ON THIS DATE:
BIRTHS:
26 Nov 1640 8x ggf Samuel Davis was born in Haverhill, Ma.
26 Nov 1664 7x ggf Ichabod Robie was born in Hampton, N.H.
26 Nov 1690 7x ggm Martha Tuthill was born in Ipswich, Ma.
DEATHS:
26 Nov 1690 8x ggf John Stevens 3rd drowned in Casco Bay, Me
26 Nov 1641 10x ggf William Chandler died in Roxbury, Ma,
((I first posted these Thanksgiving memories in 2011))
Thanksgiving is approaching and it brings back memories of Thanksgivings
when we were kids.
If we were hosting the family that year, Dad would be up early in the
morning cooking the bird. I don't know how many companies do it
today but back then many employers gave their workers a frozen
turkey for Thanksgiving so when that happened my parents would
decide if it was big enough for the whole family and guests. If not,
it would stay in the freezer and they'd buy a bigger turkey. The smaller
one would be used for a Sunday dinner for the family a few weeks later.
When the rest of us got up my sister and I would watch the Thanksgving
Day parades on TV while Mom and Dad started on the rest of the food.
The most critical part of the preparations was the stuffing which had to
turn out moist at the meal. I don't know exactly how this was done
nearly every year except that for most of my childhood my folks used
Bell Stuffing in the bird. (When we were older, there was often "backup"
Stove Top Stuffing for when the "made in the bird" stuffing ran out).
But no matter whether we were hosting Thanksgiving or if it was at our
Uncle Ed and Aunt Mimi's house, there were certain traditions. One was
the kids' table, usually in the kitchen or at the doorway between the dining
room and the living room. In the early years, four of us were seated there:
myself, my sister Cheryl, and our cousins Winnie and Richie.For us, the
most important part of the meal was who was going to get the drumsticks.
After all, there were only two drumsticks and there were four of us! Our
parents at first solved the problem by using a rotating system that was based
on age: Winnie and I were the older and would get the drumsticks at that
Thanksgiving, and Cheryl and Richie would get them at Christmas, since
the families served turkey for the holiday dinner then, This worked for a few
years until my Aunt and Uncle had two more boys, Little Eddie and Vincent,
and then my brother Phil came along but by that time somebody had figured
out they could buy extra drumsticks at the supermarket and chaos was averted.
Eventually, one by one, we all outgrew the kids' table and the need to be
the one who ate the drumstick. I found out that I liked the slices of dark
meat better and that cranberry sauce was my favorite part of the main
meal. I also learned that if we were eating at my Aunt and Uncle's house
I should leave room for the second course of all the Italian food, especially
the lasagna. If the meal were at our house, there was a later leftover
sandwich with turkey and stuffing and maybe a little more cranberry sauce
on it.
One not so pleasant Thanksgiving memory was the turkey I forgot. I was
working somewhere at the time, (I forget now if it was at Child World or
Big L Drug Discount Stores) and I got a frozen holiday turkey from the
company which I loaded into the back floor of my car before I drove home.
I forgot it was in the car...
For two days....
Luckily, it wasn't a very warm November.
But it did look sort of green when I finally remembered it was there and
took it inside.
ON THIS DATE:
BIRTH:
22 Nov 1684 7x ggf Samuel Pheilps was born in Andover, Ma.
MARRIAGE:
22 Nov 1803 4x ggp Johann Ruppmich & Christina Krehwisch were married in Brandenburg, Ger.
DEATH:
22 Nov 1718 8x ggf John Hayward died in Concord, Ma.
((First posted on 22Nov 2016))
On November 22, 1963 I was a sophomore at Abington High School here in Abington, Ma. It was
near the end of the school day, and I was in my last class, American History with Mr Smith. Suddenly
the door at the back of the room opened and Mr.Divoll walked in from his room and told us the
president had been shot.
Mr. Divoll was the Drama Coach as well as a history teacher and was known to use a little theater in
his classes, so at first I wasn't sure what this was all about. When he said it again, this time using
President Kennedy's name, reality hit me.
I don't remember if we were dismissed from school early that day. I suspect not. School got out for
the day at 2pm and the news that JFK was dead broke around 2:30. So most of us had gone home by
then. Mom usually watched the CBS soap operas so when they switched to live coverage of what had
happened it was Walter Cronkite who told us the awful news.
Two days later my family went to my Uncle Ed's house for Thanksgiving dinner and we heard on the
car radio that Jack Ruby had killed Lee Harvey Oswald.
Of course the whole country was in shock but JFK's death really hit New England hard, especially
we Irish Roman Catholics. JFK was the first of us elected president, and
it was a tremendous source of pride, especially in Massachusetts. His
election had been the ultimate triumph of generations of Irish
immigrants over anti-Irish Catholic discrimination.
I remember the pictures of the Kennedy children, and watching the
funeral procession with the riderless horse. I remember the cadence of
the drums.
It was the start of one of the most turbulent eras in our history, but I didn't know it at the time.
ON THIS DATE:
BIRTH:
20 Nov 1647 7x ggf Jonathan Hallett was born in Yarmouth. Ma.
MARRIAGE:
20 Nov 1661 9x ggp John Eaton & Ann Crossman were married in Haverhill, Ma.
DEATHS:
20 Nov 1688 9x ggm Mary (Smith) Kimball died in Ipswich, Ma.
20 Nov 1696 8x ggf Samuel Smith died in Eastham, Ma.
ON THIS DATE
BIRTHS:
19 Nov 1828 2x ggf Amos Hasting Barker was born in Rumford, Ma.
19 Nov 1652 7x ggf Andrew Spaulding was born in Chelmsford, Ma..
MARRIAGE:
19 Nov 1774 4x ggp Asa Barrows & Content Benson were married in Middleboro Ma.
DEATHS:
19 Nov 1679 9x ggf Roger Conant died in Beverly, Ma.
19 Nov 1678 9x ggm Elizabeth (Coffin) Greenleaf died in Newbury, Ma.
ON THIS DATE:
BIRTH:
18 Nov 1638 9x ggf Samuel Ward was born in Hingham, Ma.
MARRIAGES:
18 Nov 1794 4x ggp Philip Pierce Richardson & Lydia Dow were married in Pembroke, N.H.
18 Nov 1811 4x ggp John Laughton & Amata Greenleaf were married in Mercer, Me.
DEATH:
18 Nov 1691 8x ggf Adam Hawkes died in Lynn, Ma.
ON THIS DATE
BIRTH:
17 Nov 1654 8x ggf Joshua Lazell was born in Hingham, Ma.
DEATHS:
17 Nov 1667 9x ggf Thomas Rowlandson died in Lancaster, Ma.
17 Nov 1671 10x ggm Isabel (Cox) Leffingwell died in Woburn, Ma.
17 Nov 1723 6x ggm Elizabeth (Hallett) Crowell died in Chatham, Ma.
