Thanksgiving may be last time families eat together

In a few days, many of us will be sitting down with our families and partaking of the annual ritual called “Thanksgiving Day.”

I wonder if it is one of the last days of the year when families sit down together for a meal.

I have given up on the idea of a traditional meal like the ones I remember when everyone sat down at one table. These days, it seems we are usually scattered across at least two rooms for the Thanksgiving meal.

Growing up, my dad’s family shared The Big Three holidays: Number 1: Christmas, Number 2: Thanksgiving and Number 3: New Year’s Day. And, yes, we were all around one table.

Dad, grandpa and my uncle all worked for the railroad (the Michigan Central and, later, the New York Central) which meant there was the possibility one or more of them would be “called out” on one of those holidays.

I don’t remember grandpa or uncle having to work on those holidays. I don’t remember Dad being absent from the table those days either, but Dad always told the dispatcher he would work any holiday except Christmas.

At one time I thought the dispatcher was dad’s boss and when I mentioned it I was quickly corrected.

Walt was the dispatcher I remember best. I loved going with dad to see Walt because there was always a diesel engine idling outside his office. It was cheaper to let the engines idle between runs than to shut them off, I was told.

Walt’s office still smelled of coal even though the line hadn’t run a coal engine for years. I remember Walt had a deep resonant voice that I envy to this day.

There were probably other dispatchers, too, but Walt is the one I remember.

New Year’s Day was always spent at grandpa’s house. Usually, Aunt Jessie and Uncle Brownie were there. They were such special people. Jessie was a retired English teacher (for that reason she hated “The Beverly Hillbillies” TV show). She said their poor language skills were going to ruin children) and Brownie was retired from The Anderson Co. that made windshield wipers. He was a chemist.

Christmas and Thanksgiving alternated between our house and Aunt Naomi’s house.

These days, the stores open Thanksgiving night for Black Friday sales and I think that is a shame. Hooray for those stores that are bucking the trend and closing on Thanksgiving Day for families to be together.

When our kids were young, we lived in Kentucky and didn’t try to “get home” for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I am probably the only one in our family, but I treasure the memories of those Thanksgiving holidays. We all pitched in, including the kids, and made our Thanksgiving feast.

Years later, after we moved back to Indiana, our son said the neighbor told him he was glad we left our windows open. We didn’t have air conditioning and I wonder why the neighbors would want our house to be open.

“He said he likes to be outside when we eat supper because he likes to hear us laugh,” our son said.

I hadn’t thought about it but we usually did all eat supper together and, yes, there was a lot of laughter.

I think making our Thanksgiving meal together in Kentucky contributed to that.

I hope you will be with loved ones this Thanksgiving. If not, I hope you will be with pleasant company at a church or elsewhere.