Deborama’s Kitchen — Not exactly celebrating Thanksgiving because that would be wrong…

None of the alternate names really quite get at the refusal to celebrate Thanksgiving as an acknowledgement that it was based on lies, conquest, religious bigotry, and ultimately, attempted genocide. It’s never been my favorite holiday anyway. I don’t exactly have a favorite holiday. I like my own birthday far more than is seemly for a woman of my age. But I used to like the food.

When I was trying to be vegan, roughly 1994–1998, it was a little problematic unless I stayed away from family and went to the Liberal Catholic Church (which, alas, I believe is shut down.) They always had a vegetarian potluck feast on Thanksgiving which some years was a high point of my year. Then I was in England 1998–2011, where of course it’s not a thing.

I seem to recall Lewis and I travelled to the US to join a Keefer family Thanksgiving. Was it at my youngest sister’s house in Hattiesburg, MS? I don’t remember the exact year, but Savannah was a toddler, and Kevin was still alive. I have pictures, but Lewis is not in them, so it must have been earlier. Before Savannah was even born, and more likely at my second sister’s house in Gulfport, MS. I remember that Shephard, the Gulfport sister’s late husband, took Lewis out to the back forty to learn how to shoot a gun. Lewis was somewhat bemused…