By Suzanne Sparrow Watson
By Suzanne Sparrow Watson
So, here we are, the official beginning of the holiday season. This week a lot of you will be either cooking, traveling, or if you’re lucky like me, bringing a dish to a friend’s house. I have hosted a lot of Thanksgiving dinners over the years and I’m very happy to turn the reins over to others at this point. I even gave my turkey roaster away as a definitive gesture of my surrender. But I have held on to a lot of good memories and traditions associated with Turkey Day. One of my favorites is the year our family spent Thanksgiving in Tahoe City at Bob’s cabin. There was a lot of alcohol involved and by the time the pies were served Bob and I were well into our cups. Then someone made the fatal mistake of placing a heaping bowl of whipped cream in front of us and it was game on! We got into a whipped cream fight that almost sent our mother into apoplexy. We were a long way from our traditional Thanksgiving table filled with the best china and silver, finger bowls and sedated conversation. But boy, did we have fun and it created a memory that still makes me smile today.
I have been looking at Thanksgiving traditions and have found some fun and rather interesting facts to share.
First, in Indianapolis, people have started an annual tradition of dressing their turkey in a baby onesie, dousing it in lighter fluid, attaching it to a long chain, lighting it on fire, and throwing it across the length of a football field. This tradition was basically started by a bunch of dudes who wanted to see a flaming turkey streak through the night sky, and now, it’s an annual thing.
Continuing in that theme, at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the most popular Thanksgiving tradition is an event called Frozen Turkey Bowling, where people hurl frozen, oiled-up turkeys down a grocery store aisle at a set of large 7Up bottles posing as bowling pins. The event raises money to combat smoking, which is an awesome reason to throw a frozen bird at a bunch of bowling pins. Not that they really need a reason – in 2022 the Wall Street Journal rated Wisconsin as the drunkest state.
Something you may not know is that Thanksgiving inspired (if you can use that word) the first TV dinner. In 1953, the folks at Swanson didn’t sell as many Thanksgiving turkeys as expected. In fact, they had 260 tons of unsold turkey on hand. Inspired by the meals served in trays on airplanes, one of the Swanson employees used the turkeys to create the world’s first TV dinners. They sold for 98 cents each. These ready-made meals were an immediate hit. Who among us doesn’t remember those gummy mashed potatoes and rock-hard peas? We thought it was such a treat!
Most of us eschew TV dinners these days because they’re viewed as unhealthy. But before you get on your “clean eating” high horse, remember that even though our Thanksgiving meal may come from Sprouts or Whole Foods, it still contains a ton of calories. The average American can consume anywhere between 2,100 and 4,500 calories during their Thanksgiving celebration. Unless you throw the whipped cream at your sibling – that saves a few calories right there.
Black Friday isn’t technically a holiday, although it has become so entwined with Thanksgiving that it seems like it is. But can we all admit that Black Friday is the worst invention ever? It’s basically just an excuse for people to wrestle in a Macy’s parking lot over a discounted Keurig. Like Mother’s Day and Valentines Day, Black Friday wasn’t even a thing until we decided it was and started camping out in front of Target to buy TVs at a slight discount.
I’ll tell you who else doesn’t like Black Friday – plumbers! You will not find them at any stores on Black Friday because it turns out that enough people clog their sinks and garbage disposals on Thanksgiving to make it the busiest day of the year for them. Personally, I think it also has to do with all that high-calorie food clogging up the plumbing in the bathroom, if you get my drift.
No matter how you celebrate or what you eat, my brother and I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. Go out and make some fun memories!