Thanksgiving dinner isn’t always a picture-perfect moment

Ahh, Thanksgiving dinner.

Always picture-perfect with a big, golden turkey on the table surrounded by heaping bowls of mashed potatoes, corn and yams.

People are on their best behavior and telling happy stories.

Outside, a horse-drawn wagon waits as a soft snowfall covers the ground.

Yeah, right.

The Gazette asked readers to share memories of their not-so-perfect holiday experiences.

Here are a few responses:

Bev Conner, Edgewood

The Menge family of Greeley and its extended families have been getting together for years on Thanksgiving Day, and Nov. 27, 2003, was no different.

Although Bev Conner of Edgewood says there was almost no turkey that year.

Conner had offered to put the turkey in the oven early while she made her pumpkin pies and squash and other dishes that were her share of the potluck.

As Conner drove from Edgewood to Greeley at 7 a.m., her cell phone rang, which didn't happen much back then.

Her husband was calling to say their daughter Billie, was in a Dubuque hospital in labor with their first grandchild.

Conner quickly changed her plans. She stopped at her mother-in-law's house to share the news and bow out of “watching” the turkey.

“We are going to have a little turkey today,” Conner said to her mother-in-law.

Her mother-in-law didn't understand her so Conner repeated herself.

“We are going to have a turkey,” she said. “Billie is in the hospital.”

Conner offered to still put the turkey in the oven, but after that task was done, the first-time grandma would be headed to Dubuque to be at the hospital when the baby arrived.

She made it.

Before noon, the family was blessed with a healthy little “turkey” - Mikayla Leigh Thein. And Conner was there to meet her.

Of course, Conner and her husband didn't have the traditional turkey that year. But the rest of the family did. They may have had to go without the other side dishes that Connor had planned to make though.

Rebecca Groff, Cedar Rapids

Rebecca Groff's mother always got up at the crack of dawn each Thanksgiving to roast the bird and create a feast that the family of six craved until the moment they got to sit down and devour it.

One year, the bird just didn't seem to be getting done very fast, and Groff's mother's oven just wasn't acting right - not getting hot enough.

Then the heating element decided to quit for good.

Her mom panicked.

How was she going to put Thanksgiving dinner on the table with no oven? This crisis happened in the early '60s when microwaves or gas grills weren't readily sitting around the premises.

True to good small-town friendships, Groff's mother called her friend, Mabel, and asked if they had they finished cooking their turkey yet, and if so, was there a chance that the family could borrow Mabel's oven?

The answer was yes, so Groff's dad took the barely warm blue speckled roaster with bird inside down to Mabel's house, where it finished roasting.

Groff's family finally had its Thanksgiving meal at 6 p.m. instead of the family's customary noon-hour time.

Groff has been “blessed” with two Thanksgiving mishaps.

Her second story comes from the year everyone got food poisoning.

Her sister and new husband invited the whole family to their house for the first turkey dinner she'd ever cooked.

Groff says it was a lovely, delicious meal that her sister had obviously worked diligently on.

The homemade stuffing was to die for, the table was decorated beautifully and the family was glad to be together.

Groff remembers that she did notice as she was eating that the drum sticks were a tad pink, maybe a bit more pink than she thought they should be, but she kept eating.

After they returned home, both Groff and her husband started to feel ill.

The couple had a small baby at the time who, of course, decided to be fussy that night.

The Groffs spent that entire night taking turns holding the unhappy baby while the other ran to the bathroom.

The next day, Groff heard from other members of the family that they, too, had a similar evening.

Groff approached her sister with care. How do you ask someone if they'd been sick, and - oh, by the way, do you think the turkey was not quite done?

It is the thinnest kind of ice, she says.

The family survived, but it never, ever talk about that particular episode.

Groff's sister now uses a meat thermometer when cooking a turkey.

Jackie Cook, Cedar Rapids

When Jackie Cook was a guest at a friend's house years ago in Waterloo, the Thanksgiving turkey came out of the oven a lovely, gorgeous golden brown, Cook says.

However, when the guests began to dig in, they all noticed something different about the taste.

Finally, they realized somebody had been putting basting spoon in soap dish next to the sink. So, each time the turkey was basted, it got a shot of soap in it, making the whole turkey taste like soap.

“Boy it tasted terrible,” Cook says. “I'll never forget the taste of that turkey.”

The group didn't finish the “clean” tasting turkey but went on with its Thanksgiving dinner anyway.