Thanksgiving Stories...
The Fun, the Inspirational, the Horror 
November 23,  2011 

Editor’s Note: Below are some selected stories from an Internet search about Thanksgiving stories. The first - the Fun and Inspirational - comes from Thanksgiving November. The latter - the Horror - comes from ABC News Blog. 

The Fun, the Inspirational
Selected from Thanksgiving November 

Thanksgiving Holiday 

Thanksgiving is a special holiday when we give thanks to God and also to those who ever helped us in one way or the other. To me this holiday means eating turkey and enjoying the day with my family. Two months back I was suffering from some physical sickness. At that time it was my loving family that supported me a lot. I want to thank my family on this Thanksgiving Day. I have planned that I will thank them all with special gifts. ~ Jecika B. 

Thanksgiving Spirit 

Few years back on one Thanksgiving Day I went to the store to buy turkey with my parents. After buying it when we were coming back to home we saw an accident. A car hit a young girl and fled away. The poor girl was slightly injured and needed help. We took her to the doctor and then dropped her to her home. Her mother thanked us again and again. That day I realized the true spirit of thanksgiving. ~ Peter Austin 

My Thanksgiving Story 

It was on a thanksgiving day when I was playing thanksgiving games with my friends. We decided to play ‘turkey hunt’. Instantly we did not find a suitable thing to hide as the turkey so we took a lunch box and put a turkey cutlet into it. We used that lunchbox for our game in place of turkey. And it was decided that the one who seeks the box would get the cutlet, as the prize, that was put in that lunchbox. The game started and we all had very much fun in the game while seeking the so-called turkey (the lunchbox). Finally when I found the lunchbox everyone was surprised to see that the turkey cutlet was not there. And only then we came to know that John, who was assigned to hide the cutlet in the box had eaten it instead. And we were all playing the game for an empty lunchbox. Still we enjoyed the game a lot. ~ Martin Milton 

Read other selections at Thanksgiving November

The Horror

From ABC News Blog 

What’s Burning? 

For many, many years my mom cooked Thanksgiving dinner for a ton of us. She did it all – preferring it that way. One year I smelled something burning. I went into the kitchen and told my mom it smelled like something was burning. She responded that it was potato on the bottom of the oven from an exploded potato … that’s all. The odor got worse and she opened a window to freshen the air. Finally, she realized that the burning smell was not coming from a potato in the oven but from turnip cubes on a back burner in a pressure cooker. She had forgotten about them. She ran the smoking turnip cubes outside to the back porch rather than throw them in the kitchen trash where they would continue to stink up the kitchen. While she was busy setting the table with the food dishes, I ran outside and took the burned turnip cubes, put them in a bowl, covered them with foil, put them on the Thanksgiving dinner table. As we were passing dishes to one another, I passed my mom the bowl with the charcoal turnip cubes … she was very surprised and we all cried laughing at her expression. We continue to laugh each year about this episode that happened over 20 years ago. My mom is a very good sport. She doesn’t cook anymore – she’s 84 … I wish my mom could still cook – I miss her food. I would even put up with charcoal turnip cubes if it meant I could taste her fabulous cooking. She had many more WINS then burned meals at the dinner table. Thanks Mom! - Marie H 

Turkey With a Side of Salmonella 

My roommate, a notoriously bad cook, insisted on doing everything herself in an effort to impress her stepmother. The first sign of serious trouble was the smoke alarm going off. It seems roommate had gotten advice from some so-called friends at work who told her to cook the turkey in a bag. I’m sure they meant a cook-in bag, not the paper bag she carried the turkey home from the store in. 

Roommate thought it would cook faster if the oven was really hot. My roommate’s friends also told her to put the cranberry sauce in the gravy. She opened the can and dumped it into the gravy without stirring or warming it. When our guests arrived, it was sitting on the table looking like a giant blood clot. The turkey was oozing some gross yellow liquid from every orifice. She tried to stuff the bird with sourdough Mexican cornbread. This didn’t work because she did not have sourdough starter to make it properly; and she poured it into the bird without baking it first, thinking it would cook inside the turkey. 

Dinner consisted of what we tried to pass off as blackened turkey with mushy, runny so-called stuffing; cold, lumpy mashed potatoes; the disgusting looking gravy/cranberry sauce combination; and I’m sure a few helpings of salmonella. The only thing edible was some gelatin a guest brought. The day ended with the stepmother throwing up on our red velvet chair. - Vicki S 

Mystery Ingredient 

I had just gotten married and it was my first thanksgiving with my in-laws and my mother in law asked me to bring a cake. I wanted to impress her so I went to the store and got all the ingredients but flour. It was late when I realized my mistake so I asked my foreign neighbors if they could help me. They had just come to America and couldn’t understand English. I tried to explain flour. They nodded and came back with something. It looked similar to flour but smelled weird. I used it anyway and the cake seemed to be OK until I put the icing on it. The cake just ate the icing. I mean you could put icing on it and 2 minutes later it was gone … completely. So on our way to the party. I bought an entire tub of icing and quickly put it on right before we went it. When it came dessert time, there my cake sat with no icing on it. Again the cake had sucked it in. But everyone loved it because it was the moistest cake they had ever eaten. Tree tubs of icing it had inside of it. To this day, I have no idea what my neighbors gave me. - Lisa M 

Read other selections at the ABC News Blog