Thanksgiving Marathon

Not running, just cooking.  Tomorrow I will  cook my 45th Thanksgiving turkey, one for each year, starting in 1968.  All but the first I cooked in my present house.  The first one was in our Main Street apartment, way back when everyone was still alive.  The early years were the most fun, because of that.  One year, 1971 or 1972, a major snowstorm hit the area, and traffic came to a standstill; even the Northway was closed.  Dorothy and Gus were unable to get here, and they ended up staying at home  in Loudonville with spaghetti for Thanksgiving dinner. I had cooked a huge turkey, the kids were babies, we were disappointed to be alone, so we ate a total of one slice of turkey, and all took naps.  The next day though, Dorothy and Gus were able to drive out and we had the full meal. 
    In those days, Ma cooked dinner at her house with Helen and the two Bartholomew girls.  In a few years, that would change to where I would cook the turkey, and Ma would do  the vegetables, and we would all eat down there.  Ma liked it because her oven was low to the floor and it wasn't easy for her to bend down to do the basting and lifting.   I liked it because I could concentrate on just the turkey.  Maybe that's why I like, even today, the idea of cooking a big turkey.  That arrangement too was destined for  inevitable change.  The girls left home and then Ma was gone.  So for the twelve Thanksgivings while Helen was still with us, I cooked the full dinner and brought a portion of it down to her.  (She loved the parsnips.)  And wanted to eat in her own house.
   Since Helen's last Thanksgiving in 1994, some of the kids and sometimes family have been here or not, depending on other obligations.  I've always cooked a turkey, and as a few times since then, and also  this year, will carry  it down to the same house I grew up in.  This year, though, I'll bring the full dinner, which will include white and sweet potatoes, turnips, squash, parsnips, and whole berry and canned cranberry sauce.  Today I baked four pies:  pumpkin, mince, chocolate and lemon meringue.  That usually means I get to eat pie for several breakfasts, only pumpkin and mincemeat though, but that's okay with me, better than oatmeal.
    Some of the forty-five turkeys were fresh, back when you could order them locally, others were sold fresh or frozen in the supermarkets.  I couldn't say which were best; guests have  always been polite enough to compliment the meal.  Some were costly; I think one year a fresh organic bird cost almost $50.  That was a year when we were still assiduously health conscious.  Not so much anymore; the specter of fatalism is more prevalent. 
     This year's turkey was a bargain----a 22.59 lb. frozen Marval for $11.07. I hope it's good.  And if it's not, it isn't my fault.