Oh gosh, I remember the school assembly held at my public elementary school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We were asked to bring canned goods for those less fortunate than ourselves. The cans were then arranged in a grand display on our school stage. What bounty! Then, specially appointed class representatives would solemnly walk down the auditorium aisles carrying fresh fruits and vegetables as we all sang the hymn (yep, the hymn) “Come Ye Thankful People, Come:”

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

One year, I got to carry a squash. It was thrilling.

Then on Thanksgiving Day, I would sit on our broad kitchen counter and watch my mother cook. She was a phenomenal chef, though someone who didn’t care to collaborate. I would watch her clean the turkey, throw the giblets and turkey neck in a saucepan with celery and seasonings to ready the broth and giblets for our whiskey-laced gravy. (Sometimes I’d stop watching and play with the turkey baster, pleased with how marvelously it would suck up and spit out sink water.) Mother would toast two or three loaves of sliced Pepperidge Farm bread on the open racks of the oven, breaking the pieces up afterwards in bowls large enough to hold all the stuffing–one batch to place inside the bird, another for the Pyrex dish that allowed for seconds. Our salad was always an odd-sounding but wonderful combination of avocado, fresh grapefruit slices, and pomegranate seeds in a poppy seed dressing. And pureed chestnuts (just chestnuts whipped with butter, salt, and fresh cream) was the very decadent sidedish.

The television coverage of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade would stay on at low volume all morning. I have to admit that even as a girl, I found the whole affair mystifying, tediously long and boring.

Please send me your Thanksgiving memories in the form of posts, and we’ll all have the chance to cast back.