Marketing, oh yeah, this is why we eat turkey for Thanksgiving.

Do you know why you eat turkey every year for Thanksgiving dinner? No, it’s not because that is what is on sale that week. No, it is not because the Pilgrims and the Indians ate turkey. You eat turkey because the turkey growers all got together and promoted the selling of turkeys for Thanksgiving each year.

Don’t believe that? Well, I was there and saw it all and heard what was said, so I know first hand how we all came to eat turkey for Thanksgiving dinner each year.

A couple owned a grocery store a couple of blocks from my home when I was a kid. At that time, neighborhoods all had a local grocery store  on a corner every few blocks. This one was a regular grocery with a butcher behind the big glass counter and a cash register near the front door and a few cans of everything imaginable. They also stocked fresh bread and milk and eggs. My mother went to town each week on the day she kept the car. She drove down to Main Street where she bought the bulk of her groceries for the week. Then when we ran out of something during the week, she would send us kids to walk to the grocery store and pick up whatever she needed. It was usually that bread or milk. She had her own chickens, so it wasn’t eggs that’s for sure.

Anyway, the couple sold their grocery store and started a turkey farm. This was the only turkey farm I had ever heard of. When you grow turkeys, you have to make cages that sit up off the ground. That is where the turkeys are housed. The cages are different looking, so when you drive out in the country and see the turkeys in their jacked up cages, you know instantly what they are.

Well, this lady and her husband had gone into the turkey business in a big way. They had lots and lots of cages all around their property out in the country.

After about a year or so, the lady called my mother on the telephone and asked if she could come by and talk to her. This was in early Fall of that year. Being a kid, I was running in and out of the living room while mother and the lady talked. Seems the lady came by to convince my mother to order a turkey for her Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey would already be killed, of course, and plucked, and ready to roast. Mother listened to all the lady had to say. The lady said that the turkey growers had gotten together in this country and were promoting having turkey for Thanksgiving dinner each year. All of them were out taking orders right now. Mother had prepared different meals for Thanksgiving over the years. Mostly, we just had a chicken hen out of the chicken yard. One year, mother prepared a goose and it was truly awful. But since my daddy worked on Thanksgiving Day just like any other day of the year, Thanksgiving dinner was not a priority at our house anyway.

But since the grocery store lady was a sort of friend, Mother decided to order a turkey that year.

Soon after that, Mr. Roosevelt made a speech on the radio saying that Thanksgiving Day would henceforth be an official holiday for these United States.

And you know what? After that, we began seeing pictures in the newspapers and on billboards and in books of smiling, happy people eating turkey for Thanksgiving dinner every year. And sure enough, turkey is what most people expect to have for Thanksgiving dinner every single Thanksgiving. And that is why you eat turkey every year for your Thanksgiving dinner.

You can read this story and many others like it in my books. Only $5 each, they have a wealth of humor, information, and history in them. Try one.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember when food was real food?

Hi again: was talking with a friend a couple of days ago. We got to talking about canning and preserving and putting up all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and meats. She mentioned how many quarts of tomatoes she had canned this past summer. I replied that I knew all about that. I have had more experience than I ever wanted in the field of canning and preserving. I then said that tomatoes were so easy to can and they could be counted on to be just as good as the day they were canned, no matter how long they sat on the shelf. She then said that this is not the case anymore. Nowadays, tomatoes have been genetically altered to the point that almost all the acid has been removed from the tomatoes. Now, when they are canned, unless some acid such as lemon juice is added to them, they will spoil rather quickly.

I was truly shocked. I had canned many jars of tomatoes and depended on them many a cold winter day to help stretch a pot of soup or a casserole. That would be terrible if the canned tomatoes spoiled. And then I got to thinking about it all. I guess that is why tomatoes taste like cardboard these days. They have none of that good tomato taste that we used to look forward to each summer. I can still smell that good tomato smell and taste that great taste of years ago. But I never knew exactly what had happened to the tomatoes. And now I know.

I already knew the grains and meats had been genetically engineered to the point that you wonder just what it is that you are eating some days. But I really didn’t know that was why tomatoes had changed so much. Guess that means all the fruits and vegetables are genetically altered to the point that they can sit on the grocer’s shelf for months before spoiling. That is why they can ship them all over the world without damage. Used to be, the tomatoes in the southern part of our state had to be bought, shipped and eaten or canned in a few day’s time or else they would not be palatable. Now, I go into the store, no matter if it is a local one or a national one, feel the hard tough tomato, try to smell it to see if it will have any taste and come away from the store disappointed once again.

And it is said that even if you grow them yourself from old time seeds, they will still get genetically altered if they are pollinated by the bees and cross pollinated with a neighbor’s seeds. Just the same taste as an old piece of cardboard.

I know people get sick and tired of hearing about how good things used to be, but you know that is true these days. Wish we could return to the good tasting, big, bursting tomatoes like my grandmother used to grow. Or to the really great tasting watermelon that I used to eat as a kid,  or to summer squash that tasted like squash instead of a yellow notepad. And those freshly made preserves were so good. I can still remember the true plum preserves and that great strawberry shortcake. Where did it all go? Genetically altered, that’s where it went. What a shame. But I can still wish.

Signs of Change

Pay attention to what all God is doing in this world.  Remember when those liberals were chanting about population explosion? Well, they convinced all kinds of people to kill their unborn children. And so now, God has turned that around and most of the people in this country are against abortions. And the total is climbing every day. Those liberals are still spinning around and insisting that they know best, but they don’t.

And then there were those who hollered loud and clear about how global warming is going to kill us all.  Why the Arctic is going to turn in a big sloshy mess any day now. And instead, Antarctica is now experiencing the coldest weather that has ever happened there. Isn’t that interesting though? Remember it’s God’s world. He is going to take care of it just fine.

And now we are inundated with rain, rain, and more rain. I  believe I have been hearing for years how the farmers are most concerned because the water table has fallen so low all over the country. So guess what! God is now taking care of that one. The drought in Texas has been very serious for several years. It has already been taken care of with the recent rains. The farmers won’t have to worry about the water table for quite some time. In our state, we have had more rain this year than has fallen since the late 1800’s. Isn’t that amazing though.

And how about those snows out west. Could it be that the weather is being straightened out there too? And in the process, it will also help their economy as they depend on that snowfall each year. Again, isn’t that amazing. God seems to know what everyone needs and provides just fine. Without a bit of help from those liberals either. They can just keep right on spinning around and whining about all these terrible things that are going to  happen to us. And it’s not going to happen anyway. God will take care of everything in His own time.

And what those liberals do not understand, at least not yet, is that they are through, through, through. Permanently. We won’t have to listen to their extreme rhetoric anymore. I can hardly wait until the media finally tunes them out. They are a past that we don’t need to repeat. Just watch and see how God takes care of everything. Including all their agenda. Pay attention to what God is doing in this world. And then say your prayers of Thanksgiving for all blessings received.