It was the one day of the year when we
could appreciate the abundance of special food. To put this day
in perspective one has to recall that most of us only ate one big
formal meal a week. That meal was served on Sunday. Usually it was
a roast beef or something similar. Many people could not afford
chicken. Chicken surprisingly was very expensive at that time. Turkey
was even a notch higher than chicken. Today as you know chicken
is the most reasonable of any meat.
The quality of the turkey meat in those years was horrible. The
white meat was as dry as balsa wood. Without gravy it would have
been uneatable. The only moist meat was the dark meat. Most kids
would go for the drumsticks. We have to remember this was before
the Butterball turkey. Impregnating it with fat which makes it much
more palatable, was yet to be discovered.
It seemed like on this day all the teenagers in Vailsburg went
to the most important sporting event of the year. It was the traditional
football game between two local teams, West Side High School vs.
Irvington High School. This game was always played at Irvington
and we all walked to it. The game was played in the latter part
of the morning with a lot of yelling and screaming. A good time
was had by all. We would head home starved and sometimes half frozen.
We all looked forward to the comfort of our warm home and the turkey
dinner with all the dressings. It was a very special day not unlike
this Thanksgiving!
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