Another More Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner With Family, Saturday, November 25, 2017

Today, Saturday, November 25, 2017, we drove to Prestonsburg, KY, again for a second, more traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with family, most of whom had been at our earlier state park lodge buffet Thanksgiving Dinner.  A couple of faces were different but the attendance was about the same, roughly a dozen.  The meal was at my cousin Judy Terry McGuire's house in Prestonsburg where we seem to get together about once a year.  Judy's husband, Eddie McGuire is an excellent cook and raises a large garden each year, cans and freezes a lot of vegetables, and does an excellent job with a lot of homegrown food.  Most other attendees bring some sort of side dish and it turns into a large, traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, coleslaw, cakes, pies, etc.  This year, with the temperature at midday around the high fifties, anybody who wanted to could spend some time outside while others watched football and talked inside.  

As I had said in my earlier post about the buffet dinner on Thursday at Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge, I would rather have a traditional family meal with family in a home setting even if I was eating bologna sandwiches.  Actually, I haven't had funeral bologna for while and that might be an interesting twist for a family holiday meal sometime.   How about a menu of funeral bologna, peanut butter, brick cheddar, and other sandwiches with the only rule being that any item brought to the dinner would need to have been available in a small country store in Knott County Kentucky about 1958.  You could maybe add a few roasted or boiled chestnuts, paw paws if you could manage to save a few until late November, an allowance for grocery mix candy, chocolate drops, and sugar stick candy for dessert.  That could generate a lot of old memories and a lot of long winded stories.  I might try that sometime...Kentucky Border Bologna and crackers.  But you can no longer find saltine crackers with all four squares still together for sandwich making instead of the current method of selling them in single squares in a cellophane tube.  Maybe add a few Koolickles.   For those of you who don't know about Koolickles, they are dill pickles soaked for several days in a large jug of your favorite flavor of Kool Aid.  I think this idea could be turned into a good meal for those who remember the old times. 

Thanksgiving With Family At A State Park Lodge

Today, my wife Candice and I had Thanksgiving Dinner with ten other members of our extended family at the Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge which has recently been refurbished after a major fire.  There were twelve of us at the dinner which had at least a couple of hundred diners during the time we were there.  Apparently, nobody wants to cook a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner anymore.  We represented three generations of our maternal grandparents' descendants.  There were four of us first cousins there from the seven which were raised by our mothers, sisters Mellie Hicks Hicks and Ellen Hicks Terry. Two of that original seven are now dead.  There were three spouses or significant others of that group, one daughter of my cousin Jack Terry, one daughter of my cousin Greg Terry, and several of Jack's grandchildren.  This was the first time many of us in the family had met Greg's daughter, Shay, who suddenly appeared in his life not long ago after finally learning who he biological father is.  Neither of them had known of the identity or existence of the other until very recently.  That, in and of itself, made it an interesting meal. 

The buffet was served in a large dining room, one of two, which must have seated at least a hundred people.  The staff worked constantly and kept drinks refilled, dirty plates bused, and minor requests for information answered.  I am certain they never received, in that kind of setting, anywhere near what they deserved in tips. The standard 18% for large groups would be in order in that setting.  I tried my best to be reasonable with my tip and so did at least one other in our party.  The setting, twelve people spread along the length of a long table, did not do a lot to benefit conversations.  The tables were a bit too close together and the overall layout of the room made traffic to and from the buffet a bit congested.  Salads, vegetables, and meats were on a steam table along the left side of the room with both sides open for self service.  Desserts were on two tables along the perpendicular  wall on two tables with only one side open for self service.  A staff member was on the right side of the room slicing and serving ham and roast beef from another table with heat lamps.  This setup caused too much traffic across the room, back and forth, and sideways.  

The food was generally acceptable but not outstanding by any measure.  When I got to the turkey to serve for my wife Candice, I found a wet mess of shredded turkey in the bottom of a hotel pan.  There were a couple or three dishes on that steam table which kept eliciting questions among strangers to the tune of "do you know what that is".  The salad makings were a bit too few to make a good salad for the person with vegetarian leanings.  The coleslaw was good and made along a traditional Eastern Kentucky recipe.  The green beans came straight out of an institutional can.  The pies, pecan, peanut butter, and pumpkin, were straight out of a box.  The baked Alaska was good and made on the spot.  The roast beef was far overcooked for my taste without a wink of pink in sight.  The ham was minimally acceptable.  Overall, this was a large restaurant buffet designed to minimally please diners who did not have high expectations without minimizing the potential profit from the occasion.  Nearly every time I have eaten at Jenny Wiley State Park Lodge, which is a frequent choice of some of my relatives who live close to it, I have left once again convinced that most of the other state park lodges in which I have eaten do the job better, especially Natural Bridge State Park Lodge.  I nearly always prefer Natural Bridge to other parks and the setting is usually far more picturesque.  

After the dinner, we hung out for a short time in the lodge lobby talking and split up until this coming Saturday when we will get together for a second dinner at the home of a cousin in Prestonsburg which is a much better idea.  I had told a friend in an e-mail today that I would rather eat bologna sandwiches in a genuine family setting with family than a high class buffet in a restaurant setting anytime.  This dinner convinced me I was correct in that statement.  A home cooked meal with shucked beans, hog jaw, ground hog, squirrels, pinto beans, corn bread, cushaw, and hominy would be far better anytime. 

Thanksgiving 2016 So Little To Be Thankful For

As we come to this Thanksgiving season, the country is beginning what I am firmly convinced will prove to be one of the darkest, bleakest, most dangerous periods in the history of the country and the world.  Without even a plurality, the country has elected, via the electoral college system, literally the most dangerous human on the planet to become president.  Hillary Clinton has, as the counting proceeds, more than two million vote lead in the popular vote.  But Trump managed to gain an electoral college victory.  I have never been one of the misled people who screamed that the electoral college system was a mistake.  It is not.  Donald Trump is the mistake.  

Trump has absolutely no political experience and is prone to dangerous, misbegotten, and inflammatory statements that can lead to huge international conflicts when they take place in diplomatic discussions or are quoted in the popular media which the man loves to use to what he perceives as his advantage.  Trump has significant indicators of serious mental illness, specifically antisocial personality disorder with megalomania, the uncontrolled and irrational desire for power.  Now, he has achieved the ultimate dream of every megalomaniac.  He will be sworn in as president of the United States.  After having been endorsed by only two world leaders, Kim Jung Un and Vladimir Putin, the world's two worst dictators.  There is also significant evidence of an improper relationship between Trump and Putin before the election.  Trump was endorsed by only two large newspapers in the entire country as opposed to 56 which endorsed Hillary Clinton.  Of all the living former Republican Presidential nominees, none endorsed Trump.  Yet, somehow, enough voters fell for his lies to allow him to win.  Trump has begun assembling a cabinet which is comprised of a group of people who have nearly universally been participants in prior major Republican failures.  His chief White House strategist is a supporter of the worst Right Wing Radical organizations in the world.  His nominee for UN Ambassador has absolutely no international experience.  His nominee for Secretary of Education is a supporter of charter schools and the destruction of the Department of Education.  His nominee for head of the Environmental Protection Agency wants to destroy the agency at a time when global warming is teetering at the point where it will become irreversible.  The country is headed into a disastrous time from which we may well not be able to recover.  

If I had $100,000 cash with which to build a two bedroom wheelchair accessible house (my wife has been in a wheelchair for more than 18 years)  in a safe foreign country I would be gone to Ecuador, New Zealand, Canada, Belize, or some other country where rational government is practiced.  I do not  believe the USA is safe for the foreseeable future either militarily, economically, or socially.  Trump has bred, fostered, nurtured, and encouraged racial, ethnic, and class hatred in a way that no one since Adolph Hitler has done.  Trump's campaign was modeled after the methods Hitler used to gain power in Germany.  He is remorseless, unprincipled, unethical, and extremely dangerous.  The next four years will be a horrible time in America in which the Right Wing Radicals will attempt to dismantle and destroy every good thing which has been produced in the last one hundred years.  They will destroy the Affordable Care Act which has provided reasonable health care for millions who never had any before.  They will destroy the Environmental Protection Agency which is the only bastion of protection between the populace and the destruction of the planet.  They will attempt to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps, WIC, the GI Bill, Student Loans, HUD, and a plethora of other programs which comprise much of the difference between a socially productive and progressive nation and an oligarchy which cares nothing for its citizens.  They will attempt to "privatize" every aspect of government which contains money.  "Privatization" is a code word for turning government funds over to Right Wing bankers and stockbrokers so they can loot the funds with fees and outright larceny.  

The most likely positive outcome that come out of this electoral disaster is that the Democratic Party can regain at least one house of congress in two years.  But with control of all three branches of government, the most dangerous human on earth has no checks and balances for the next two years.  In two years time, irreversible damage will be done to the structure and nature of American government.  Worst of all, Donald Trump has no self control and no desire to have any.  He is perfectly capable of causing World War 3 without even knowing or admitting how it happened.  Nuclear war is a very real possibility with Donald Trump and Kim Jung Un in control of two nuclear nations.  Trump is no more rational, intelligent, or ethical and Kim Jung Un.  They are very much alike psychologically.  Both are highly dangerous, unpredictable, and unstable people.  It will be a miracle if we survive the next two years without a major diplomatic disaster which could lead to an unwinable and unsurvivable war.  

There is little to look forward to with hope in the next four years.  The American electorate has bought a pig in a poke.  The pig is fetid and feral.  The poke is rotten.  There is little to look forward to with hope in America this Thanksgiving Day.  

And, just to forestall and foresee those who will ask "don't you have anything to be thankful for", yes, I do still have most of the standard, human desires to be thankful for.  I own my own home free and clear.  I have a wife who loves me after nearly 25 years of marriage.  I have a better than average education which has given me the tools with which to foresee the coming disaster.  For today, the very brief, foreseeable future, I live in a Democratic country which will be governed until January 20, 2017, by one of the best Presidents of the last one hundred years who has done a wonderful job in the face of 8 years unreasonable and irrational opposition by the worst congress in American history.  And, sadly, I have the judgment to warn the rest of you that a terrible political train is coming down a very dark tunnel.  I can see the light on the engine as it roars down the track.  Why can't you? 

THANKSGIVING 2014 A FEW THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR

A LIST OF THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR IN APPALACHIA

 

1) After nearly two years, my hometown, West Liberty, KY, is recovering slowly and steadily from the devastating tornado of March 12, 2012.

2) I am generally healthy and working well in more than one area.

3) Appalachian culture continues to survive in the face of increasing pressure to assimilate into the vanilla pudding of generality.

4) Most of the poor, ill, elderly, and minority citizens of Appalachia and the country in general will have adequate medical coverage in the near future.

5) Alison Lundergan Grimes has a real chance of being a part of a general return to sanity in government.

6) Senator Rand Paul has consistently proven himself to be an idiot and is rapidly heading toward being unelectable at any level. 

7) Appalachian power is heading toward more and more power plants which will not burn coal.

8) I have found after returning to this blog that I not only had a few loyal readers but I am also picking up a few more.  Acceptance is sometimes the only reward a writer needs.
9) I have a wife, a 13 year old Dachshund, a wonderful female cat rescued from an Indiana barn 7 years ago, and a 16 pound, blue eyed half Siamese tom cat who all love me and insisted on being mentioned in this list.