Turkey week

Memories of turkey day at the Bullocks. It's been so many years since I've celebrated Thanksgiving at my grandparents' home at 909 Poplar in Atlantic. It was a cool old house and we spent many holidays there - the rambling three story place plus an attic.

My grandparents passed away in 1982, and they had lived in a condo on 28th street? several years at that time. But they lived in the old place through my early high school years at least. By the last few years though, Mom was in charge of holiday cooking.

Momo, my gran, was a great cook in her day. The house had a big dining area with a long beautiful table (I think Susi has it now) to fit the whole fam. We even invited Bubba's bro Uncle Max (they called him Nig cuz he was a tan old guy - I know, not very PC). His wife was Mary Lou. They weren't the friendliest folks to kids.

Momo and Bub didn't have lots of toys, but they did have some of Dad, Aunt Marty and Aunt Jean's old game and books. We'd play tiddly winks into a corn bread container. The attic and the basement were each kinda scary! The attic had fiberglass insulation that I was told I would fall through. So I stayed away! There were old prom dresses up there and Nancy Drew books! The basement had a coal chute and and old gas range.

One year Uncle Max was carving the turkey on a card table, when the table collapsed! Mom whisked the turkey back into the kitchen and wiped it off - when she brought it back out she said, "lucky I had a spare!" Witty Zora! Another time she had gotten extra turkey legs to cook with the bird as we always had people wanting legs - and she joked that it was a 4-legged turkey! We loved to put the black olives from the relish plate on our fingers.

After supper I remember Dad laying on the floor complaining about how full he was. The girls always had to help with the dishes. (sexist - no?) I learned to live with it though, and now I'm more comfy on dish duty than cooking.

Thursday this year will just be Jud, Paul and me - but we'll have all those relatives in our hearts!