UCOG Blog Logo
News and views from the German-language region of Europe

November 25, 2006

Thanksgiving all over again

Filed under Back in the USA

This year’s Thanksgiving visit to Dallas reminded me of former fellow St. Louis native Yogi Berra’s famous "Déjà vu" quote.

With two married children in Dallas and various family commitments, the only way to have Thanksgiving with everyone was to do it twice – on two different days, of course. Rudi and John Burquist Son Ted cooked the big bird for the first Thanksgiving meal, which was on Sunday. My 86 year old father-in-law John Burquist and his 92 year old brother Rudy were there (in the photo with Rudy’s daughter Adelle). The usual culinary trimmings were part of the meal, which we enjoyed at the home of our daughter Rachel and her husband Eric. Even though it wasn’t the real Thanksgiving day, we did what is now a Thanksgiving tradition and watched the first half of a football game between the Cowboys and the Colts. I was rooting for the Colts. Since it was Cowboy country I opted for some subdued rooting. :-)

The first Déjà vu: When I was a boy in grade school at Malinckrodt elementary school on Pernod in St. Louis (just a couple blocks from Route 66), I always liked the school days after Thanksgiving, since my mom made us turkey sandwiches for lunch. That’s what we had in Dallas from Monday through Wednesday, since there was plenty of son Ted’s smoked turkey left over. Monica with Adrian and Sean Our second Déjà vu was a bit shorter in terms of time comparison, as we headed over to the Thanksgiving meal on Thursday at the home of Sandy and Kin. Sandy is our son-in-law Eric’s mom. Rachel and Monica cooked the big bird and the dressing for this meal, and Sandy took care of the rest. With Eric’s brother Grant and his girlfriend and Sandy’s mom we were 12 people. And guess what we watched after the delicious meal? Another Cowboys football game. This time I rooted for the Cowboys, which wasn’t hard to do as their quarterback Romo dissected the opposing defense.

Having two Thanksgiving meals in one week might be the reason grandson Sean called me a turkey head this week. On the other hand, having been out of the USA for some 25 Thanksgiving holidays over the years, maybe I have to some catching up to do. :-)

Paul Kieffer's blog with personal insights and news from the German-language region in Europe.

contact:

internal links:

categories:

search blog:

archives: