With Thanksgiving just a couple of days away, I enjoy thinking back to the holiday during my childhood years. Since I grew up in Atlanta, we had a southern traditional meal with turkey, sweet potatoes, dressing, other side dishes and of course pie. My mom sometimes baked a cream cheese pound cake, two kinds of pie, and some chocolate chip cookies when she became a grandmother.
My grandparents often joined us for Thanksgiving. One of my grandfathers was a story teller and usually shared a story of his time as a child along Covington Highway. He amused me with the way he pushed all his food together on his plate, since I was a child who liked my food separate just like it was served on my school lunch tray.
My grandmother made delicious sweet potato pies and she and her sisters all made cornbread dressing every Thanksgiving and Christmas. None of them had the recipe written down-it was in their head. My family made some adjustments to the menu through the years including a switch to pumpkin pie, a tradition from my husband’s North Carolina family.
In Dunwoody, the Renfroe family moved from downtown Atlanta at the corner of Harris Street and Techwood Drive to Tilly Mill Road in 1941. They bought the house a few years earlier but Mrs. Renfroe wouldn’t move until the roads were paved and telephone service available.
The family usually had goose for Thanksgiving, purchased from a store. They raised chicken and ducks on their farm and some years duck was served at Thanksgiving. (Interview with Carlton Renfroe)
Joan Moore, daughter of Sue Kirby and Thomas Jameson and granddaughter of Tolleson and Laura Little Kirby who came to Dunwoody in the early twentieth century, shared a Thanksgiving memory. She recalls traveling to her Uncle Dwight and Aunt Louise Donaldson Kirby’s farm in Fayetteville. The couple would invite all the Kirby and Donaldson family to come to their farm. Some family members went hunting while visiting the farm.
Long tables were set up outside for the Thanksgiving meal. The tables were loaded with food from all the family farms, including chicken, ham, and vegetables preserved from the summer gardens. No one bought a turkey from the grocery store. Then, all the family would find a place to sit outside. She doesn’t recall any of these gatherings being rained out.
Thanksgiving 1997 was special for Sue Kirby Jameson and Thomas Jameson. As was their usual tradition, the couple attended church in Roswell on Thanksgiving. The following evening there was a Jameson family reunion at Lickskillet Farms at 1380 Old Roswell Road. Four generations of Jamesons attended the gathering in the 1840 farmhouse restaurant which also happened to be the place where Thomas Jameson was born in 1913. (As I Recall: Stories by Sue Kirby Jameson)
At Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee in 1944, many of the patients were far away from home and family. However, a Thanksgiving feast was prepared for the soldiers. Two hundred patients were able to make it to the mess hall for dinner. Another sixteen hundred had dinner in their hospital beds.
One hundred fortunate patients from Lawson were able to leave the hospital for a special outing. They were taken in army trucks to the Sewanee versus Georgia Tech B team football game at Grant Field. The game was played to benefit Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital.
The Canteen Service of the Red Cross served the patients hot dogs, doughnuts, potato chips and beverages. They even gave the soldiers sandwiches in case they decided to stay downtown for the evening to attend a show. (Atlanta Constitution, Lawson Soldiers Thankful as They Eat Holiday Dinner, November 24, 1944)
The November 18, 1992 issue of the Decatur-DeKalb News/Era included an article with tips from Nathalie Dupree on how to make your Thanksgiving guests feel at home. Dupree is the author of 14 cookbooks, including a James Beard winner. I remember watching Nathalie Dupree cook on television with my mother long before Food Network ever existed. Southern cooking is her specialty. Here are her tips.
1. Always have enough food on hand, even if you don’t know how many guests to expect.
2. Don’t serve alcohol without having enough food to eat.
3. Introduce each guest to three people and keep the party moving. If you see any wallflowers, get them engaged in the party.
With or without alcohol, one of the traditions in my family is to have too much food at Thanksgiving. That way, everyone can take home some leftovers!
And thank you to my mom for keeping this clipping from the 1992 pre-Thanksgiving Decatur-DeKalb News Era. I only have two Nathalie Dupree cookbooks, so it seems like it is time to add another and make it a collection!