Salvation South editor Chuck Reece came from a very large family. His father was the eleventh of twelve children. So every year about this time, Chuck has always wondered how his grandmother managed that huge Thanksgiving dinner. This year, he did some calculations.

It takes a lot of food to feed a family on Thanksgiving.

It takes a lot of food to feed a family on Thanksgiving.

Credit: Collage by Jake Cook

 

TRANSCRIPT:

It’s the day after Thanksgiving.

Tell me, how much did you REALLY eat? And are you, on this day after, still eating the leftovers?

Of course, you’re eating leftovers, and of COURSE, you’re gonna lie to me about how much you ate. You’re not gonna tell me about your third slice of pecan pie or your eighth cookie.

When it’s time to cook the Thanksgiving dinner, I always think about my maternal grandmother, Rosley Evans Reece. I never met Grandma Reece. She died six years before I was born, when she was seventy-six.

She raised twelve children. My father was the eleventh. She comes to mind every Thanksgiving because years ago, a question occurred to me:

When Grandma Reece cooked Thanksgiving dinner, exactly how much food did she have to cook?

This year, I actually figured out the answer to that question. Let me tell you how.

First, let’s assume that Grandma Reece cooked this particular Thanksgiving dinner when she was sixty years old. That November, her twelve children ranged in age from seventeen to forty-two. And on that Thanksgiving, the first ten of her children were married.

Which brings the total at the old homeplace for that dinner up to twenty-two—Grandpa and Grandma, twelve kids, and ten spouses.

But also, by the time Grandma Rosley was sixty, nine of her ten married children had brought children of their own into the world—between one and four each. For a total of fifteen grandkids.

So, all in, my grandmother would have needed to feed THIRTY-SEVEN folks.

From there, I turned away from the genealogy to the several how-much-food-do-I-need-this-Thanksgiving calculators now available on the web. I chose one and entered twenty-two adults and fifteen children. And this is what it told me.

Five ten-pound turkeys.

Eight pounds of dressing.

Four pounds of cheese.

A half-gallon of cranberry sauce.

Seven pounds of green vegetables.

A whole ten-pound bag of potatoes.

Five dozen rolls.

And five pies.

Why did I do all these calculations? Honestly, I’m not sure. Maybe I’m just weird?

Or maybe it’s because what I am most thankful for on this holiday is everything that the many people who came before me did…to allow me to be here today…talking to all of you.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And that there was pie enough for everyone to have three slices.

Come see us anytime at SalvationSouth.com

 

Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Fridays at 7:45 a.m. during Morning Edition and 4:44 p.m. during All Things Considered on GPB Radio. Salvation South Deluxe is a series of longer Salvation South episodes which tell deeper stories of the Southern experience through the unique voices that live it. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and wherever you get your podcasts.