As we get on in years, we find that we don’t need as much as we used to. It’s sort of like a huge holiday dinner. Every Thanksgiving my family would prepare a feast for a king. We had the usual turkey and stuffing, of course, but we had a ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salads of at least three different kinds, and cranberry sauce. Not the canned kind with the ribs, but a slab of it freshly made by my grandmother.
Then there were the staple casseroles, and my favorite, mac n cheese. Again, not that stuff from a Kraft box, but my aunt made it using real noodles, real cheese, and some sort of stuff she put over it to make it really crispy. Beans! Green beans, baked beans, and three bean casserole. I loved the baked beans, and occasionally a spoon of green beans. Breads coming out of your ears, speaking of which, the corn on the cob was delicious.
What a meal! I could not move from my chair and it was a good thing too, because after the dishes were semi cleared, my mom brought out a pot of coffee, creamer, sugar and a gallon of milk and went back into the kitchen where both my grandmothers were. I know both because I could hear them arguing how to serve the dessert. Finally, after the battle was over and the smoke cleared, my mom, her mother and my dad’s mother came out, each carrying a fresh made pie, or cake or apple studdle. We all watched in awe as they moved in slow motion to the table and placed each sweet and savory item down in a row. As soon as the dish hit the table cloth, we had outstretched plates from all around the food altar.
As the years went by the meals got smaller. Not in enthusiasm and cheer, but in quantity of food. We all eventually had our own families, and every other year we alternated in-laws. Sometimes we would all be together at one house, but for the most part, not. We still had the turkey, stuffing and the cranberries, but we had lost a lot of the trimmings. It was at about that time that Weight Watchers, Atkins and Keto came along too.
Relationships and desires change and as we get older, and with some degree of stamina dwindling, for some people, it just doesn’t seem necessary to put a lot of energy into the trimmings anymore. As long as they keep a hold of the turkey, the trimmings don’t seem to matter all that much. They think that their relationships don’t need the mashed potatoes, beans, and a cob of corn to keep going. But isn’t it the trimmings that make the entrée tastier? Maybe the portions and frequency of servings have gotten smaller, but that’s only so we can leave room for the dessert.
Even though it may seem odd to have the turkey without the stuffing in our relationships, the feast can still have the excitement it did fifty years ago and the mac n cheese is still great! Maybe just a bit crustier.
Happy Thanksgiving! Bon Appetite.
All the Trimmings
