Pumpkin Pie Tradition
When it used to mean something
What Ronny liked best about Thanksgiving was pumpkin pie. He never got enough of it as a child because it had to be divided between all the children. As an adult, he would eat an entire pumpkin pie all by himself.
In one sitting.
Thanksgiving traditions can last for generations with only minor changes and additions but Ronny started a whole new tradition that he hoped to pass on to his progeny and beyond.
Forget the turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and gravy and corn and cranberry sauce. He decided to make Thanksgiving about one thing and one thing only; pumpkin pie.
And it wasn’t just about eating pumpkin pie. Ronny decided to learn everything he could about pumpkins, including how to bake the pies himself. There would be no more store-bought pies. He baked the pies himself using organic pumpkins that he harvested himself from local farms in the dark of the night.
Ronny was fortunate when he married a vegetarian who happened to love pumpkin pie. She had no problem not eating a big fat bird on Thanksgiving. After their first kid plopped out the family bought a house and Ronny turned the entire backyard into a giant pumpkin patch.
After three more kids plopped out Ronny’s new Thanksgiving tradition had been firmly established. First of all, no one in the family was allowed to call the day Thanksgiving Day. The new name was Thankspumpkin Day.
Parades and football were not allowed. The day was spent harvesting and carving pumpkins. Seeds were saved for roasting (the family’s favorite go-to snack while watching movies together). Tons of pumpkin ‘meat’ was put away in the pumpkin freezer so the family could make pumpkins pies for the rest of the year until the next Thankspumpkin Day.
While the kids carved the hollowed out pumpkins they listened to Ronny tell pumpkin stories and tell pumpkin jokes and recount the long history of pumpkin agriculture. The kids were not allowed to carve scary Halloween-type faces on the pumpkins. Only happy faces were allowed.
As the sun went down the family put out a few dozen carved pumpkin shells on the front yard of the house, each with a lit candle inside. Neighbors came out of their homes to marvel at the spectacle.
The family then sat down for their Thankspumpkin Day meal. In front of each family member was one large pumpkin pie and nothing else. Candles were lit and pumpkin music was playing softly in the background. After saying a pumpkin prayer the family commenced eating their pies. For them it was the most cherished holiday of the year.
But then one year Thankspumpkin Day was ruined when Ronny came down with a horrible case of appendicitis. His vegetarian wife took him to the hospital while Grandma came and took the kids to her house where she served a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
The kids kept asking, “But Grandma, where’s the pumpkin pie?”
Grandma replied, “Pumpkin pie is for dessert!”
Confused, the kids looked at each other as though they were suddenly in some foreign country or something. But they were hungry so they ate the traditional meal, in fact they ate so much of it that they had no room for dessert.
The next Thankspumpkin Day was not as joyful as before. Ronny Jr. kept asking if he could watch football. The kids kept saying they wanted to eat at Grandma’s house or at friends’ houses. The kids kept lamenting that they wanted a swing set in the backyard but there was no room for it because of the giant pumpkin patch. There was little laughter as pumpkins were harvested and carved. The happy faces on the pumpkins didn’t look so happy.
Thankspumpkin Day went downhill every year thereafter. The kids just weren’t into it anymore. When they finally grew up and left home they would come home often to visit their parents — but never on Thankspumpkin Day. Instead they began their own families and adopted their own Thanksgiving traditions — which is to say they celebrated it just like everyone else but for one exception; they never had pumpkin pie.
After the kids left home Ronny and his vegetarian wife continued to celebrate Thankspumpkin Day all alone. After their pies were eaten they would sit on the couch and leaf through old photo albums with pictures of the family celebrating Thankspumpkin Day back when it was so much fun.
Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. This is a work of fiction.
Speaking of food stories…