Remember When?

Local resident shares holiday memories

The November 27 print edition of The Monticello News features a special interview with a long-time Jasper County resident.

Mrs. Annie P. Williams, of Shady Dale, was gracious enough to share her recollections of Thanksgiving’s past with readers. Excerpts from the feature are included here. {{more}}

Around Thanksgiving time when I was a little girl it was always a real busy time. We gathered in the crop and our first job was to get out and catch the chickens and put them in the coup to have for Thanksgiving. We didn’t always have turkeys as we do now. But we had plenty of chickens on the yard. Mom had us go catch these roosters and put them in the coup, she said they needed cleaning ‘fore you killed them …

The Thanksgiving dinner would be something extra we thought because we were going to have cake and this tator pudding. On Thanksgiving plenty chicken and chicken dressing I thought my Mom could make the best chicken dressing in the world. ‘Course I guess all children feel that way about Mom’s food. (She chuckles.) We gathered this stuff she sent us out. Somebody go get some sage, somebody go pick the onions out of the garden. You gathered this stuff. I don’t know why she did this but she put the sage in the stove, and the pepper in the stove and died it out then you shelled this stuff up where it would shell up real fine it went in the dressing too …

Well, I still try to celebrate Thanksgiving. I’ve got a bunch of grandchildren. When November come, no doubt I’ve already got my cakes done in the freezer. That’s so I can get ahead ’cause I’ve got some hard eatin’ grandchildren …

The entire interview may be found in the Nov. 27
print edition of The Monticello News