Normally Thanksgiving Day was hog killing day in the village if it was cold enough and a time for a bunch of small Shooting Matches. Then late in the day around four or so we would have our Thanksgiving Dinner; a big affair, for Ellie, Bill and Caroline had spent the whole day cooking and preparing for our big meal. Mostly we had not a turkey but a big old baking hen. Once we had a goose and from what I remembered I did not like it that much. I have been trying to think and do not remember many turkey's on our Thanksgiving table. In the morning after breakfast I would go checkout all the places where they were killing hogs. Three or four families got together and killed and one had the big old tank used to scald the hog after it was killed. They would normally shoot the hog, slit its throat to bleed it, and then haul it to the site. What I remember was there seemed to be a lot of neat looking rifles and pistols brought out for hog killing. Guns were not a common commodity around there but most folks did have some but you just never heard about them or saw them unless someone got a little too heated up.

Then I would go to a Shooting Match. The Hartberger usually had the largest one; it would draw maybe 50 to a hundred people. Some times there would be one down at Mr. Thomas's and that one would be well attended also. Now I did not have any money so I did not bet, only watched. I remember one year, I don't recall his name, this guy lost like forty dollars at the Shooting Match; gosh I could not believe a working man with a family could lose that much money. Now all this going from hither to yon and back was done on foot and where I went and things were OK as long as I was back home by dinnertime. If not I got one heck of a whipping. Do not remember being late though, cause I liked to eat. So by the time it was dinnertime I had walked 12 or 15 miles. Funny back then and living in a village nothing was thought, at least at my house, of kids roaming around and doing things. Now days it is drive, even if it is down the block. Oh all this was with a buddy. You never went without your buddy. Then when you got home, each of us went to our respective homes to eat; afterwards it was play and do time.

Thanksgiving normally was the first big meal of the fall where all the pickles were brought out and sampled. For around the village women took great pride in their canning and their pickles. This was the test of how well the canning season went. And at Thanksgiving and Christmas we always had peach pickles, oh I liked peach pickles. Then there were all the cucumber pickles. At our house it was sweet and bread and butter pickles; did not know dill or sour ones existed until I left the village. Oh yeah and there was pumpkin pie, butterscotch coconut cr�me pie, apple pie and mince pie. And yes they were all home made in our kitchen.

So now it is after one on Thanksgiving day, the wife and I just had a cuppa and a piece of sorry store bought pumpkin pie and I am sitting here at the computer keyboard jotting down what I think and thought. Oh yes! When the kids were small up until they left or moved away we always, in this house, had the big Thanksgiving Dinner. The only thing was we did not have as much as back then but yes we always had a turkey, homemade dressing, homemade light rolls, and the other stuff. Funny last year for our big dinner, the wife and each picked a great big yam and sweet tater and that is all we had, a cuppa and a big old buttered sweet tater.