I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of Thanksgivings over the years. Two time periods stand out — one during my growing-up years and the other when Lyle, the boys and I lived at Severance, Colorado.

During my childhood years, it was customary to spend Thanksgiving at my grandparents’ (Osborns) ranch at Deer Creek. Many aunts, uncles and their families lived in the Deer Creek/Morapos/Hamilton area so there was usually a big crowd at the dinner.

All the women pitched in so the dining room table was loaded up, and pies lined the kitchen counters, ready for dessert time. There were all the traditional holiday dishes, plus a variety of salads, vegetables, pies and such, many of them from the women’s “signature” recipes.

Adults ate at the dining room table. As I remember, we kids ate in the kitchen. After the meal, if the weather permitted, the men went outside to smoke and visit or sat out on the enclosed front porch.

The women cleared the table, did the dishes and retired to the parlor (as Grandma called it) to visit. We kids went upstairs to Grandpa’s room where we played or visited.

I don’t remember exactly what we did, but I can remember the odor of Grandpa’s tobacco.

In the late afternoon, the men went home to do the chores and then returned to enjoy the Thanksgiving leftovers. That was our Thanksgiving. Mom usually baked a turkey at home so we could enjoy leftovers.

In later years, at Severance, when Lyle and I had a family of our own, we didn’t usually drive to Craig to celebrate Thanksgiving. Instead, we invited a senior couple, our neighbors two houses down, to dinner. I remember one year in particular.

On Lyle’s birthday, which usually fell just a few days from Thanksgiving, his sister called with her good wishes and mentioned that Craig was getting a big snow. Sure enough, a couple of days later, the storm came to our area, starting with thunder and lightning and ending up with a big snow. Wind blew the snow into deep drifts, making the highways impassable.

I had shopped for some of the Thanksgiving dinner ingredients and planned to go shopping once more to buy the rest. That was not to be. The highways didn’t get cleared for several days. Only goose hunters drove their trucks over the drifts, leaving rollercoaster-like packed snow to be cleared.

Luckily, I had purchased a turkey. I put it in the oven early on Thanksgiving morning and then worked with what I had on hand. We had potatoes and gravy but no stuffing. I heated up a canned vegetable, but there were no green salad vegetables. We had pumpkin pie without whipped cream.

No matter. We were all safe and warm. We took a plate of food to our elderly next door neighbor (who didn’t want to get out), and our senior couple came down to eat with us. It was some time before things returned to normal.

I hope this Thanksgiving is memorable for you.