I always loved my Mom’s awesome dressing! I still try to match it and got very close last year with some Essential stuffing which I mixed up with some Essential cream of chicken soup and cream of celery. I like how Food Depot has that inexpensive brand and so far every item has worked out just fine. I also enjoy Publix’s store brand of cranberry sauce. It costs less and tastes as good as the brand I was used to buying.

  My dad worked at the Jackson Chevrolet place and every year the owners would give all of the employees a frozen turkey before Thanksgiving. Well one year, they gave them all live turkeys! My dad brought his home in the company pickup truck, brought the freaked out fowl into our little rental house on Second Street and put it down in the living room. The turkey looked around at the Rooks crew, then hopped up on top of the console television. My dad got him down, took him out back and my mother tried to wring his neck like she usually did with our backyard chickens. We didn’t watch as the hatchet was used so Mom could get the poor creature ready to bake. I don’t remember if it tasted any better than the frozen ones though.

  Another fun Thanksgiving memory involved a little road trip to Washington, Georgia where I was born. My three sons were invited to spend Thanksgiving Day with their dad that year, so Norman and I took off to Wilkes county in my Ford Fairmont. I enjoyed seeing the small town stores in Crawfordville, then admiring all the antebellum homes in Washington. The old rental home where my grandparents lived was gone, but I did get to see the big Methodist church where I first fell in love with hymns. It was past lunchtime as we finished our tour, but we could not find any place to eat. And then, as we left town we saw a few cars parked outside a KFC. Sigh. No turkey and dressing that day, but the fried chicken did taste pretty good! We headed back through a park in Crawfordville and saw a car show, which definitely interested me. The best vehicle in the park was a Studebaker which had a steering wheel in the front seat and one in the back seat. That particular vehicle’s hood and trunk have the same shape so the owner had made the front and back seats look identical too, including two dashboards. That made my day.

  My dad’s younger brother, Raymond, was attending Georgia Tech back in the fifties and it was too expensive and time consuming for him to drive home to Washington so he could celebrate Thanksgiving with his parents. Instead, my parents made sure he was welcomed to dine with us. We Rooks kids were delighted to see him and to have a guest at our table too. 

  I still love this annual celebration, but we usually gather at my son Ron’s house on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We all bring side dishes, Ron deep fries the turkey outside, and Julie makes perfect dressing and gravy. I love getting together with all of my dears and eating a delicious meal. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, I usually cook a turkey breast, open a jar of Heinz roasted turkey gravy, and bake some dressing. Most of the time it’s just the two of us and sometimes I veer off from having an actual turkey. One year I cooked the Tur-Duck, which tasted fairly good. Neat that I can find a frozen green bean casserole in Publix, and it tastes great too.

  And we ALWAYS have a wonderful prayer, at both Thanksgivings! 

  Beverly Wittler has four children, eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. She lives in McDonough with her husband.