Thanksgiving Memories

Growing up in the 80s & 90s, I always loved Thanksgiving. Yeah it was sandwiched between 2 of the biggest holidays for kids, but Thanksgiving never had any of the pressures of Halloween or Christmas. You didn't have to worry about what costume to wear, if your candy was poisoned or if you forgot to buy your brother a gift. It was that special time of year where you could just eat all day and be lazy!

Every Thanksgiving morning my Mom would turn on the Macy's parade. It was always on in the background at our house. Me and my brothers and sisters never really sat and watched the thing, it was just on for the sake of having the TV on until Thanksgiving 1986 when He-Man, Skeletor and the rest of the Masters of The Universe mad their glorious debut in the parade!

This was something me and my brother had been anticipating since we saw a sneak peak of the float in our Masters of the Universe Magazine! We were not disappointed by their appearance in the parade and we wouldn't reach this level of anticipation until...

Bart Simpson made his debut in 1990! Since then I really haven't sat down to watch the Macy's parade, but I will make damn sure it is on my TV Thanksgiving morning!

The weather was typically nice each Thanksgiving in New Jersey and after we were dressed in our best sweaters and corduroys, we had to make sure to seem like we were busy otherwise Mom would put us to work by either helping her with the cooking or cleaning the house for guests. That's about the time we would go outside and toss around the old...NERF Turbo Football!

Yes, we had the Turbo Screamer Football. Yes, it would almost rip your finger off if you got hit by the hard plastic "Screamer" part and Yes, we did treat this thing like gold! After some outside time, the guests would start arriving and it would be about that time for some turkey!

A lot of people say Turkey is their favorite or maybe the stuffing or cranberry sauce, but for me it was always my Dad's home made baked Mac & Cheese! We only had this dish once a year and it was amazing. My wife still makes it for me each Thanksgiving and it's great. I just wish I was back home in NJ to enjoy it with my family!

After dinner we would settle down and watch some NFL football. There really have been some great games on Turkey-day over the years, but the one that sticks out the most to me is the 1993 Cowboys vs Dolphins game. A day that Leon Lett will never forget. Those are some of my Thanksgiving memories, what are some of yours? From all of us at 20 Years Before 2000...