Favorite Thanksgiving Memory

  • Welcome to Christian Forums, a Christian Forum that recognizes that all Christians are a work in progress.

    You will need to register to be able to join in fellowship with Christians all over the world.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
With Thanksgiving Day quickly approaching, I thought it would be a blessing to share some Thanksgiving memories.

One of my favorite memories is spending Thanksgiving in Texas with my parents years ago. My grandmother was there and showed me how to make her cornbread dressing. I had tried to make it taste like hers for years, but without any success. She showed me the secret ingredient--chopped, sautéed bell pepper!

Edit: At Christmas time, I use one green pepper and a red one to give the dressing a more festive look.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: amadeus

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
What about your favorite memory, Amadeus? I've been meaning to ask you if you're a fan of Mozart?
 

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,447
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
What about your favorite memory, Amadeus? I've been meaning to ask you if you're a fan of Mozart?
I am a fan of Mozart but that is NOT where I got the name, Amadeus. When I was a Catholic I was told I needed to have a new name for my Confirmation. The nuns had a book of names with the meanings included. I chose, Amadeus which is Latin for "Love God". When I started participating in Christian Internet forums about 20 years ago, I began using the name of Amadeus.

When I was learning to play the piano as a child I learn to love Mozart but I never got beyond playing a few comparatively simple arrangements. In those early days my playing was good for where I was, but I gave up early. I still play the piano but mostly for my own relaxation. There have been too many good players in the churches I have attended for me to participate. The only exception was a small assembly in Green River, Wyoming. They had one piano player. When he had to go away for a few weeks I took his place, but when he came back I was done.

I moved from Wyoming to Oklahoma in 1987. Ha! Right back where I started from...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Prayer Warrior

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
That's an interesting story. My father played French horn in a local orchestra in South Texas, so I grew up listening to classical music. Also, I played Bb clarinet in band and orchestra in high school and college. After that, I found my voice and became a vocalist.

I like Mozart, but I LOVE Handel. I've sung Messiah in a couple of different civic choruses. I felt like I was in heaven! And I was in a Verdi opera. That was interesting. We sang in Italian.

My parents retired and moved to Tyler, Texas (East Texas) in the late 80s, so y'all were practically neighbors. Ha! When my mom died a few years ago, my dad went to live with my sister in Waco.
 
Last edited:

Frank Lee

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2017
1,459
2,837
113
79
Ouachita Mountains
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
My favoritest Thanksgiving memory is from a fourth of July celebration LOL!

My mother came out to spend a couple of days with us, my father being a permanent resident in the Ft. Roots VA. Living alone in a semi- rough area kept her restless many nights without good sleep. Upon awaking that 4th she remarked that she had slept like a baby. We were so grateful.

That evening I grilled supper and had a nice watermelon chilling. After supper mama, Martha and our children Nathan and Joanna sat in our gazebo while I shot fireworks over the pond.
Afterwards we went in and had watermelon and watched a video of Black Beauty. We had no TV but just a monitor and vcr where we sometimes played good family films.

I don't remember the year but that 4th was special. It was a great Thanksgiving even though it was several months early.

20170616_223622-1328x747.jpg
Mama several years later with Laura, our last handful on purpose from the Lord.
 
Last edited:

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
That's great, Frank Lee! Instead of Christmas in July, you had Thanksgiving in July.
 

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,447
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
@Prayer Warrior

That's an interesting story. My father played French horn in a local orchestra in South Texas, so I grew up listening to classical music. Also, I played Bb clarinet in band and orchestra in high school and college. After that, I found my voice and became a vocalist.

Give God the glory for the gift of your voice. You must be quite good.

I used to be able to carry a tune, but was never more than average. Nevertheless, your story brought back another old memory.

As a young Catholic in San Juan Bautista CA a supposedly well known music director came to our old mission church to put together a choir with the young people in our and nearby churches. He used old mission music, mostly in Latin that the original California Indians in the mission had sung more than a century earlier. When we got several of the songs down well according to him, he arranged to have us broadcast us live on a nearby radio station out of Salinas, CA. My only time 'on the air'. Of all those songs from so long ago. I remember only two of the many we learned. One was a secular one in English to help us learn to sing together was "This Old Man, he played one, he played nick knack on my thumb, etc."

The other one, one of those old Indian songs sung on the radio was "Ut queant laxis, resonare fibris...etc."

Strange that I should remember those first words of that old foreign language song after more than 60 years. [I was probably 12 years ago at the time..]

I like Mozart, but I LOVE Handel. I've sung Messiah in a couple of different civic choruses. I felt like I was in heaven! And I was in a Verdi opera. That was interesting. We sang in Italian.

When I was unmarried and considering really getting into foreign languages I took one semester of college Italian. I had a lot of German and Spanish behind me at the time, but many things happened and I never pursued it further after that. I did enjoy the change of pace.

My only other Italian connection was of course in music where many of the words used along with the music were in Italian. My piano teacher was a retired opera singer. She of course had sung in Italian as well. She broke her voice so when I met her she could not longer sing. Her husband was my first barber and cut my hair for many years.

My parents retired and moved to Tyler, Texas (East Texas) in the late 80s, so y'all were practically neighbors. Ha! When my mom died a few years ago, my dad went to live with my sister in Waco.

I don't recall ever being in Tyler or Waco, but my old pastor who has been most everywhere visits a church in Tyler every few years. Since I help with his taxes every year, I am quite familiar with his extensive traveling...

When I was working I used go to Dallas periodically for training sometimes remaining for a couple of weeks or longer. My most recent trip to Texas was to a church meeting in Brownsville in 2008.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Prayer Warrior

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,447
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
My favoritest Thanksgiving memory is from a fourth of July celebration LOL!

My mother came out to spend a couple of days with us, my father being a permanent resident in the Ft. Roots VA. Living alone in a semi- rough area kept her restless many nights without good sleep. Upon awaking that 4th she remarked that she had slept like a baby. We were so grateful.

That evening I grilled supper and had a nice watermelon chilling. After supper mama, Martha and our children Nathan and Joanna sat in our gazebo while I shot fireworks over the pond.
Afterwards we went in and had watermelon and watched a video of Black Beauty. We had no TV but just a monitor and vcr where we sometimes played good family films.

I don't remember the year but that 4th was special. It was a great Thanksgiving even though it was several months early.

Mama several years later with Laura, our last handful on purpose from the Lord.
Lots of good memories, Frank. Thanks for sharing them here.
 

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
@amadeus--It's funny that you remember the Latin song. I just posted on the Sound Doctrine thread the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin. I had taken Latin in high school (many years ago) and that's about all I remember of Latin.

Habla usted español? Hablo un poquito. I know enough Spanish to get me in trouble.

If you traveled to Brownsville, then you've covered Texas from north the south. It's a huge state as you know. I grew up in South Texas. When I was young and my family took a trip to Indiana, it took us all day just to get out of Texas. My brother and I would be asking, "Are we out of Texas yet?"
 
  • Like
Reactions: amadeus

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,447
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
@Prayer Warrior
It's funny that you remember the Latin song. I just posted on the Sound Doctrine thread the Pledge of Allegiance in Latin. I had taken Latin in high school (many years ago) and that's about all I remember of Latin.

Spanish was my major in college with a German minor. I took three semesters of Latin but have never used it since. I used Latin for the singing mentioned and of course as an altar boy. I translated both Spanish and German documents when I was working for Social Security. I used to interview or interpret for others in Spanish, but never in German. I never met a German speaking person on the job who needed an interpreter.

Habla usted español? Hablo un poquito. I know enough Spanish to get me in trouble.

¡Por supuesto que sí! Puedo conversar en español pero en estos días con mucho tiempo pasado en la casa no hay mucha oportunidad.


My Spanish is still fair even though I seldom speak it these days. I read the Bible in both Spanish and German regularly for the different perspective and to keep up my the languages. Reading is much easier for me than speaking simply because of usage.


If you traveled to Brownsville, then you've covered Texas from north the south. It's a huge state as you know. I grew up in South Texas. When I was young and my family took a trip to Indiana, it took us all day just to get out of Texas. My brother and I would be asking, "Are we out of Texas yet?"

Yes, Texas is huge. There were three of us so we drove straight through but talk about being exhausted. If I were ever to go again driving I would have to stop somewhere to rest a night.


I traversed Texas one other time when I was studying in Mexico. My father was living at the time so I rode a bus from Mexico City to Oklahoma City to visit him if you can imagine such a terrible trip by bus. [Home for me was still with my mother in California.] That would have been in the 1960's. My wife would cry out very loud if I wanted to travel like that in Mexico again with the drug situation there. I also am just a bit older.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Prayer Warrior

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
I'm with you. I can read Spanish better than I can speak, so I understood most of what you wrote. Right now I'm teaching a few students in a private setting, and I actually had to teach Spanish. What's funny is that I couldn't get my southern students to speak with a Spanish accent. They want to say the "o" with two syllables. We worked on that a lot, but with no success. LOL
 

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,447
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
I'm with you. I can read Spanish better than I can speak, so I understood most of what you wrote. Right now I'm teaching a few students in a private setting, and I actually had to teach Spanish. What's funny is that I couldn't get my southern students to speak with a Spanish accent. They want to say the "o" with two syllables. We worked on that a lot, but with no success. LOL
Ha! So it is. When I was a student in West Berlin where the primary spoken language was of course German I took a Spanish class where the instructor was from Mexico. Only the instructor and myself spoke with Mexican accents. The rest of the class learned the Castilian way as most of their teachers were from Spain. The difference was very noticeable. One example is the Mexican Spanish the word, caza, meaning "hunt" is pronounced exactly like "casa" meaning "house". In Castilian Spanish "casa" is pronounced the same as in Mexico but "caza" is pronounced "catha".

When I first got to Germany I attended a Goethe Institut for German conversation a few weeks before the university term started. We had one guy there from Puerto Rico who had a lot of difficulty because of the extra vowels he would add to German words. In English it would come out a strong accent with words like "station" being pronounced "estation". Doing that to many German words would change the meaning because of their declensions. When last I saw him he still was being misunderstood because his little verbal additions to the right German word would cause confusion for the Germans in otherwise very simple conversations.
 

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
It's amazing how much a language can vary from one country or region to another. I would have a lot of trouble in Spain with the formal 2nd person plural that isn't used in Mexican Spanish. When I was teaching Spanish, we skipped that because I figured my students would never use it. They ended up going on a missions trip to Honduras and were able to communicate a little.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amadeus

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,447
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
It's amazing how much a language can vary from one country or region to another. I would have a lot of trouble in Spain with the formal 2nd person plural that isn't used in Mexican Spanish. When I was teaching Spanish, we skipped that because I figured my students would never use it. They ended up going on a missions trip to Honduras and were able to communicate a little.
Try reading the Reina Valera version of the Bible without all of three persons in singular and plural. In the spoken language you can accomplish a lot with less formal little grammar but to catch the nuances of meaning in a written sentence we need as much help as possible to communicate accurately. Unfortunately even well written Bibles are often misunderstood as we see by the discussions or debates or arguments on forums like this one.

With regard to regional differences, I remember visiting London in about 1969 and wondering what all those signs along the street with the single word "queue" on them. I had never heard of such a word. It didn't take me long to learn what it meant.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Prayer Warrior

Mayflower

Well-Known Member
Jul 14, 2018
7,820
11,768
113
Bluffton
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
We had this pecan tree in our backyard growing up, and every Thanksgiving, I would pick them and help mom crack them. I loved eating them with her and though I don't like pecan pies, I always was proud I got to help gather the ingredients for them. It was a nice tradition.
 

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
We had this pecan tree in our backyard growing up, and every Thanksgiving, I would pick them and help mom crack them. I loved eating them with her and though I don't like pecan pies, I always was proud I got to help gather the ingredients for them. It was a nice tradition.
That's a special memory with your mom. Shelling pecans is a lot of work. I usually end up hurting my fingers. I live in an old farm house surrounded by pecan tries. Every year, I think about shelling some, but I haven't yet.
 

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
Try reading the Reina Valera version of the Bible without all of three persons in singular and plural. In the spoken language you can accomplish a lot with less formal little grammar but to catch the nuances of meaning in a written sentence we need as much help as possible to communicate accurately. Unfortunately even well written Bibles are often misunderstood as we see by the discussions or debates or arguments on forums like this one.

With regard to regional differences, I remember visiting London in about 1969 and wondering what all those signs along the street with the single word "queue" on them. I had never heard of such a word. It didn't take me long to learn what it meant.
Sounds like you've been a world traveler. The only foreign country I've been to is Mexico.
 

amadeus

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2008
22,394
31,447
113
80
Oklahoma
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
Sounds like you've been a world traveler. The only foreign country I've been to is Mexico.
Uncle Sam helped. While on active duty I went first to Viet Nam and later to the Dominican Republic. As a student I attended two semesters at the University in West Berlin. During the full year there I traveled through France to Spain as well to the Netherlands, England, Switzerland, Italy and Denmark.

I was also a student twice in Mexico: at the National University in Mexico City for a little over one semester and for several weeks during one summer in Saltillo. On my way to Mexico City, I flew to Bogota, Colombia to attend the wedding of friend who married a Colombian girl. All of my college time in California [San Jose State] as well as in Germany I qualified for the GI bill which helped pay my expenses.

I also crossed the border into Canada while in the army stationed at Ft Lewis, Wash.

I was fortunate to be able to do all of that while I had no troubles nor family financial responsibility. When I returned home early from my second semester in Mexico it was to get married. We had intended to return for me get some kind of a degree in Mexico, but instead my wife got a son for us.
 

Prayer Warrior

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2018
5,789
5,776
113
U.S.A.
Faith
Christian
Country
United States
Thank you for serving our country, especially in Viet Nam. It's unfortunate that our nation didn't back the soldiers of that war like we should have.

When I was a public school teacher, I had a student from the Dominican Republic. He was the sweetest 8th grader I ever had. (Many of my 8th grade students were not sweet at all.) I've wondered what ever happened to him. Of course, that was a long time ago.

How is your wife doing? I had read on the prayer thread a while back that she needed prayer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: amadeus