Thanksgivings in our Past

Thanksgiving Memories  
     By Danella -

Mom's Thanksgiving table - 2016

The traditions of Thanksgiving are as wide-ranging as the families that celebrate them. In my family, delicious food and a gigantic table surrounded by LOTS of family and friends were the requirements of the day. 

My first Thanksgiving - I'm the baby 1968 

Thanksgiving just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without the traditional meal that we had all grown accustomed too. We never lacked for the most amazing spread of delicious food that anyone could ever imagine. It was fit for a king!

My second Thanksgiving - Little curly haired kid in the highchair next to daddy -1969

The crowning jewel of our feast was always a huge vegetarian gluten turkey stuffed with mounds of bread stuffing.  

A big vegetarian gluten turkey

It seemed that we spent days and days making everything perfect for the special day. Dad constructed a massive table out of saw horses and plywood so that everyone could be seated at once and Mother helped us kids to beautify it with autumn leaves, pumpkins, acorns, fancy turkeys and special decorations. 

A big thanksgiving table

We each had a place-card so everyone would know where to sit. It was always fun to move them around until the last possible moment.

We always had a thankful box that we made so everyone could write down what they were most thankful for the past year.  As each card was read the most popular answer was “My Family”. 

Five generation photo - Thanksgiving 2009

Every once in a while we got a new addition to be extra thankful for when a spouse or a new baby was added to the clan.  I have had a few extra special thankful cards since I met Stephen!

Danella and Stephen

The Traditional Family Thanksgiving Menu when I was a kid...

Gluten Turkey Stuffed with Stuffing

Real Mashed Potatoes with  Turkey Gluten Broth Gravy

Candied Yams with Orange Juice & Pineapple Chunks

Green Peas with Margarine

White home-made Bread Buns

Fresh Green Salad

Olives & Fresh Veggie Tray

Cranberry Sauce

      Lots of Desserts!  -  Pumpkin Pies, Apple Pies, Lemon Meringue Pies, Berry Pies and a Layer Chocolate Cake

Thanksgiving Memories - By Steve

All the kids with Dad and Mom -
Kids - Stephen, Tim, Marilyn, Jim, & Robin 

 When I was but a wee lad Thanksgiving produced fond memories of grandma Mac’s house with the fragrance of squash dish and brownies baking together in the oven as we walked in the door. I knew we would be greeted by a candy red bowl of Jello topped with cool whip displayed on the festive table. The five kids would play a variety of games on the way, and the trip to the little farm in Merced, would go quickly.  I would also watch and absorb the sights of the valley as we traveled.

 

 Grandma would smile and warmly welcome us in and Grandpa Mac would say “Howdy do, how are you?” 

Grandpa and Grandma Mac with Clark B.

The food always tasted wonderful and smelled heavenly.  The Macys Thanksgiving day parade would be on TV and while we waited for the feast to be ready we would watch Bullwinkle and Sparky float by on the screen with Underdog in pursuit. 

 After awhile the meal was done and we would sit in a circle with 9 people, watching each other and carrying on as we devoured the cornbread muffins crusted with baked on sugar, the baked fry chik casserole, vegeburger loaf that I topped with applesauce. When I was braver I tried a bit of cranberry sauce, and of course the squash dish covered with crumbled saltines.

Grandma Mac's Famous Squash Dish

Thanksgiving food. Yum!

Mashed potatoes with butter

Traditional Grandma McCall Thanksgiving Menu

Vegetarian Burger Loaf

Squash Dish    Grandma Mac's Squash Dish

Candied Yams with Pineapple  Chunks 
                - Covered with toasted Marshmallows

Real Mashed Potatoes with  Brown Gravy

Corn Bead Muffins with Sugar on Top

Green Salad with Boiled Eggs on Top

Green  Beans

Waldorf  Salad

Deviled Eggs

Sweet and Sour Pickles /Relish

Cranberry Sauce

Raspberry Jell-O with Fruit Cocktail  topped with Cool Whip

         Dessert   --  Pumpkin Pie  & Lemon Meringue Pie

Our Little Family

Our family is growing up 

After we were married, we combined our traditions and came up with a menu that was pleasing to us both and added some favorites for the kids. 

Candied Yams with toasted Marshmallows

Our Combined Traditional Thanksgiving Menu 

Vegetarian Gluten Turkey Stuffed with Stuffing

Real Mashed Potatoes with Gluten Broth Gravy

Grandma Mac‘s Squash Dish

Candied Yams with Orange Juice, Pineapple Chunks & Marshmallows

Green Peas with Butter

White home-made Bread Buns

Fresh Green Salad with Boiled Eggs on Top

Cranberry Sauce slices

Deviled Eggs

Raspberry Jell-O with Fruit Cocktail-Topped with Cool Whip
Lemon Meringue Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie
Toffee Bars
White Moon Fudge

The very best part of every Thanksgiving is being with family. The food, the decorations and all the trimmings are there as a backdrop to surround the memories that we make on theses special days. It's always been about making memories... 

Our Family ~1996

Thanksgiving table at out house - 2016

Grandpa and the Goats

I can't recall a time when Grandpa didn't have goats. They were his babies. He named everyone of them and they adored him. 

Every morning he headed to the goat barn calling to them as he carried his milking buckets. They all answered back in unison, bleating and calling to him with their goaty little voices. They propped their split hooves up to the fence and watched as he came close and closer and then they crowded around the gate and made a ring about him as he entered and made his way to the barn. Some of them nibbled on his shirt as he petted them and talked to them. 
We all knew GRANDPA LOVED GOATS!

He went around to the back of the barn were the feed was and scooped up small buckets of grain to pour into each stanchion. The goat ladies new exactly what to do and hopped into there places up on the wooden boards and waited. When they got their grain treats they nibbled and stood still while he washed of their udders with warm soapy water from the house and dried them with a cloth. Then the milking began...  

All his grand kids loved to help take care of the goats. We learned to milk them and spent lots of time playing with them, especially the new babies. 

Danella, Grandpa and Melody in the goat pen - 1975

I love the fact that we kids were barefoot in the pen! I don't recall ever wearing shoes in summer, yet it seems now that it may have been a good idea at times. I don't think it ever crossed our minds. As I recall our toes got stepped on a time or two, but worrying about goat beans appears to not have been an issue.  

Grandpa with his Goats - 1975

The stories of the goats goes way back in our family history and most likely has its original roots somewhere in Switzerland where Grandpa's family came from.  

Faith, Jeanne, Sharon, Evelyn and Johnny   ~ 1947-1948

MEMORIES FROM JEANNE

This picture was taken when we lived on Harvey Lane in Paradise California. Grandpa built a small, one room cabin and little goat barn. The white Saanen goat's name was "Elsie" and the black Nubian was "Blackie." We loved to play with the goats in the goat pen and used to jump barefoot, off the barn roof onto a big pile of manure, stacked up from cleaning goat beans out of the barn. 

Yes, Grandpa Davis loved goats! When he and grandma first got married, in September of 1940, they lived on grandma Hamburgh's ranch, in Raymond,  California.  Grandpa tried to make a living with his goat dairy of around a hundred goats. This is where they still lived when I was born in August of 1941. It was during WWII when things were financially rough for everybody.

They moved to Mt. Shasta, Calif....to be near Uncle Herman and Uncle Ray, his brothers,.....and work in the timber.  

This is where auntie Faith was born in December of 1942 in a nearby hospital in Weed Ca. 

Of course grandpa still had a couple nanny goats and a huge white Saanen billy goat, he named Shagnasty. 

Grandpa and another Saanen billy goat years later - Oakhurst 

One morning we heard wild shouts in the goat pen. Grandma came running out of the house to find grandpa dangling from a tree limb, where Shagnasty was furiously ramming him with his horns, while grandpa yelled and kicked at him with his cork logging boats. I can remember grandma grabbing a heavy garden rake and coming down on his head over and over, until he finally decided to run off with what was left of his brains. 

That was the only ornery billy goat that grandpa ever had. All others were very gentle and safe for us kids to be around.

He had to sell his goats when they moved to Idaho and rented a small house, while Auntie Faith was still a small baby. She was very thin and cried a lot. Grandma didn't seem to have enough milk to nurse her properly. Grandpa knew just how to fix that problem. He brought home a nice milk goat. They kept it hid in the bath tub until grandpa could get a pen fixed. 

Auntie Faith thrived on the goat milk and became healthy again. I can still remember them filling a baby bottle and pulling the rubber nipple onto the top. 

Oakhurst, 1975

MEMORIES FROM DANELLA 

As a child we only drank goats milk and there was a LOT of it! When I was very small ~ 1971, Grandpa paid me a nickle for every glass of goats milk I drank. He would tell me that "It will put hair on your chest!" He gave me a small, green glass Mentholatum bottle with a screw on lid to keep my nickles in. I carried it around and took the lid off and on and counted my pieces of money. For some reason that eludes me now, having hair on my chest was the next best thing to goats milk.  

Grandpa and Cheyenne - In the goat barn (~ 1987)

The Early Years Begin

In order to make a background snapshot of our family I want to start at the beginning which was quite a while before me. This picture represents the core of our clan and is delightful to use as a time machine into our past. I am un-noticeably absent which would date this photo to about 1967 since I joined the picture in 1968. 

Photo L-R 

Back Row - 
Sharon, Marvin, Arlin, Baby Bryon, Faith, Paul, Jeanne, Johnny and Patty

Front Row - 
Gorman, Evelyn, Mark (out of frame) Debbie and Melody

This photo is of my grandparents, their five children and first four grandchildren.  

  -UPDATE -

I have asked everyone in the photo to share their memories if they recall any. 

• Uncle Johnny said that he remember every one in that picture "...but sheweee. can't remember standing ther and taking the picture"
• My mother, Jeanne, replied that she has the original and it is dated on the back with 1967. She said it was taken in front of our house in Oakhurst. She thinks that my Dad must have taken it because he is absent from the picture. She thought it must have been taken at Thanksgiving because that was when Grandpa Paul and Grandma H. came and they used his camera. She wrote, "I'm so very sorry that Mark got cut out of it. Actually Debbie and Melody are except for the tops of their heads. And I'll tell you why...... Back in those days, you had to pretty much guess what would end up in the picture, because all you could do was look thru a little peep hole and shoot.The film didn't always line up with what you saw, squinting thru the peep hole,depending on the distance etc.... "
• Uncle Arlin shared with me some more photos that were taken about the same time... 

~ July 1966 

~ September 1966

We all know what an amazing seamstress Aunt Faith was. She made so many amazing things and created numerous designs for Baldwin Industries, Inc. Did anyone notice that the shirts that Uncle Arlin and and Bryon are wearing match? 

Mom pointed this out to me today. I hadn't noticed. 

 "Auntie Faith made so many cute little hand made clothes for Bryon. This little shirt she made to match his daddy's shirt. She also knitted and crocheted adorable little sweaters & bootie sets and blankets and sewed little flannel nighties,.... before he was even born." - Jeanne  

"...I remember that she did this! Faith was so creative! I still have some of the shirts she made for me, beautiful creations!" -Arlin

I think that I have solved the mystery of the date! In my photo file search I found this photo dated Thanksgiving 1967. The young ladies are all wearing the same clothes. I think it must have been taken the same day. Happy Thanksgiving! 

Thanksgiving 1967 - Debbie 8 - Melody 5