Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. What’s not to like? There’s no commercialization, no massive gift-buying or home decorating frenzy, just a calm, quiet holiday spent with family.
When I was in my teens we would visit my grandparents in Appleton, Wisconsin over Thanksgiving. Midland to Appleton was a hard seven hour trip, mostly interstate but a long stretch through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on two-lane roads. We would leave Wednesday right after school and come home Sunday after church.
My grandmother made massive meals. Grandpa had owned a lumber camp and worked outside in the woods, hard physical labor, for years, and my grandmother still cooked as if he still did. Breakfast was homemade rolls and delicious hot dogs – so much better than they sound since a local company made them fresh – and the big meal was at noon. Supper was still pretty big but less fancy.
Grandma made lots of things that looked great but tasted a little weird, like Tutti Frutti cake. She made this cake in an oblong 13 inch long pan and I think it had fruit cocktail in it. One time she made apple dumplings which even I, a completely self-absorbed teen, realized were a ton of work. They looked so good! Unfortunately they didn’t taste good. She put some sort of sweet sauce all over them that killed the apple taste.
Her turkey dinners were usually great. Lots and lots to eat, homemade pies (which were delicious), stuffing, potatoes and gravy, and yes, the turkey too. The only problem was she had no dishwasher and with nine of us eating, and all those dishes, it took forever to wash and dry the dishes and put everything away.
Grandma and Grandpa owned a motel at that time and were quite thrifty. Grandma would save the soap bars and use those to wash the dishes. She had a bottle of real dish soap too, and that’s what we used when she wasn’t looking. Using leftover hotel soap is icky.
One of the highlights of visiting was going to Prange’s on the weekend. Prange’s then was a big department store with lots of floors and mostly very good quality goods. I only remember buying presents one year, towels for Mom and Dad, but we must have done that more than once. One year my sister forgot to pack her dresses so Mom took her shopping to Prange’s for an early Christmas present.
Midland had about 30,000 people but there also was no movie theater, no discount stores and no shopping, as in almost zero stores. The Penny store was tiny, Sears bigger but with less stuff, one nice drug store, Community Drug, a good jewelers, and Woolworths. A couple of dress shops and menswear stores struggled to survive with minimal stock and unpleasant policies (as in no returns).
Anyway, going to a good department store was a real treat. It was fun riding the escalators, going up and down the elevators and shopping, oh my, all the wonderful things to pick from. I remember spotting some blouses and sweaters on a mannequin while going up the escalator and then tracking them down after going back down the escalator.
What made me think about this was the proliferation of Black Friday nonsense, none of which was nearly as much fun as the treat of going to Prange’s in Appleton back in the day!
Susan Cleereman says
I forgot the dresses, I remember shopping at Aunt Helen’s shop. Both stores probably.
I remember the Thanksgiving we had Gypsy with us. Were you with us? I was 16, so you were 19. Gypsy tried to get in the oven, he jumped on the door when Grandma had it open. Ouch!
Turkey was Gypsy’s biggest problem. The next year we spent Thanksgiving at home. When the aroma of the turkey was filling the house Gypsy wanted some. We wouldn’t give him any,he went into the living room and scratched one of those white chairs. The next day Dad had him to the vet for claw removal!