We like to ask the big questions. Andy, Chris, Dean, and Lo responding to a few impromptu table topics...
WAS THE T.V. ON FOR THANKSGIVING WHEN YOU WERE A KID? WHO CONTROLLED THE REMOTE?
ANDY: Okay so every Thanksgiving event I have been at the TV was on and usually it was some football game going on in the background. I loved it when the Broncos were one of the holiday games. As I remember the house was a blur of jokes and conversation with an occasional cheer as Elway’s hail mary hit Steve Watson in the in-zone.
CHRIS: The air would be saturated with the smells of roasting turkey and the wafting sounds of a distant tv, blaring cheers from the football game. Thanksgiving was always filled with excitement and warmth at the house on Eastwood Rd. Kids and dogs chased each other around the house on the yellow shag carpeting. Parents talked politics and the topics of the town. If it was Thanksgiving, rest assured it would be us Pomeroys, the Mencimers and often the Scheers from next door. The evening would always grow more jovial, and often times louder, as we all sat, stuffed with pumpkin pie and the parents spun tales and jokes, plump with wine.
DEAN: At my grandparents’ house my Grandfather always controlled the old fashioned remote, which was connected to the wood paneled TV console by wire. At home I was actually the remote, the button was the sentence “Dean, please change the channel.”
LO: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was a perennial favorite, as was Football. Always football, but never the Broncos. If it’s not the Broncos, my attention span wanes exponentially. My dad controlled the remote like a brooding, overstuffed turkey-fueled tyrant, muting the sound the second any commercial came on.
WHAT STRIKES YOU AS THE BEST THING ABOUT THANKSGIVING?
ANDY: I think for me the best thing about Thanksgiving was the mad dash to the base of Highlands Ski lodge before the holiday meal for our season passes. The last day for season passes were the end of Thanksgiving. This day I would see almost the whole town waiting to take pass picture. It was a time for cheer and a great beginning for the new years skiing. So for me Thanksgiving has all ways been the signal for ski season.
CHRIS: The best thing about thanksgiving has always been family. When family is there, food can be secondary. Mom would make Herculean efforts to make everything perfect, and taste perfect. There were likely flaws in the meals, the presentation, the upkeep and cleanliness of the house and kitchen, but I doubt anyone would have ever noticed. It could have been taught as a masterclass in domestic miracles. The meals always went off without a hitch. Except that “one time.” Mom would tell and retell the story each year about the time she forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie. “Everyone calmly smiled, set down their forks and said “delicious”.” Surely the trash bags were a bit heavier at the end of the night that year.
DEAN: The collaboration involved with cooking a meal together as a family.
LO: Thanksgiving Day symbolizes skiing to me – traditionally the ski mountains always open in some rudimentary shape or form on this day. The how to Aspen instruction book says: Ski in the morning, come home, watch football, eat turkey. Return to couch to fall asleep. The day after Thanksgiving, the power move is to pack a plump turkey sandwich in your parka that’s sure to make the button your ski pants pop-open and eat it on the chairlift. To me when the mountains open before Thanksgiving, it throws me-off, like an unforeseen Daylight Savings time change. The early season manmade “ribbon of death” is always gives you an edgy thrill, with a sloppy side of physical wake-up call. Thanksgiving also serves a heaping helping of reminder and affirmation of why I live here. Lucky? Maybe not, but appreciative.
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN HUNTING?
ANDY: I have never been hunting deer but I have hunted mushrooms. I remember Amy Thurston who was a naturopath and made her own lotions and tinctures. I remember hunting Arnica to make oils for muscle relaxation. I remember hunting Chanterelle mushrooms for the first time up Independent Pass near Lincoln Creek. Now I hunt Chanterelle mushrooms here in the Oregon Cascades.
CHRIS: Autumn days were often cold. Nonetheless dad would take us hunting. Although as kids, we were never successful at bagging an elk or deer. Dad and Mr. Scheer, on the other hand, would each bring home a deer once a year. It was very common to have some sort of gamey meat in the fall. I can still taste venison just thinking about it. Elk, moose, deer, and even bear occupied our plates at points in time.
Mom hated bear. “Too gristly,” she would complain. It’s possible she disliked that meat as much as she did the caribou and moose stuffed heads that adorned the walls in our living room. Dad and his dad bagged the trophies in British Columbia and had them mounted for all to see.
DEAN: I’m more a gatherer. I’ve hunted for books, I’ve hunted for groceries through the wilds of Safeway, but I’ve never hunted animals.
LO: God no. I’m perfectly happy buying my meat wrapped in plastic at the grocery store.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS PIE IN THE SKY? IF SO, WHAT KIND IS IT?
ANDY: I would say my pie in the sky moment was one year for Christmas/Hanukah the holiday gift from my parents was my first snowboard. The year was 1982 and it was amazing to be the first kid boarding Steeple Chase up Highlands and my flavor of board at the time was Burton.
CHRIS: There’s never enough pumpkin pie. And if there were, surely there would not be enough coolwhip to go around.
DEAN: At Thanksgiving there is pie on the table. If I think of pie in the sky I think about making wishes come true, and turning lemons to lemonade, so the pie in the sky would have to be lemon meringue.
LO: The sky is filled with pies as far as I’m concerned. Each day is a new recipe. Stars in night sky and clouds during the day different fillings, snow is like powdered sugar. My favorite is tart cherry, shrouded in a blizzard of whipped cream so dense, you can hardly discern the pie slice underneath. Crème fresh too while you're at it! Pie is opportunity — Get baking!
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