Thanksgiving means different things to different people, but the common thread running through every celebration is gratitude, connection and the creation of lasting memories.
Whether it’s a formal dinner with perfectly pressed linens and assigned seating, a chaotic food fight that ends in laughter, or a simple meal shared by two people surrounded by moving boxes, these moments shape our understanding of what it means to give thanks.
The residents of Philomath who responded to our call for favorite Thanksgiving memories shared stories that span decades and continents — from Denmark to Oklahoma, from military mess halls to muddy middle school fields. Their recollections remind us that the holiday’s magic isn’t found in perfection, but in the people we gather with, the traditions we create, and the joy we find in both the expected and unexpected moments that make each Thanksgiving uniquely our own.
College kids visit
“My fun memory is that my husband’s brother was a college student at the University of Oregon. A lot of him and his friends didn’t go back home during the quick Thanksgiving weekend (since they would go home in a week and a half for winter break) so for three years in a row, we had three or four college kids with us for a couple of nights. My younger kids loved playing with the guys, watching football, I loved cooking for them all and it was such a loud and fun time. I will cherish those few years with a very full house filled with laughter and joy.”
— Shelby Juhl, Philomath
Danish fish dinner
“In 1984-85, my family shared in my Fulbright year in Denmark. That award was special for me as my mother’s family all came from Denmark. There were a few American Fulbrighters that year, so we decided to gather for Thanksgiving. Our quest for a turkey went awry as turkeys were not to be found. Rodsparette (a popular fish) didn’t have the same ring as turkey, but in another country you do what the locals do — eat fish.
“By late November, we awoke in the dark, ate Danish foods whenever possible and used candles abundantly. We were few in number, but sharing our national meal in candlelight made us all feel happy. Our neighbors assured us that candles would do more than merely shed light.”
— Art Bervin, Philomath
Turkey Bingo nights
“Some of my favorite memories are of Turkey Bingo at Philomath Middle School. It started as a fundraiser for Outdoor School and was always a lively good time with the thrill of maybe winning a frozen turkey or a 12-pack of toilet paper or paper towels. (Families donated the turkeys and Georgia Pacific donated paper goods through one of the moms.) A whole bunch of random donations. It was a really fun family event.
“Another very fun ‘kick off the season’ event was the Philomath boys basketball preview night and pie auction held the week of Thanksgiving. The boys made the pies themselves and they got auctioned off for outrageous amounts all for a good cause.
“Of course, both of those events still go on in our community, but they were such great fun and good kickoff events for the start of the holiday season. Such great memories!”
— Lauri Lehman, Philomath
‘Turkey Mud Bowl’
“One of my best memories was Thanksgiving Day 2008 at Philomath Middle School field. Danielle and I organized a flag football game with over 60 kids and adults playing “Turkey Mud Bowl” early on Thanksgiving morning. Not your typical 11-on-11 football game. We all played flag football together at the same time with 30-on-30.
“The gridiron is known to be a tough, relentless, and unforgiving place. But on this day, it’s a place where Philomath kids and adults bonded a stronger friendship. I have special memories of my twin boys, Spencer and Koeby, and their friends getting super muddy and smiling the entire time. The best part was the hot chocolate and donuts after the game. And of course we played again on Thanksgiving in 2009.”
— Rick Bennett, Philomath
Annual football game
“The second Thanksgiving after we were married, we played a classic family game of football on Thanksgiving Day. Playing that first game, in 1992, there were just six of us — me and my wife and her brother, sister, and parents. However, we have been spending Thanksgiving with Kiki’s extended family every year since, and it always includes the family football game, with anywhere from 12 to 20 people playing. For many years, we had three generations on the field. And we’ll be keeping the tradition alive again this year.”
— Tom Klipfel, Philomath
Grandparents together again
“My favorite Thanksgiving memory is from 1971. I was a senior in high school and it was the last time all four of my grandparents were together. They weren’t close, but I remember my Oregon grandmother greeting my Oklahoma grandfather as “Mr. Minyard,” and his reply, “Today I’m Bob.” That cordiality set the tone.
“After dinner, we all watched the Oklahoma-Nebraska football game, rooting for Oklahoma. It turned out to be the “Game of the Century,” but I mostly remember the joy in that living room throughout the evening.”
— John Barlow, Philomath
Teaching thankful hearts
“As we raised our children, we tried to teach them the joy of gratitude, and also, what they could learn from their day-to-day experiences. Each night at dinner, we would ask the three of them what their ‘favorite thing’ of the day had been, and, too, what had been their ‘least favorite’ thing. They could have as many ‘favorites’ as they wished, but they had to have at least one. They didn’t have to have a ‘least favorite,’ and they could only have one. It was a delightful way to understand their world, and we hoped that it would teach them about kindness and thankfulness.
“The years passed, they grew up, left home, and then had their own families. One of the traditions that they then used in their families’ lives was a variation of this tradition. When our daughter and her family (husband, kids and in-laws) invited us to Thanksgiving when they were living in Redmond, we readily accepted. I recall driving over the Cascades in a snowstorm. They had a toddler son and a 5-year old daughter at the time. For the big meal, our granddaughter was finally at the table with the adults, now sitting on a booster seat; her little brother had the high chair.
“After our Thanksgiving prayer, I suggested, “Let’s go around the table and say what we are grateful for.” Politely (of course, she is my granddaughter after all) she raised her hand. “I want to go first!” We all nodded in agreement that her excitement to begin an adult conversation was delightful.
“Quickly, she jumped out of her chair and began to walk around the table, gleefully saying aloud all the way, ‘I am thankful for …’ By the time she had finally returned to her seat we were in an uproar.”
— David and Lynn Grube, Philomath
Husbands went hunting
“There are many wonderful memories of Thanksgiving over the last 70 years but one of my favorites was when the husbands all went hunting and the kids and I had a traditional dinner together. Without the pressure to impress the husband, the dinner was simple and wonderful with many relaxing moments. The boys also had a special day when they made Thanksgiving dinner over a fire, including the pie. Though not a conventional day, it was special for all of us and the break from a traditional Thanksgiving was fun.”
— Lou Ann Mergl, Philomath
Discarded dishes disaster
“Years ago, my wife and I both got new jobs in a new town and found out we were pregnant with our first child. We bought a new house and moved in the weekend before Thanksgiving. But on moving day, my wife succumbed to bad morning sickness and was bedridden so I piled boxes in a spare room waiting for her to feel better.
“In a new town, with no friends or family, I decided to stuff and roast a chicken, fix some sides and a salad for the two of us. I dug through the moving boxes, found our good stoneware, and pulled out and unwrapped two plates and two bowls. We celebrated the day thankful for our new house, new jobs, new city, and new child on the way.
“The next day, trash day, I hauled boxes of newspaper wads and moved detritus to the curb. Later, I realized that one of the boxes I so dutifully hauled to the curb wasn’t just newspaper, it was all the rest of our good dishes. All we now had were the two plates and two bowls I had pulled out for the Thanksgiving dinner. We still laugh about that first Thanksgiving in that new house when I threw away our dishes.”
— Steve King, Philomath
Two family traditions
“Jenny and I have been married for 25 years, which has given us plenty of opportunities to experience Thanksgiving Day with both the Workman side of the family and the Snyder side of the family. My grandmother was all-in on the traditional formalities of Thanksgiving dinner. The tables were set the day before, with multiple forks, nicely folded cloth napkins, handwritten little name cards in perfect calligraphy, and beautiful goblets at each plate, both at the adult table and the kids’ table. The centerpieces were fabulous, table clothes nicely pressed, and everything and everyone was in their proper place.
“The house smelled of turkey and warm homemade rolls, and the wood fireplace crackled in the background as we all took our assigned seats. Grandpa led us in prayer as we all bowed our heads and reverently waited to eat. After prayer, we took the platter of food closest to us, placed some on our plate, and then passed the platter to the next person to our left. This continued until everyone had a full plate, then we began to eat.
“The kids mostly kept to ourselves, allowing the adults to converse without being disturbed or having to quiet us down. The food was delicious and filling. After dinner, the adults went to the soft couches in the living room, while the kids headed for the family room to play Uno or Go Fish. It’s not that we were always perfectly behaved, but we all seemed to know what was expected of us, and for the most part, we had a nice, enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner. This happened every year, from as early as I can remember until my grandparents moved into the care home and stopped hosting.
“Thanksgiving dinner at the Snyder home was a little different. The year we were married, and most years since, dinner was held the Friday after Thanksgiving — though sometimes it worked better for everyone’s schedules to do it on Saturday, Sunday, or whenever. Jenny’s mom is a great cook, but very anxious and always worried the turkey would be too dry, the stuffing would be undercooked, and the three-layer gelatin salad wouldn’t set up. The house was usually already decorated for Christmas with little knickknacks everywhere, and the table was covered with a festive table cloth, but no centerpiece — “Who has time for such things,” she would say.
“There were always more chairs and people than could fit around the table, but somehow we managed to have just enough people willing to sit on the couch or in the rocking chair. Plates of food were placed on the center of the table, filling it to overflowing so there was no longer room for your plate. Forks were in the plastic cup, also in the middle of the table, so you had to grab one before they were gone and you had to wait for someone to finish eating before you could wash their fork and use it.
“As soon as the stuffing came out, Jenny’s younger brother makes a grab for the entire bowl and runs to his bedroom, hacking about his successful filch. The spoon for the gravy has fallen into the pan, so gravy is now poured out directly from the pan onto plates, only mostly making it onto the mashed potatoes. In addition to turkey, a huge pan of lasagna comes out of the oven. Why not, everyone loves lasagna! There is no order to the conversation, which is really mostly yelling and laughing about stealing food off others’ plates and peas getting thrown across the table at each other.
“Before everyone is done eating, her sister decides it’s time for pie, so food is removed from the center of the table (before most of us had gotten to it) and replaced with pumpkin pie. It isn’t long before pea-throwing is escalated to chunks of pie hurling across the room, followed by mashed potatoes with hot gravy, stuffing that had made its way back out of her brother’s room, and anything else that would catapult from one side of the room to the other. Ten minutes later, the food fight is over, pie is smashed into the carpet, chairs are toppled over, her sister’s hair is adorned with chunks of potato and the dogs are running and barking at everyone in all the excitement. We left a complete mess, with our tummies full and our cheeks stinging from all the laughter.
“You may think this was just a one-time occurrence, but no, revenge rears its head each year, and a similar mess is highly likely each year.
“We have hosted Thanksgiving at our house several times over the past 25 years. It has never been as formal as the Thanksgivings of my childhood, nor as chaotic as Jenny’s family introduced me to. Even with our dogs, kids, aging parents and rival siblings coming over, I think we’ve been able to strike a good balance between the two. Of course, we’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house again this year, so we’ll see ….”
— Chris Workman, Philomath
Mess hall meeting
“Shelley and Eric Niemann met in the mess hall on Thanksgiving Day at Fort Ord in Monterey, California. Eric was serving in the Army as the staff duty officer that day and Shelley was taking a break from her studies at Oregon State to visit her parents who were also stationed at Fort Ord at the time. Shelley and Eric shared a meal with the troops, got acquainted, fell in love, and eventually tied the knot.
“They feel blessed they found each other and later found their way to Philomath. They give thanks for their parents, children, family, friends, and countless others who make this community such a special place to live. Happy Thanksgiving!”
— Eric and Shelley Niemann, Philomath
Oven lock disaster
“As the turkey was baking in the oven and the guests were beginning to arrive, I somehow decided to move this lever on the oven door. Immediately, the oven started to heat to 500 degrees and the oven wouldn’t open. It looked as if we were going to have crispy turkey for dinner. I finally decided to break the lock, and the oven door, and finally got the oven to open. We ended up with a wonderful family meal, but it was also very expensive, the cost of a new oven.”
— Norm Robinson, Philomath
Fire changed perspective
“Our 2016 Thanksgiving was unforgettable for my husband and I. Due to the recent death of my dear mother-in-law, we opted not to host Thanksgiving that year. We left our home at the break of dawn, and headed to the hills to hunt for elk. Smoke caught my eye. As we drove toward it, flames came into view, and I called 911. After helping move belongings away from the fire, my husband joined me, and along with the homeowner and his young family, we watched helplessly as the flames spread. Eventually we made it to the hills to hunt for elk, but not before witnessing a powerful, dramatic reminder of how much we had to be thankful for and how quickly that can change.”
— Diane Noble, Philomath