This column will go to print long before my mom starts stuffing the Thanksgiving turkey and baking pies.

Monday, November 27, 2000

This column will go to print long before my mom starts stuffing the Thanksgiving turkey and baking pies. Regrettably, this will be, or was, I guess, my first Thanksgiving without the pleasure of my family’s company.

Holidays have always been an event with my family. It’s not that we go all out, but something memorable seems to occur. (I guess that’s not specific to the holidays with my family though.)

One of my favorite Thanksgiving day memories comes from one of the last we celebrated with my grandma Schelinder.

While driving out to Foxboro, Wis., we passed a church whose sign read: "GIVE THANKS TO GOO." Whether someone was just being funny or the church ran out of ‘D’s and used the letter with the most similar appearance – who knows. But it got a good chuckle out of us – particularly my brother, whose hearty laugh has always struck me as contagious.

The sign was like an omen from Goo. The rest of the holiday just got a little wackier.

When we arrived at Grandma’s, she seemed a bit surprised to see us. Apparently she had forgotten it was Thanksgiving.

Of course she was wondering why she had a large beef roast out to thaw earlier that week (a turkey with all the fixings would have been too much for her to handle in her later years, so the family had decided on beef roast.) Not remembering why the lovely roast was sitting in the refrigerator, she prepared it the day before.

Living out on a farm in rural Wisconsin, there really wasn’t any place we could go to get something else for the meal. So we prepared the only meat product she had in the house at the time – hot dogs.

Because it’s not Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes, Mom and Grandma decided to prepare those too.

Unfortunately, the pot my grandma had used didn’t have a handle on the lid. That’s why she used a toothpick to prevent the tightly-fitting lid from becoming stuck in the pot. Mom wasn’t privy to that information. After she managed to get the lid off without noticing the toothpick, she immediately mashed the potatoes – and the toothpick. It was later found without incident.

So, as I write this, I can only hope that Thanksgiving 2000, which will be spent with other special people, will be as memorable as years past, Goo willing.

Shawnda Schelinder is the Austin Daily Herald’s associate editor. She can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail shawnda.schelinder@austindailyherald