THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS, AND GRANDMA'S COAL STOVE

The television show “Hee Haw” had a short that started, “Hey, Grandpa, what's for supper?” I've listened to his answers often enough to know that he was probably at my grandma's house when he answered. Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner were BIG DEALS when we lived next door to Grandma and Pappy. She had a coal-burning stove whose brand was, I believe, “Super Chief.” On cold evenings we used to sit in front of the stove with our feet on the open oven door. It was toasty. She got a new stove, and I don't remember what brand it was. BUT, it was still a coal and wood burner.

I know that my mother made some of the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner foods at our house and brought them over to Grandma's, but I'm not sure I was greatly aware of that when I was little. Turkey was not a staple of the menu on either Thanksgiving or Christmas Day. We always had ham, and we always had chicken – two ways. One way was baked, and the other way, my favorite, was swimming in gravy. I don't know what happened to the chicken before it got put in the gravy, but it was my favorite. Others reached for the breast, but I always wanted the leg. There was one other favorite part of the chicken for my sister and me – the heart. We tried to remember who had had the heart the last time we had chicken, but we didn't always remember right. I was always sure my sister had had the heart the last time, and it was my turn now. To solve the problem, my mother decided to cut the chicken heart into two pieces. So, for most of my young life, my sister and I ate half a chicken heart at a meal.

Homemade noodles, thick and long, were always part of the meal. They made a good combination with mashed potatoes and gravy. I have yet to tell my cardiologist about that particular combination. The stuffing on my plate was usually beside the mashed potatoes and noodles, but close enough to be in the same gravy. The gravy was honest-to-goodness chicken gravy – NOT a white cream gravy. In fact, there were always little pieces of chicken meat in the chicken gravy. I guess the only things I didn't eat with gravy were the vegetables, the cranberry sauce, and the sweet potatoes. How was there room on the plate for everything?

Grandma usually made home-made rolls, twice as big at the top as on the bottom, and the top had a slight crunch to it. They were served warm enough to melt the butter, and plenty of it was used. Yes, we dipped the rolls in the gravy, too. Desert was often mince-meat pie, too grown-up a taste for me, so I always held out for the fresh apple pie. The adults who didn't have mince-meat pie, had plum pudding with sweet cream sauce. I didn't like the plum pudding, but I did like the sweet cream sauce. Unless I ate the plum pudding, I didn't get the sweet cream sauce, so I didn't get much sweet cream sauce.

We ate all of this at one sitting. We didn't go watch a football game and come back for desert later. We ate it all at one time. Grandma and Pappy didn't have a television, so watching football was not an option. (How long has the Thanksgiving Day football game been on tv?)

I loved to watch Pappy when he got his coffee. He would fill the cup about three fourths full and then pour milk in the cup until it overflowed and filled the saucer. Then he'd take the cup out of the saucer, lift the saucer to his lips and drink from it first. I'm not sure that's a bad idea. I like the taste of milk better than the taste of coffee.

Grandma also made home made doughnuts. She would make the dough and let me help cut out the doughnut shapes by using a glass. When I thought all the dough was used, she would roll it in her hands, put it on the table, and run the rolling pin over it. Walla, more doughnut makings. Sometimes she would let me make some of the left-over dough into doughnuts in the shapes left after the circles had been cut out. I always liked the weird shaped ones. Of course, I never turned down any of the regular shaped ones either.

Cooking oil was heated on top of the stove, and the doughnuts were dropped into the hot oil. Grandma would take them out when they were done and put them on the table to cool. Before they got cold, I got to roll them in sugar. We always ate some of them before they had cooled completely. I haven't told my cardiologist about the dounghnuts either. He'd probably want some.

The coal bucket sat beside the stove, and the wood box was not far away. Sometimes Grandma needed more heat in the oven quickly, so she would put in some wood. I have no idea how she knew when the oven was the right temperature. A large pan about two feet wide and three feet long was sometimes placed on top of the stove. The pan had a shallow top and a bottom section that held water. I enjoyed it when Grandma put apple slices on top and water in the bottom and put it on the stove. She was drying apples. She also dried corn, but I liked the apples better.

Strawberry shortcake means something different to me than it does to many other people. Grandma made a pie crust, put in a layer of strawberries, another pie crust and a second layer of strawberries. Then it was ready to be put in a bowl with milk and sugar. Yes, she had mixed sugar with the strawberries, but it always needed some more sugar on top. The other specialty that needed milk and sugar was apple dumplings made with sliced apple pieces NOT whole apples.

When I went away to college, Grandma, upon occasion, sent me a box of doughnuts and home-made buns. I was the most popular guy in the dorm for a while.

I have sometimes helped my wife make Thanksgiving dinner, and I have come to realize what a feat it is to get all the food on the table hot at the same time. I don't know how Grandma did it with a coal stove. Wait, maybe that's it. I think I'll get my wife a coal stove. I'm sure she'll like it.