Bayside 36

It is the week before Thanksgiving, and as I read through the local newspapers, I was struck by ads promoting lavish Thanksgiving dinners.

I drifted back to the past, when I helped my mother prepare our Thanksgiving feast. She was a fabulous cook, a spicy, Italian married to a Dutch/German Methodist, and she combined the two cultures with culinary ease. Sweet potato casserole ala marshmallow was nestled next to slow simmered garlic mushrooms. A huge pan of lasagna steamed proudly next to a buttery, browned turkey. The Thanksgiving of my childhood was storybook, and embodied love of family and friends.

For years, I continued her culinary traditions with my own family, adding green bean casserole with French onions (recipe on the can), and making sure I didn’t stuff the turkey with the giblet package intact, ( my first attempt at Thanksgiving dinner).

This year will be the first I spend on Delmarva. My readers probably think I eat bon-bons all day and shop for exercise. I actually WORK many hours in addition to writing this column, so I won’t be going "home" to the Midwest, or enjoying my sister’s lovely Thanksgiving feast in North Jersey. Never one to stay low for long, I have decided to create a new Thanksgiving tradition, perhaps echoing my mother’s decision to blend the best of both worlds when she married my very Protestant, very charismatic, father.
First course will be the freshest oysters, succulently displayed on a bed of rock salt. Soup will follow, a Maryland cream of crab with diced shallot and sherry. Of course, lasagna will proudly share the stage with turkey,and marshmallow sweet potatoes and garlic mushrooms will share politically correct goodwill.

Life wasn’t always so easy. My upbringing severely frowned upon "living on the dole", and my grandfather’s favorite expression was, "God gave you two hands, so work." Not so many years ago, as single mother with two boys, even working two jobs didn’t pay the bills. Thanksgiving dinner looked bleak, and Christmas was looming as a panic attack. The week before Thanksgiving, I received a phone call. Someone had anonymously given my name to a local service organization. I was offered a free Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, delivered to my door. I remember feeling very ashamed, and very thankful at the same time. I I have never forgotten that holiday; not the light from the volunteer’s faces as they delivered my groceries, nor the thankfulness I felt that somehow, someway, God had heard my prayers.


I share that very memorable Thanksgiving because I have seen both sides of the coin, the oysters gleaming on the bed of rock salt, and the brown bags of groceries given by benevolent strangers.

As you read this, you can help, or you can be helped. As I did an internet search for free Thanksgiving dinners on Delmarva, time and time again the Dagsboro Church of God, in conjunction with Mountaire Farms popped up. For ten years now, Mountaire Farms has partnered with the Dagsboro Church of God to feed the needy right here in our own backyard. They began with a count of 400 families assisted, and last year topped 13,700. Seems unbelievable, but perhaps many of those people like me, too proud to ask for assistance.

As in past years, each request from food banks, churches, and individuals are monitored for duplication and authenticity. Food is packed in the Mountaire warehouse in Selbyville, Delaware on Monday, Nov. 21st. Each box is identically packaged with nutritionally balanced ingredients to feed four, allowing families to season and cook the items to taste. On Tuesday, the labeled food boxes are picked up by recipients at the Dagsboro Church of God parking lot.

To donate your time, your money, or nominate someone in need, please call the Dagsboro Church of God at (302) 732-6550.

A final footnote to "my companion’s" Mom. Sorry for poking fun at his flamboyant neckwear last week. Actually, I LIKE his ties. Though bright, they are tastefully so, and let his individuality shine through, a thoroughly American trait.

See you next week!