Remembering traditions (houses, relatives, Walmart, Canada)

[Magnolia Bloom]

There is a thread on the Jax forum about traditional southern New Year's Day meals. Greens, black eyed peas, cornbread.... This got me thinking about holidays past and my family's traditions.

One of my favorite holidays was Thanksgiving. We lived around the block from my grandparents and all of the relatives met for Thanksgiving at their house. When my grandmother prepared the turkey for roasting, she would singe off the feather ends that stuck out, then rinse and dry the bird. And she always called it "the bird".

Before stuffing, trussing and seasoning, she would hold the turkey by its wings and make it dance on the snack bar, atop the torquiose, boomarang-patterned, Formica counter top. My cousins and I would line up in front of the snack bar to watch mom-mom make the turkey dance!

What fond memories do you have?

[Ketabcha]

Back in 1955 when we were stationed in Hawaii my father started a tradition of recording family comments on a reel-to-reel tape each Christmas. We did it every year even through my college years in the late 60s.

Dad was the emcee and he'd mention where we were at the time: Hawaii, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Montana, Kansas, Texas.

He'd also mention relatives outside the immediate family. We then told what we were up to and my little sister (Brat-but I love her) insisted on singing. Dad told about what major things had happened in the world, who had been elected president, what the Soviets were up to in Cuba, etc.

We would listen to them over the years. Great fun. It was also funny to note how Dad's Brooklyn accent faded more each year and then would come roaring back in Kansas when he said "This year we jerned da choich." ahahaha.

Well, Dad died in 1992. We moved mother out of her house in west Texas to be close to us in 2008. My sister and I spent a couple of months cleaning out the house that had been built in 1925 and they'd lived in since 1966. It had nooks and crannies all over the place. We could not find the reel-to-reel tapes. We looked everywhere. There was not a trace of them.

I was packing up Dad's old electronic stuff and ran across a tape cassette player. In that player was a tape titled "Our Family." News to me. The player didn't work so I went out to my car and started playing it. Yep, Dad had transferred the reel-to-reel to cassettes. The one I found was the only one we ever found but I sat out in the car, in the snow listening to it and crying. My sister rushed out and wanted to know why I was sitting in the car crying. Then she heard what I was listening to and she started crying.

Cry for Happy. That is what it was. Cry for Happy.

I'll be listening to that tape as I drive over, pick up mother and head for my sister's this afternoon. I am so grateful for that tape.

[Jude1948]

Just got in from Walmart because we forgot the traditional gold coin chocolates for the stockings. In the whole store there was one little package left. Now all is well.

[taigagirl]

Well my favourite Christmas tradition was going to my Grandma and Grandpa's. They were wonderful, hospitable people who lived about one-quarter mile from the Trans-Canada highway. Every Christmas all kinds of folks they met through the year would stop in for hot chocolate or a drink, and we never knew who would turn up for Christmas dinner...at least 50 people because I had 20+ first cousins. My aunt and uncle lived next door to them, and sometimes the crowd would be split between two houses, depending on the numbers. Once we reached a certain age we were allowed to sit with the adults, otherwise we were stuck with the "little cousins". A wonderful tradition. Grandpa died in the late 70'd and Grandma passed away in 2006.