Remember Thanksgiving? It was a pretty cool day, where family would get together and enjoy a huge meal, before falling asleep on the couch. Kids used to go to school the day before and reenact the history lesson, where Pilgrims met Indians and shared a meal. Often, you would get to see relatives you hadn't seen in a while. It was all very Norman Rockwell-esque, even if you lived in the bowels of South Philly.
I remember sitting around a huge table at my grandparents house for hours, just eating and talking and eating. The meal started with the traditional Italian Wedding soup, also called "escarole soup," but bastardized into just "shcatole soup." Then a big antipasta, including hairy little anchovies, proscuitto (we call "brajhoot") and provolone cheese that smelled like a fat guy's feet in the summer. Mmmm. Then, came the pasta course, with ravioli, spaghetti, meatballs and sausage. At this point, you're already feeling like an over-stuffed cannoli. But, what's a Thanksgiving without the turkey? And that came next, complete with all the trimmings. Gut busting, stuffed to the hilt, going to explode, where's the couch 'cause I'm gonna pass out, full. Until dessert.
Today, things have changed. Family traditions have passed away like the loved ones who spent hours in the kitchen preparing the meals. Relatives marry and move away, or have other families to spend time with. And what's left are the immediate kin, my brothers and mom who all live in proximity. But, we'll get together and laugh, maybe pull out the old 8mm home movies and crack up at ourselves. Watching big family parties from the '60s, when kids sat playing in the living room and adults sat around them, smoking like the Bowery during the Industrial Revolution.
But that's not all that changed. Oh sure, families gather for turkey, but meals are cut short because of the games on the big screen or cell phone calls. People are far too busy to prepare the giant meals. And Thanksgiving is simply the day the big sales circulars arrive, and everyone has to get home early to get some sleep before waking at 4 in the morning to get to Wal-Mart and stand in line for a $200 computer.
We're not allowed to say "Christmas" anymore, because we may offend someone. So the "people in charge" have come up with "X-mas." So, maybe we need to call it "Thanxgiving." It's become the first day of a long weekend, a day that's just part of the holiday season. And that sucks.
Maybe I sound bitter. Maybe I'm just being too nostalgic and have to change with the times. But I wish my kids could have experienced the 5-hour marathon of family dining. I miss that, like I miss my dad and my grandparents. And you just can't get brajhoot like that anymore.
2 comments:
Great blog entry!
I hate Thanksgiving, and all holidays for that matter. I haven't liked any holiday since I was a kid. That's because once you become an adult, you realize that adults start acting like children and that makes holidays suck.
Can we just skip right to the dessert!!
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