Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thanksgiving Gravy



Thanksgiving Gravy
When I was growing up Thanksgiving was a time with more food than anyone should ever have on one table.  I guess it is that way for many.  Most of the time it was also a time to meet new people.  Don’t even tell my mom that you were not going home for Thanksgiving and were going to eat alone at your house.   Her motto is  "More the Merrier!"
Then after the meal was finished, there were the others that were to be served.  We would fix a few plates for home delivery.  There was the widower that ran the shoe store.  He would be at work in his shoe store.   The store was closed but we would call and tell him we were on our way.  He would let us in and  thank us for the food.  There were the shut in couples that simply were not able to leave their house.  It was not unusual for me to have to sing a few bars of a favorite hymn or song for them as the delivery was made. 
But what I remember the most was the gravy.
Mandy makes fun of me and my gravies.  You see there were two kinds of gravy in my life—White and Thanksgiving.  
Biscuits and gravy were the special breakfast treat.  They came.  You never ordered them.  Breakfast for me as a child was never ordered.  It was on the table. The special breakfast was the biscuits (most of the time not homemade) and that West Texas white milk and flour gravy.  The only function the biscuits had was to make the gravy available.  Topped with as much pepper as one could stand, I thought that surely heaven had arrived.  I have a pact with my dad.  Should a day come where he does not know this world but cannot escape it, give him biscuits and gravy as much as possible!
Thanksgiving gravy is not a fancy gravy at all.  In fact, Mandy laughs at me when I gloat over it.   I think it is a can of cream of chicken soup with a few additives.  The specialness of it was that it only arrived twice a year—Thanksgiving and Christmas.    It is the topping for the dressing.  Again the function of the dressing was only to make the gravy better!
It seems to me that the world forgets the simple pleasures that just arrive on a special day in a certain context.  As I grow older, I am learning that most of the great things in life are not really expensive and cannot even be bought.  They simply arrive at special times with special people surrounding them.
Today is Thanksgiving.  May your world be filled with memories of the gravy in life.  In the turmoil of our world, may we give thanks for those who help create and give the gift of simple things.  Maybe life is not as complicated as we make it.
Pray for me as I pray for you.

In the Master’s Name,
Dr. M. Jack O’Dell

No comments:

Post a Comment