Evening star., 1928-11-25
by THE FOOD EXPERT.

"I'll make a confession" said a
housewife friend to me the other day
and Knowing the sort of precise house.
wife she was / thought perhaps that
she was going to reveal the awful fact
that she hadn't polished her brasSes for
over a week. or let me into the scam
dalous secret that she was using mere
funnrrs in5tead of fu'i-Si2cd table cloths
for dinner But it was much. much
worSe--as I learned when she con-
tinued
Il Just didn't bother with Thanksgiv-
ing dinner at all last year We hadn't
planned big family party and none of
the relatives had asked us for the day
and it seemed to me that it would be
better 10 have just the usual sort of
O'Clock luncheon We always do and
regular dinner at the usual time. II
seemed TO me as il when people think
so much about the turkey and the
cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies and
things they forget the real spiritual
significance of the day and knew I'D
be whole lot more ready to give
thanks if didn't have TO do lot
of extra cooking So we had lamb
chops and canned peas--Son1ething of
that sort, with homemade cake and
bought ice cream for dessert.
1T was q nice dinner but not the
least bit Thanksgiving and very
easy to prepare. had talked it all
over beforehand with my husband and
the children and they seemed to APP
prove of the idea. And after 1t was
over 1 Just made up my mind that We
never would bother with the old sort of
Thanksgiving dinner again.
And yesterday" she continued, Eve
were talking about what we were 60
ing to do ON ThankSgiving-a ramble
through the woods If 1t ives nice day
and charades indoors If it wasn't
And then Bobby, who is 10, changed all
my plans. He said he had been trying
to ask me for some time ard that he
hadn't quite dared Please. ne wanted
turkey and cranberry sauce-and If
the turkey cost too much he would give
me so cents he had saved to buy a
base ball.
II reminded him that he had said
that he liked the sort of dinner we had
last year, i did like it, he defended,
and / still like ice cream and cake a
lot better than pumpkin pie. But after
went back to school the boys were
asking each other what they had for
| Thanksgiving dinner, and when said /
had lamb chops and ice cream they all
laughed. They guyed me . lot, 1t
wasn't because they thought was
poor. They wouldn't have guyed me
if they had thought that. only I guess
they thought I was queer-or that my
mother was queer
| And So" said my friend, IT began
to think that maybe was queer For
| generations, suppose. my people have
| had turkey on Thanksgiving-and I'd
broken away from the tradition 1t
does seem inconsistent to give my bit
| to the Ladies Aid to buy turkeys or at
least chicken for hard-up families to
keep up the old tradition and then to
offer my own children nothing but
lamb chops"
So, here's hoping that we may all
have turkey. or at least a nice plump
chicken on Thanksgiving day
Sometimes I think that it is a pity
that while most of us do keep up the
traditions of the old-time feasts. SC
very few people nowadays observe the
vigils or fasts that in days gone by
were quite as important as the feasts
They have decided value quite apart
from their spiritual significance, which
of itself ought at least to be consid.
cred. Surely those Puritan fathers and
! mothers to whom is ascribed the honor
/ Of having had the first American
| Thanksgiving dinner, brought a keeneT
appetite to the feast because it came
after period of enforced privations
and Just little self-denial and simpli-
! fication of the meals that go before the
! feast this week would send us to the
/ festive board with unusual appetites.
| Perhaps we er-emphasize the i'm