The Harrell clan over the years has pretty much rolled a family reunion and Turkey Day into one huge 3 day event in Burgaw NC. Yeah, you heard me...3 days. Tonight and every night before Thanksgiving is Chili Night at Aunt Edna's house. Very informal and everyone brings a side dish and drinks and wait for all the stragglers to arrive. The kids have arranged an annual hide and seek game and long lost relative catch up from the previous year. The next day, more food and family. When I say family I need to let you know that the head count usually is between 60 and 85. Usually a group will get together that isnt doing cooking and go hunting or arrange a game of sorts. The rest of us spend our day in the kitchen. Due to the sheer numbers everyone must bring something or sometimes 2 somethings.
The night pretty much goes like this...mingling and catching up. Then a line is formed weaving in and out of several rooms where we count off until we have an offical head count. Then we take a moment of silence and remember and mention those who have passed away and those who are with us in spirit followed by a blessing the family wrote a while ago for this occasion. Then forms an incredibly long line through the kitchen and the smorgesboard that lies on every flat surface throughout the kitchen in my grandfathers house. Tables are set up in all areas of the house including the hallway. You can even find some enjoying their meal in bedrooms. After the dessert table is hit, the family not cleaning up goes for a walk around Burgaw down the main drag to the school and back. My immediate family on the way back stops in front of the family department store for my mom's christmas card picture. We go back to the house only to get a group photo of most people from the night. After that, the oyster eater head count for the next evening is taken and the crowds dispurse to rest up for the following day.
Black Friday is known as the busiest shopping day of the year. This part of our fall festivities is no different. We just break from it early so that we may drive to the riverhouse Friday afternoon. When you arrive, you will most likely see that century old cabin looking rustic as ever set back behind the trees with the Northeast Cape Fear silently placed in the background. Someone will most likely be washing oysters as Leslie, the man in charge of the main course, stokes the bonfire. You see, we do oysters the old fashioned way. We get an outside fire going until the coals are nice and hot. Then a piece of sheet metal is placed on top and set on metal standing rods. A bushel at a time, the oysters are dumped out on top of the sheet metal and covered with wet burlap to steam them.
We mainly eat outside on huge cable spool tables covered in newspaper. As the freshly steamed oysters are dumped upon the table, there is a mad dash and within minutes the crowd around the table has made quick work of them. Sometimes a guitar is brought ( I will probably do it this year)and we sing songs around the fire and eat drink and be merry until it is time to say our goodbyes.
With the 3 day Harrell Thanksgiving over, the relatives slowly start making their way all over the map back to their own homes and it all dies down until the next year when those same traditions, still stand and are renewed. For us, it a celebration of the closness no matter how far away, a reminder that we are there for one another no matter what, and an unsaid promise that this family cannot be broken.
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