The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Darn, it’s that time of year again. Thanksgiving is here. That means another Thanksgiving column. Bummer. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Thanksgiving. Heck, a day centered around eating a giant bird with bread, celery and spices stuffed where the sun don’t shine is hard to beat. Add to that foods most of us never see any other time of the year such as cranberries, sweet potatoes and my favorite, giblet gravy. Ever come in from a big day of branding calves, moving cows or baling hay to be greeted with a big bowl of turkey inside parts chopped up and mixed into the gravy? Adding to my problem, this is about the 30th Thanksgiving column I have written. It’s getting hard to come up with something original.

It’s fun to reminisce about how that first Thanksgiving must have looked. We envision men wearing big belt buckles and wearing a flat crowned hat with a big round flat brim. Sounds like a bunch of Buckaroo’s from a Nevada ranch gathering around the dinner table. Of course, the cook probably makes them take their hats off when they enter the cook shack.

After hearing stories about some of those cooks, if a cowboy doesn’t take his lid (hat) off when coming to the table, it’ll be his giblets in tomorrow’s gravy.

That first Thanksgiving is famous for the hospitality of the host native Americans. This is one tradition carried on in a big way in modern times. Thousands and thousands of the decedents of those original Native American’s still greet, feed and entertain the rest of us on Thanksgiving at places like the Wind River Casino in Riverton, Wyo., thanks to the Northern Arapaho tribe and Downstream Casino in Eastern Oklahoma, were the Quapaw tribe will make your Thanksgiving memorable. It’s a pretty traditional experience only now, the hosts say “thanks” while the visitors are busy “giving.”

I prefer prime rib to turkey any day but when the grandkids come home from school with the pictures they’ve colored of a big red snouted black turkey, it’s hard to say “Yea, whatever, we’re havin’ beef.” One thing that does set Thanksgiving off from other holidays is being the only holiday that schedules a nap after lunch. How good is that?

All this having been said, as November 23 rolls around, I’ll be ready. I will have on the biggest belt buckle that fits under my equally big belly, leave my hat at the door and probably have seconds of everything on the over-loaded table.

Included on the list will be lots of giblet gravy. As I thought about it, what’s the difference between that and two of my “cowboy” favorites, rocky mountain oysters and tripe ladened menudo? It’s all pretty darn good eating no self-respecting cowboy would turn down. Once a cowboy, always a cowboy, even on Thanksgiving.

By the way, near the top of my list of things to be Thankful for is you for reading this.

Happy Thanksgiving.