Thanksgiving, 2022

 The Condition

Thanksgiving, 2022

Upbeat

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

Listening to the radio this morning would make you think the celebration at hand is Christmas and not Thanksgiving.

Hearing Santa Baby one more time might just put a bunch of Westerners over the top. If there was a direct line to any modern disk jockey, a request for Gene Autry would be the better ticket. A straight dose of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer would be preferably to the risk of the other.

The Condition

There is hate and discontent everywhere these days.

For starters, we have a fellow who has spent some $11M jetting back and forth from Washington to his seaside hacienda. He has made it abundantly clear he doesn’t have much use for the majority of us hinterlanders with our propensity to make independent choices.

So much for uniting the country.

There was an article yesterday where rural Illinois wants to separate itself from the fruit cakes and steel jungles of Chicago. To a citizen west of the 100th Meridian, that was a shock until the realization hits home that this is a rural versus urban division. Then it all makes sense. It also makes the count something like seven cursory discussions of divorcing those centers of liberal stupidity from rural America.

In order, there have been five counties in New Mexico and two counties in Arizona voicing preference in seceding and joining Texas. At one time, there was even a name associated with these counties for the purposes of a new state. The name was Sacramento. Likewise, inland California has long dreamed of separation from the oppressive strongholds of their political masters. They’ve had enough of the sophisticated hell of coastal and urban enclaves. Next in line, eleven Oregon counties have now voted to leave Portland and northwest Oregon’s stranglehold on that state’s politics and join Idaho in a geographic footprint they are calling Greater Idaho. The new state would keep an access to the sea in addition to regaining its freedom of expression.

The other discussions have been more clandestine to match the image of their backroom locations. One of them came from the very saloon in Montana where Clint Wells was reputed to have fought a famous bouncer and beat him. Somebody in that fine establishment took exception to the appearance of the western Montana border as if was looking down at Idaho as an undeniable profile of the Chief Executive sniffing another little girl’s hair. The conclusion was that the county exhibiting such a schnauz should join Greater Idaho just to clean up that disagreeable profile.

Next comes the simple suggestion of a coin flip. The exact location of this debate was noted only by GPS in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in deer camp occupied by the original band members of the Yoopers. They were singing the 90th verse of The Second Week of Deer Camp when Walter accused Dieter of taking his beer. In the fist fight that ensued, Beetle came up with the idea of solving problems of this order with a simple coin flip. The greater ceremony derived from this discussion could be held concurrent with the Super Bowl coin flip so the entire world can at least witness the shenanigans that are bound to come from dividing the county into two. Conservatives will live in one and the liberals will be required to pack and head off to cohabitate with their likeminded sisters in the other. Whether it was west of the Mississippi or east of the Mississippi would be decided in the toss.

The final realignment suggestion comes from nearer home.

In that alternative, all political parties would be dissolved and outlawed January 22, 2023. To paraphrase the sage of this conversation, political parties are extraconstitutional (try to find where they are granted standing or authority over the Legislative, Executive, or Judicial Branches). Our country was not envisioned to become a bicameral political party republic whose power came from the highest bidding special interest. As it is now, these two political parties are about to destroy the whole. There is no thanksgiving in that regard.

A departure from their contrived division and negativity is the order.

Upbeat

A return to originalism is the better order. No television and few to none store bought anything have special draw this Thanksgiving Day.

The majority leaders in practice this day are the ranking grandmothers. Both of mine left huge impacts on everyone they touched. So often both are brought up in conversation. More often, their memory and their influences have long been daily reminders. Among all elders, their unconditional love remains the most profound.

I shared with Rena and Karen that our rolls come from the recipe of our grandmothers, the Moss sisters. Amy will bring popcorn balls from the verbal and practiced instructions of one of them as well. Stuffing will be an attempt to mimic a more moist version of same and giblets will be added to the gravy as a matter of respect.

The cranberries will have the same cream cheese topping, served on the same crystal, and spooned with the same little silver fork that has been part of that ritual since before memory of these things even began. The mashed potatoes that will be served will be compared to those of Grandma Wilmeth.  She cooked a few things superbly, and berry cobblers and mashed potatoes were two that were.

The pie crusts are direct replications of those of the days when cream joined butter as central ingredients of nearly everything worth eating. The fillings have changed to the extent that pecan has become a favorite. That isn’t to say, though, that the cream and pumpkin pies, or something with apples doesn’t have a place of honor. Only rhubarb and mincemeat are now missing with the latter a huge loss. The harvest of mincemeat and its special, almost guarded recipe were so special.

At the Wilmeth house the activities would then move to the living room and a game or two of pitch would break out. The room would boom with laughter and conversation. At the Rice’s, the inside activities would move to conversation with pies figuring more prominently as time passed.

At both, though, the outside world was still preferred. A .22, a pickup, and a saddled horse held sway. We were Westerners, and, to this day, a few of us remain tied to that dream.

So, you see … Thanksgiving remains an important event.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Those holiday events shaped us in more ways than not.”