Talkin' Turkey

I am working on a project with a college student from China who will experience her first American Thanksgiving today. She has apologized profusely for phoning or emailing me this week, disturbing me before my "big American holiday." Her reverence of the day has caused me to see Thanksgiving with new eyes and to appreciate the uniqueness of the day.

I prefer not to think of the origins; the vision of sweet Pilgrims and Indians sharing a meal has been replaced by stolen land, buffalo massacres and cholera-infected blankets. I much prefer to think of the many Thanksgivings I have spent with my family over the years.

Americans are fiercely proud of their Thanksgiving traditions, even the date - the fourth Thursday in November, can't be tampered with. Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to change it during his presidency to the third Thursday to increase the number of shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Americans refused to let go of tradition. Sadly, as addicted to shopping as our society is today, we might buy into the idea, but it is too late, following the three year debacle of third Thursday Thanksgivings, FDR made Thanksgiving a National Holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Prior to this Thanksgiving wasn't a National Holiday - who knew?

Hopefully, we've learned a lesson from FDR about messing with tradition and every family has their own. My paternal, east Texas side of the family has a smoked turkey, while my maternal west Texas family thinks smoked turkey is an abomination and insists upon oven roasted. Some families must have marshmallows on sweet potatoes, others sans. Of course there is the jellied vs. whole cranberry debate and the light bread vs. cornbread dressing battle. And does your family call it dressing or stuffing and is it in the bird or out?

Traditions run deep. It took years of plotting and conniving on my part to replace the soupy gelatinous mess called green bean casserole with fresh cooked al dente haricots vertes, but the Cool Whip coated fruit, called ambrosia, still makes an annual appearance. Blending families for the holiday meal adds new food traditions. My niece wants her mother's pumpkin roll for dessert, Aunt Dee puts oysters in her dressing, my daughters insist I make the mashed potatoes, and if my sister and I were sharing the holiday we would have to make pink salad (a concoction made with cherry pie filling, canned pineapple and marshmallows), not because we especially like it, but because our mother always made it. I pine for the homemade egg noodles my east Texas Maw Maw served at holiday meals alongside the mashed potatoes and dressing and giblet gravy - it was a starch-fest.

Today, as I sit down to Thanksgiving with my family I will remember the traditions passed from generation to generation and family to family. The traditions that make my Thanksgiving and the Thanksgivings at tables across America special and unique. I will think of my new Chinese friend and wonder what she thinks of this American holiday of excess and abundance. If she is wowed by today, just wait until tomorrow when she gets to experience Black Friday.

What was FDR thinking when he tried to add another week of Christmas shopping? We're Americans, we can do it all in one day!