. i hope you're not joking. i love sauerkraut on thanksgiving. especially cooked and cooked down until it is brown and caramelized.
oooh and add some sausagetoo. i'm sure there is some story on how the pilgrims had sauerkraut that they brought on the ships cause it wouldn't spoil, etc. etc.
but who cares. i just think it goes well with the rest of the meal. hope you're enjoying the holiday
love, scepter

Anonymous said...

sorry for the anonymous comment.i couldn't remember my password, but i'm good now :-)

Anonymous said...

well , i'm not much on having favorite anything, and the grade school thanksgiving was something that i looked forward to. especially the perfectly round scoop of mashed potatoes and the little paper cup of cranberry sauce. but i still cling to the memory of getting up late and then going through the ordeal of the whole family of seven getting ready with one bathroom. then the drive to curtis bay while enjoying the smell of my dads freshly lit lucky strikes in the car. when we finally arrived t my grandmothers house it was like attending an eating convention. about 2 thousand people who all talk and laugh too loud crammed into little rooms eating smoking drinking and yelling at the kids to stay in the other room. being totally amazed that my grandmother could alomst single handedly handle the entire affair. sneaking throughout her entire many roomed row-manse trying to find any possily hidden xmas gifts.and getting to see her old-lady style holiday decorations which i loved. especially the electric flashing santa clause-wreath-like thing that hung on the front door and flashed 70's disco style. thre amount of food was amazing she must have cooked for 2 weeks. and candy, yes homemade fudge, chocolate and pecan pies. then running around her neighborhood, playing football in the yard and walking across curtis bay to my cousins house.
such a huge powerful family experience that influenced my formative years.

Sue J said...

Happy Thanksgiving! That was beautiful, Scepter. I can smell the dinner cooking, and hear your family talking -- everyone talking over everyoone else! ;-)

From what I hear, this year's celebration was a good one as well.