Katie Peter | Photo by Jessica Fugett | The Wright State Guardian
Thanksgiving: a time for family, friends, food, football, traditions and memories. Students at Wright State all have their own Thanksgiving traditions and unique Thanksgiving memories.
Traditions
“We go around the table and say what we’re thankful for, but you have to do it with your mouth full of food, so even if you get really sentimental it’s still funny,” said Neil Witherell.
“My whole extended family really originated from the Dayton region even though most of them live across the country now. So every year we have a large family gathering of my family members coming back to Ohio where we celebrate family and our roots as Ohioans. Usually consists of 15 [or more] family members all coming back home for the holiday weekend,” said Ivan Mallett.
“We usually go to my grandma’s house and she cooks and we all watch whatever football game we can find. Then we all eat at one big table and talk about the most random topics,” said Allison Vanover.
“One thing our family always does is we review Black Friday ads while dinner is cooking, and we also give the wishbone to the youngest child next in line to split it,” said Jeff Shehee.
“My family and I used to go to my great-grandparents’ house to celebrate Thanksgiving, many years ago. My great-grandma always made the best dumplings! After she passed away, my grandma learned the dumpling recipe and we carried on celebrating together,” said Grace Patterson.
Memories
“When I was eight or nine, we were having Thanksgiving at my grandma’s. I had gotten a small portion of sweet potatoes because I refused to eat mashed potatoes. My uncle was doing his best to be the grown-up when I tried to get away with not finishing my sweet potatoes. Not wanting to be scolded I fought on and finished them. As soon as the last bite was in my mouth, I ran to the bathroom and puked. Everyone in my family saw me take off running! Of course, my uncle felt awful, but it’s become an inside joke in our family. It still comes up every Thanksgiving,” said Sydni Scott.
“My favorite Thanksgiving memories are from when I was about seven to 15. We would always have Thanksgiving at my house with my family coming from all over the U.S. The night before Thanksgiving I stayed up until about 2:30 a.m. and sat at the pre-set tables trying to contain my excitement for the next day. Later that day when my family started to arrive, I would always go out and help people bring in food and other things. I guess what I’m trying to say is I love just being around family and the atmosphere of all my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents in the same room,” said Max Gentile.
“I come from a large family, so Thanksgiving was always fun. We always had a lot of people, a lot of food and it was always very noisy, but it was a good noise. One thing I remember was graduating from sitting at the ‘kid table’ to the ‘adult table’ once you reached a certain age. Then we’d play games and eat snacks and desserts off and on the rest of the day. Of course, football was always on in the other room somewhere, but everyone was happy,” said Tiffinnie McCarty Reed.
How students celebrated this year
“My thanksgiving [this year] involved going to my aunt's house to eat 2,000 calories in one sitting then watching the Lions lose and spending a regrettable amount of money on Black Friday,” said Sinjin Crowe.
“My family all had their assignments in the kitchen as we all helped my mom cook. We made our family recipe mac and cheese! After all the food was done, we prayed, fixed our plates, then gathered around in the living room to watch a movie together as we ate. Then we had football on while we cleaned the kitchen up,” said Chyanne Jamison.
