At our bi-weekly Zoom chat with some cousins on Saturday, folks were reminiscing about thanksgiving dinners when we were kids. Folks were talking of the turkeys, cranberries, casseroles, deserts, etc.

I never tasted turkey until I must have been around ten years old. As I recall, thanksgiving dinners were usually chicken, potatoes and gravy with maybe green beans, corn, or some other vegetable. It’s the way it was. I also cannot recall any of my school classmates or friends ever talking about having turkey.

On Thanksgiving Day when I was around ten years old, I was’t feeling well so my parents left me with the hired man, my dad’s cousin who lived with us, while they went to celebrate with my mother’s family, that year in Dubuque, as was tradition.

When they returned home late afternoon, they had brought me a whole turkey leg. I was feeling better, excited and hungry for the leg. Thinking it would be like a chicken leg, I started in on it and the first thing I ran into was some sinew. The meat was tasty so I continued but, to this day, I’ll never forget the frustration of trying to eat around all the sinew in that leg. Thus was my first taste of thanksgiving turkey.

During this Covid year, I’m very much looking forward to the nice eight-pounder my wife and I are going to enjoy on Thursday, regrettably alone as so many others most likely are, at least those who want to be safe.

Unlike some folks I know, I love the leftovers. Yum.