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
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