The War On Thanksgiving
Don’t Weep For Christmas. It’s the Excess Of Turkey Day—Big Family, Big Spread, Big Football—That’s Under Siege.
I miss the days when Thanksgiving felt as big as all of California.
When I was growing up in Pasadena, we’d drive out to my great-grandmother’s place in Redlands, 60 miles east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County. Somehow, more than 40 members of my mom’s extended family squeezed into that little house, less than 900 square feet on Ohio Street; the overflow would end up in the backyard. Uncle Shelby and Aunt Doris’ big family—they had 10 kids—would make the drive down from Modesto. Uncle Dale and his boys …
