It was a Thanksgiving in the early 1970s. I was an early teen who loved getting together with family. I looked forward to the times that my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents got together every year. My Grandmother Sarah was the "Norman Rockwell" type grandmother who strived very hard to put on Thanksgiving feast only seen in movies. Fine linens, special china, gold leaf drinking glasses, and every offering having its own special dish on a 12-person table.

The extended family would spend the day watching football, sneaking snacks and catching up with each other. The smells of the dinner to be, would permeate the house generally causing me fits of hunger by 3 p.m. Grandma always planned dinner for 4 p.m. sharp.

This particular year was going to be different. As usual no one was paying attention to what Grandma was doing as she did not allow anyone in the kitchen. Without warning she walked into the living room at 3:45 and announced that Thanksgiving dinner would be delayed until late evening maybe 8 p.m.

As you would expect the entire family was dumbfounded. Grandma went on to explain that she had saved us all from being poisoned by the turkey.

She explained that she would be going to the store to purchase a new turkey, and that dinner would be delayed.

This required my father to inquire as to why she though we would be poisoned. Grandma then explained that the company packaging the turkey had left the "poisoned dart" still in the turkey and forgot to remove it before it was shipped to market. Of course Grandma had not read the label on the turkey (why should she). My father investigated and found that the label showed that this year the turkey came equipped with a "pop up timer." Grandma assumed this was a dart used to euthanize the bird, so she did what any good grandmother would do and threw out the turkey.

After what seemed like a half hour of laughing and rolling on the floor, my father found the turkey out back on the porch in a pan. Fortunately the bird was too hot to put into the garbage can, so Dad rescued the ostracized turkey in time for dinner. To compound Grandma's embarrassment, in all the confusion she had forgot that she had put her dinner rolls into the oven. As you would expect the rolls were baked to "hard and black." As you would expect no one missed the rolls that year, and everyone enjoyed the meal as usual, but the dinner conversation was quieter than usual. It took several years before Grandma would allow anyone to remind her of her family rescue.

As a side note: For seven straight years after that dinner, the rolls were left in the oven unintentionally and burned. No one could explain why, I think it was Grandma's way of getting back at us.

The year was 1996. My parents just moved here from Albany to their home on Coos River. Our home was on the Millicoma River. Both of our homes were flooded Nov. 19. They hadn't even totally moved in.

We were both living in a motel after the flood. They tore out the flooring and their home was on jacks, but my Mom was determined to cook Thansgiving at their house. She always loved the holidays!

Then on Thansgiving Day, a storm came through while she was preparing the meal and the turkey was cooking. The house was on jacks and the wind causing the house to blow around and then the power went out. After several hours we decided to go to the Red Lion. It was depressing as it was the first time ever having to go out for Thanksgiving. To make matters worse, their roof was leaking and they had several buckets to catch the water.

We laughed about it years later but at the time it was a pretty depressing.

My mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer around the first of November 1989. Although the chemotherapy made her ill, she insisted on cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I would usually spend the night before at my parent's house so I could be there to help her first thing in the morning.

For some reason, Mom did not want any help that day. My sister-in-law and I would constantly ask her if she needed help only to receive a polite 'No thank you.' Several hours later we heard a loud noise. As we looked in the kitchen we witnessed the steaming hot turkey fall out of the roasting pan from the oven rack and roll across the floor and out the sliding glass door into the front yard. The pies in the oven chose that moment to catch on fire and the kitchen filled with smoke.

I heard my mother use a word I'd never heard her use before when she screamed, 'Could I get some (bleeping) help in here?' The 22 of us ended up at a restaurant and cleaning the kitchen until 1 in the morning.

My mother passed away the following February, but I'll never forget that Thanksgiving or my mother.

Many, many years ago when my son was small, I, as a single mom wanted to start a family tradition and share with my son the wonderful sights and smells of the holiday season starting with Thanksgiving dinner.

I got us a nice turkey and thought maybe my mom and dad would like to join us. They graciously accepted.

As I prepared my turkey and dressing just like my mom would do every year, I preheated my oven and stuffed my bird with the same stuffing recipe my mom used, taking great pains to read the directions on the turkey package.

Setting the timer on the range for the right amount of time per pound of bird, I placed my pan full of bird in the oven and prepared for the wonderful smell of roasting turkey to fill my home just like mom's.

After about two and half hours of roasting, I was puzzled about the fact that the house not only did not smell delicious, but my bird didn,t seem to be cooked as well as it should have been by then.

At this time my folks are already here waiting to sink their teeth into a nice home cooked meal. I had everything else done, the mashed potatoes, green beans, pies, cranberry sauce. The table was set.

That's when I realized that I had cooked my turkey for three hours on preheat. Needless to say Thanksgiving dinner was put off for another three hours. My dad, who never lets anybody live anything down, reminded me of that day every time I felt the need to do the Thanksgiving dinner. I have had many successful dinners since then.