Be Thankful
A wood burning cook stove held a place in the corner of my Mom’s kitchen. When my middle brother headed off for the Army, I inherited the responsibility to kindle the fire in it every morning. After, of course Mom roused me from beneath the pile of quilts that made up my bed.
Mom’s kitchen was warmed by that old stove whether she cooked anything on it or not. She did have an electric range sitting on the other side of the kitchen. It warmed with the flip of a switch, but certainly lacked the character of the wood burner. My bucket list includes a kitchen with a wood burning cooking stove, if for no other reason but to keep alive cherished memories.
I often find myself thinking of those days. We called them simpler times, a time when life was not so complicated. Truth is the times seem more complicated today than they did last year, or last month or even last week. Times change, but people mostly remain the same.
At this time for giving thanks, we have difficulty deciding for what we should be thankful. Some of us even ponder to whom or to what we should be thankful. I do not know any man or woman’s heart in that regard so I will leave the question to whom or what as something each of us might ponder. It is a time for thankfulness, but so too is it a time for introspect.
Thanksgiving was a special time when I was growing up. Mom’s kitchen was a busy place and even the old wood burner would see some work. We did not run to the store for turkey or ham and there was really no telling what might turn up on the table for dinner. I remember birds losing their heads over the matter, being scalded, plucked, singed, dressed and put in the oven. There would be ham from a hog that I dutifully slopped one time or another and as hunting season was on there was no anticipating what else might show up. As long as there was Mom’s potato salad, sweet potatoes, banana pudding, chocolate pie and big fat yeast rolls, I was set. It was a time to be thankful and I was taught a time to count my many blessings and to count them one by one.
I am thankful that I was born an American. I am thankful for our founders and their brilliance in examining the reasons other nations and forms of government failed and from that examination designing for us the most effective form of government ever. It is a system designed to right itself when led astray by unscrupulous people, but as they warned us a government that only works for a moral, law abiding citizenry.
I am thankful for the men and women who sacrificed throughout our nation’s history, from the very beginning up to this very day to secure and preserve freedom in this land and others.
I am thankful for the honesty of those I count as my friends. Friends who do not fear telling me the truth, otherwise they would not be friends.
In this life, I certainly feel blessed and certainly more than I deserve. Through life’s trials, situations that for me could have turned disastrous did not. There have been times when I have felt wronged or to some degree rejected only to find the new path on which I was placed a better one – the right one. I believe we all have a path to travel and as long as we stay on the right trail things will work out. I am thankful for that bit of life’s wisdom and my belief of its origin.
I am thankful for the family values taught me at times of lighting that wood burner and the honesty and work ethic I saw each day from my Dad. I am thankful for the best wife, son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren a man could be blessed to have.
I am thankful for the faith that just as people find the right path to travel our country will also find its way.
Take time to gives thanks this week. Count your many blessings. Count them one by one.
To your family from mine, have a blessed Thanksgiving.
© J. D. Pendry 2014 American Journal
Category: Politics
Well said, CSM Pendry.
As have you, I’ve see a bit of the world outside the US. I thus have a damn good idea of just how lucky I was to be born an American.
Everyone who was born in this nation should give thanks, daily, for the privilege of being born here. She’s not perfect, but if there’s a better place in the world than the USA – I’ve certainly not seen it.
And I doubt I ever will.
Well said, I have to share that with friends.
Thank you CSM for words that couldn’t be truer. These next few weeks are times when we seem to be a bit materialistic, making sure we have the best gift picked out for someone and hit all of the sales. Words like yours remind us that often the best gift is love, friendship, support or comradeship, if not all of the above. Kids outgrow toys, ipads get obsolete in 6 months, but family, be it by blood or by becoming family by sharing an MRE on the fender of a 5 ton in some far off zip code, are forever. I myself am thankful for my 1 million plus extended family members.
Now, what’s for chow??
JD I greatly enjoy what you write. Thanks for sharing.
I wish I had a wood stove now
Nothing warms you like a wood stove – warms ya from the inside out.
I remember when my step-dad installed a “flue oven” on our stove when I was young. Mom got pretty good at baking cakes in that thing. Good memories.
Nicely done, JD!
We do have a wood burning stove. It’s not installed, but at least is available should it be needed. It’s just sitting there. Ready.
Been thinking lately about that gratitude thing. It may seem rather odd, but I am especially grateful of late for the increasing number of cyber friends out there. Perhaps the saddest part of aging is the shrinking pool of contemporary friendships. Along with cultivating younger friends, these confounded interwebs are providing new friends to help fill that void left from those long time face-to-face friends who keep leaving us.
Mr. Pendry sir, thank you again for this wonderful missive. As I wrote on your last post I was raised in the mountains of North Carolina. A large saw mill and farming family. We too used a wood burning cook stove, or should I say my momma and grandmomma did. Every day, three meals a day, all year round unless something bad had happened. Big meals to feed hard working people. Some of my fondest memories are of waking up to the smell of that stove. Sliced smoked ham being fried and fresh biscuits baking. Thanksgiving was so much to us I actually got excited each year it came. A huge crowd of family, friends and some years our pastor and his family. Since the pastor had so many invitations he had to spread it around. The “kids” tables, from which I remember “graduating” to sit with the grown folks. The smells come to me now as I type and with them the memories of so many things but most of all, the love that was shared. Our family had its odd balls and left field members like most but at Thanksgiving especially and then Christmas, all was put aside to join in a common voice of thanks to God. Not just for the food before us that day but for the many, even countless blessings He had showered on our family in the past year. That old stove was warm in the winter and HOT in the summer. I understood at an early age what “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” meant. Summer or winter was three meals a day and that stove never cooled off. Even left over warmth in the morning except in the coldest of winter. By the time breakfast was eaten, clean up was commenced and then the preparation of food for dinner. Then the same after dinner to get supper ready. I could walk through the kitchen on a hot mid summer’s day and the heat would actually take my breath away. Boiling water or food made the already… Read more »
Sparks, yet another wonderful memory, IMHO. Lots of memory and love went into these. Thanks for sharing. I’ll fondly recall them at about 0200.
Salute CSM! Yet another reason I love TAH. The antics with the idiots is fun, but posts like yours warm the heart.
Thanks-Giving 2014 will be spent at my mom’s house with her new husband. Dad is sick at hospital (pneumonia and a broken back), so no Thanksgiving for him with the family.
It’ll probably be the poor guy’s last Thanksgiving, ever. But then again, he is 74 years old, so I guess that’s to be expected.
Right now, I’m just leaving all that in God’s hands. It’s all I CAN do.
Tempus fugit; memento mori.
I figured this would be a good place to put this.
I just got the final information today. Due to pre-existing eye conditions, I am medical exempt from serving in the US Military. Unless someone comes up with a Steve Rogers-worthy serum, I’m afraid I will not be able to join you fine people as veterans.
I am thankful for you guys being here for me, helping me through the process, but more importantly I’m thankful for making great friends here. I intend to remain a regular at TAH despite my inability to join the Army (don’t worry, you won’t see me on the front page any time soon… for anything bad, of course. I wouldn’t mind doing something good and getting on here).
So, thank you all.