A best Thanksgiving memory.
You don't. Let me share some of mine.
The Huffingham family was visiting good friends in South Carolina. After a delicious dinner, daddy was resting in the room we were sharing. Cindy and I were teenagers and the boys were probably 5 and 3.
In typical Earl Huffingham fashion, these words came out of his mouth. "I sure hope she (our hostess) isn't making turkey soup". Our daddy was a finicky eater.
When we made our way to the dinner table, you guessed it, it was set with soup bowls and sure enough...there it was.
It was Lester's turn to ask the blessing and his words are forever etched in my mind - "Thank you for the turkey toup",
Many years later, two days before Thanksgiving, the one that I was going to be bringing my family to Jacksonville for a Huffingham Thanksgiving, Tray was burned badly on the Monday before we would be traveling.
When I called home to say we would not be coming, there was no hesitation on mother and daddy's part. They simply loaded up three cars with family, a turkey and all the trimmings and came to us. Mother and Cindy prepared a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and Raymond and Margaret Parker (the other grandparents) stayed with Tray who was hospitalized so that I could be with my family.
In 1986, Margaret Parker was very ill and we know her time on earth was short. So my parents, my children and I loaded up in the RV that belonged to Robert and Cindy and drove to Winston-Salem to say goodbye. It was Thanksgiving Day. My mother, in typical Iva fashion, had purchased a small turkey breast and we stopped at a park off I95 and enjoyed a nice lunch. She had even brought along a table cloth and some candles.
Rich Suhey passed away just before Thanksgiving in 1998. We had planned to be in San Francisco so no one had included me in their Thanksgiving plans. Not to worry - Wally, Renee, Tray and I just went to Cracker Barrel.
And about the spinach.
One of Ray Parker's traditional Thanksgiving sermons is called "thank you for the spinach". In the sermon he describes so many of the things he liked to eat - fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and chocolate cake. He also said that in the middle of the table was something he didn't like - spinach.
However - his mother always made him eat what was good for him before he could enjoy what he really loved.
That's how life is - Difficult times, distasteful though they may be, are a part of it. That's one thing our parents taught us -- As our mother would say - I Thessalonians 5:18 wasn't put in the scripture by accident.
Take some time this Thanksgiving - see if you can't remember some of those special days of food, family and friends.
And be thankful!
May your life be filled with enough Sunshine
to make you appreciate the Shadows
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