Palm Beach Daily News readers recall special Thanksgiving memories
This year marks a return to normalcy for Thanksgiving celebrations after the COVID-19 pandemic forced many islanders to celebrate in place in 2020. That meant not seeing relatives whom they hold dear (or otherwise) who normally are part of their celebration.
Thus, we anticipate that many people will be grateful for a lot of things, especially family.
In an attempt to bring a little levity to this year's festivities we have asked residents to share some of their most unusual Thanksgivings — could be something odd, plain whacky, hilarious or particularly poignant. Uncle Joe's gross green bean casserole that is his constant contribution probably isn't fair game if he's going to be at the celebration this year.
No reason to wait
Jennifer Garrigues shared a couple of Thanksgiving stories involving her late husband, Billy Garrigues, who often hosted guests at their home for the holiday dinner. She would sometimes go to baste the turkey mid-morning and discover that the half of a breast was missing. She would head out to the pool and discover her husband munching on a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce.
“I couldn’t wait,” he told her — to which she responded, thinking of her dinner table, “Well, there goes my presentation!”
Another time, she was attempting to take the turkey out of the oven when the laws of physics took over.
“The bird flipped out of the pan, flying across the kitchen floor. That turkey was really flipping and flapping. And just then, my husband came into the kitchen.”
“‘What happened?’ he asked. I looked at him and said: ‘Don’t say a word. What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve.”
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A touch of home
Bram Majtlis was born in The Netherlands but has lived in the United States for 32 years, the last 22 of those as a naturalized citizen.
And while the Dutch don’t celebrate a Thanksgiving holiday, Majtlis and his husband, Nick Gold, typically prepare a feast with traditional American dishes.
But there’s always something else on the table. Majtlis bakes his late mother’s special apple pie as well as the bread pudding — known in Dutch as “brood shalet” — that was passed down to his mother by her mother. After his mother died in 2015, he inherited her Dutch cookbook, printed in 1926 and filled with handwritten notes in the margins.
“On Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the foundation that was given to me in The Netherlands, but at the same time, I’m very grateful for being here. I celebrate my American citizenship. But perhaps because I am Dutch, I try to weave in some of my own culture into the holiday,” Majtlis says.
It’s not an easy task: That bread pudding — filled with nuts, citrus peel and ginger he buys from a Dutch shop –— is labor intensive. “It’s an enormous job,” he says.
But it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without it.
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Last-minute fix
Bruce Langmaid recalled a Thanksgiving just after he had graduated from college.
"My friends were all staying in Washington, D.C. I decided I would put on Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. I went to the grocery store and bought two of the biggest frozen turkeys. I soaked them in the bathtub to thaw. Everyone was coming over at 3 in the afternoon.
“Unfortunately, when I took the turkeys out of the tub, they were still frozen. Everyone started to arrive, so I had to make a quick decision. I ran back to the grocery store and bought 20 Swanson frozen turkey dinners!
“Safeway saved Thanksgiving.”
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Surprise guest
Brinsley Matthews remembers flying on Thanksgiving Eve to Palm Beach via Miami from the United Kingdom.
“I was so looking forward to being with our friends in their home to celebrate the day. On the plane in front of me there was a man who had his first-class seat fully reclined — these were the days when one could see everything, as there were no screened-off sections," Matthews recalled.
“When he was not snoring, he was being very obnoxious to the cabin crew. I was very relieved when we landed and happy never to have to see him again.
“The next day, our host’s door was swung open and we were greeted by that very man, the host’s son who had flown all the way from Australia, having connected in London. He was actually quite jolly — on a good day! A great time, as they say, was had by all.”
A beachy holiday
For Ann DesRuisseaux, owner of Le Bar Restaurant in Palm Beach, one specific Thanksgiving comes to mind. DesRuisseaux lived in Manhattan Beach, Califiornia at the time. She organized the entire Thanksgiving table on the beach from the food to place settings she would have used inside.
“It was beautiful. Adults and kids alike loved the formality with ties in the sand,” she said.
She hopes to have a similar beach picnic in Palm Beach if the weather permits.
Neighbor saves the day
Eleanor Woolems recalls a Thanksgiving that began with a bit of shock and ended with a dazzling memory. It was 1994 and she and her husband, contractor James Woolems, had just purchased a 1930s-era North End house on Queens Lane, their first home in Palm Beach.
“It was the least-expensive house for sale on the island and needed the most work,” Eleanor recalled. “The house was a wreck, and we didn’t even dare go upstairs. What can I say — 60-year-old cast iron pipes? Yikes!”
Early Thanksgiving morning, her husband, crowbar in hand, set to work on the little guesthouse “by ripping the ceiling and insulation down. It was shocking — all kind of wild things were falling on his head. Dead, alive — really awful.”
But even with the construction chaos, the holiday wasn’t a loss, thanks to the couple’s new neighbors.
“The star of Thanksgiving that year would be Stephanie Wrightsman, ‘the most generous of spirit in Palm Beach,’ who invited us to her home down the street. Stephanie, a true gourmand, prepared Thanksgiving dinner herself. Not a restaurant in town could match her delicacies. She is without a doubt one of the best and creative hostesses on the island.
“That Thanksgiving for us was working construction, as we have done for 50 years. And then being invited to the swankiest, sweetest and yummiest Thanksgiving dinner ever. We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and great coterie of guests. James and I are grateful for the memory of that Thanksgiving. We joyfully felt the abundantly shared, open-hearted ‘Queens Lane vibe.’”
Family memories
For Town Council President Maggie Zeidman, Thanksgiving is all about family. Her favorite holiday memories are those that include her kids and extended family members.
“My best memory about Thanksgiving goes some time back,” she said. “All parents miss their children when they go off to college, but Thanksgiving brings them home. Knowing that I go to sleep with everyone under the same roof brings joyful contentment. To all of the parents who have just sent their last child off to college, it does not get better than the Thanksgiving reunion.”
The night before Thanksgiving, she added, she would lie in bed late at night after cooking up a storm, “knowing we were all under one roof, and I would feel all is right in the world.”
Help from her family
Stephania Conrad had some help from her daughters with recalling some of her favorite Thanksgiving memories.
Her younger daughter, Christina, remembers when Stephania forgot a key ingredient in her mother's famous apple pie recipe. It was “gross,” Stephanie called of the pie, but "they ate it anyway, and said 'Yum.' "
Alexa, her older daughter, recalls impaling a friend's gums on too many rosemary sprigs that had put under the turkey skin.
Another memory Stephania shared involved a trip to Washington, D.C., to spend Thanksgiving with her daughter's future in-laws. Her husband had just passed away when she made the trip.
“As custom had it, everybody — about 18 of us at the table — saying what we were grateful for: love, family, etc. My hostess said she was grateful to have inherited the beautiful mahogany table with multiple leaf extensions. Her table never ended, and more guests were always welcome.”
Thanksgiving music?
Bob Merrill knows a thing or two about music. He's an accomplished musician and singer whose latest gig is hosting the “Legends After Dark” program of American standards on Legends Radio WLML 100.3 FM. The approach of Thanksgiving recently has sparked not a holiday memory for him but an epiphany.
“As the holiday season rolls around, there are literally hundreds of iconic Christmas songs that fill the air — and our airwaves at Legends Radio,” Merrill said. “But I always wondered why there is not one single Thanksgiving song that comes to mind. Someone should write one! I guess ‘Thanks for the Memories’ comes the closest, because fond memories of family gatherings are a special gift we all share.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Daily News readers recall special Thanksgivings
