Blessings spread beyond the table
By Mike Haynes
My sister
pretty much has Mom’s chocolate pie down. She makes pecan pie like Mom did,
too, but the chocolate was the hardest to replicate.
Our mother
was known for several things, including playing the organ at church, but her
cooking prowess may have been her biggest claim to fame. For sure at
Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I’ve had
chocolate pie made by others that tasted great, but – and I know I’m biased –
Mom’s is up there one a higher plane. I haven’t tasted a piece anywhere else
that had quite the same slight creaminess while still being firm and flavorful.
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| This chocolate pie was made in 2009 by the columnist's mother, Joyce Haynes. (Photo by Mike Haynes) |
Sister
Sheri has taken over a lot of what Mom provided for her family and friends,
even to the point of her chocolate pie bringing $200 at a charity auction and
delivering pies to shut-in friends. And other family members contribute to
filling in for their mother who died five years ago. In this case, maybe it doesn’t
take a village, but it takes a family.
Thanksgiving
is one of those times when it’s obvious.
Mom used to be firmly in charge of the turkey, the macaroni and cheese
with crushed crackers on top, the green bean casserole and so many more side
dishes. Oh, and the dressing. Everybody likes the dressing they grew up with,
and Sheri kind of has that down, too.
But it
isn’t just Sheri. It takes two or three sisters-in-law to make up for Mom not
being there – plus my brother Sam, who was the only one of us boys who grew up
helping in the kitchen. He still does, proving that a former all-district
athlete and coach also can make cream cheese dip and wash dishes.
We manage
to keep holidays going almost like when Mom was here.
It’s the
same in the community. My sister doesn’t play the organ at church (although she
could), but she follows in her mother’s footsteps by leading young kids in
singing and joining half a dozen or more church women in preparing and serving
meals for funerals and other events.
That’s
where we see that it isn’t just us. In the Texas Panhandle, we still have some
families who have been in their towns for generations. At our hometown, just
one of several examples is Rose, who’s about my sister’s age. She might be at
the church more than the preacher, just like her mother, Mary, was, helping
with those funerals, making announcements on Sunday mornings and getting her
kids involved. And before Mary, her mother was doing the same thing, and at
least one more generation before that helped keep that congregation going.
Today, so
many children grow up and leave for larger cities and better opportunities,
which is understandable. I ended up only 70 miles away from home, but because
I’m not a good cowboy and my skills have been better suited elsewhere, I have
to drive an hour or so to see family and hometown friends.
I feel
blessed to be that close. When I do make that drive for a football game or a
wedding or funeral – or Thanksgiving or Christmas – I love seeing family and
community traditions continuing.
It’s not
unlike the Christian faith being passed down for 2,000 years – and the Jewish
faith on which it’s built for longer than that. From Jesus to Peter and Paul to
the early church fathers to medieval monks to Martin Luther to John Wesley to Fanny
Crosby to Mother Teresa, just to mention a few, God’s message continues to be
passed on – by those big names but also by mothers and fathers quietly handing
the baton to the next generation.
This
Thanksgiving, we had about 25 of our family at the 68-year-old house where Mom
cooked and practiced the organ and raised five kids and where Dad still hosts
us. We sat on benches at the same big kitchen table with the overflow in the
dining room, and it wasn’t much different from when I was a kid.
Not
everyone has that kind of continuity, but wherever a person finds love and
acceptance and maybe some turkey, they can experience some of the blessed Thanksgiving
tradition.
Even if they don’t have the best chocolate pie
in the world.
* * *
Mike Haynes taught journalism at Amarillo
College from 1991 to 2016. He can be reached at haynescolumn@gmail.com. Go to www.haynescolumn.blogspot.com
for other recent columns.
