BROOKHAVEN — Thanksgiving is a time to spend time with family, enjoy delicious food, entertaining football, give thanks for God’s blessings and make memories. We asked our readers for their favorite memories. 

A caring act

Brookhaven resident Brenda Newell said as a young girl she was living in Shreveport and could not make it home to Mississippi for Thanksgiving. Her mother packed up and came to her to celebrate the holiday. 

“We heard a knock on the door and the young wife of an airman from upstairs stood there crying. She had been cooking and everything had burnt or tasted so bad and she was having her husband’s co-workers over for dinner,” Newell wrote. “My mom and I just packed up our dinner and sent it with her. We ate fried squirrel and enjoyed our blessings.”

Brookhaven resident Dale Gray shared her first Thanksgiving experience in a comment. She is originally from South Africa but met a soldier from Mississippi and moved here with him about 10 years ago. She arrived in the US around Thanksgiving. 

“My then fiance, and now husband, and I drove straight down from the airport to his grandfather’s house, where I was welcomed with an incredible spread of thanksgiving foods,” Gray said. “That perfectly roasted turkey, bowl of yams, cornbread dressing and green beans were my first taste of southern cuisine. I felt incredibly accepted by my new family as we enjoyed that delicious meal. This year, we will honor grandpa and grandma in our own home by welcoming new friends and family members to our table.”

A good laugh

Reader Michel Smith pointed to a Thanksgiving episode of a TV show from 1978 by commenting “When they did a turkey drop out of a helicopter.” Smith is referring to the seventh episode of WKRP’s first season when station manager Arthur Carolson attempts a grand marketing stunt by dropping live turkeys out of a helicopter. 

Les Nessman, news anchor on WKRP, gives an amusing play-by-play of the stunt as the turkeys fall to their deaths.  Nessman survives the turkey drop by jamming himself into a phone booth when the surviving turkeys mounted a counter-attack. Carolson ends the episode by telling his staff “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.” Thanksgiving is a great time to revisit the movie.

Kevin Laird, a Brookhaven native, said his favorite Thanksgiving  memory was when Santa Claus parachuted out of a helicopter above Gibson’s Discount Store in the mid 1970s. Gibsons was located in the shopping center where Keith White Chrysler Dodge is now. 

“The parking lot was full of people to witness the event. Kentucky Fried Chicken was adjacent to Gibson’s and had a spinning bucket on top of the building for advertisement,” Laird said. “My grandmother said it would be funny if Santa landed in that bucket. As a kid, this was funny to me. I watched with anticipation and Santa landed safely, although not in the KFC bucket.”

Reminiscent  

Brookhaven resident Judy Mulvihill wrote her favorite thanksgiving memory is when they had the whole family together. “Some of them are in heaven now. It is not the same anymore.”

One reader simply wrote, “Not having to go to work.”

Lincoln County resident Kery Emfinger wrote her favorite memory came after her mother Kathy Smith Whittington was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2019. She said the family knew the cancer was aggressive. 

“We were able to get all 52 family members and friends together for the absolute best Thanksgiving ever,” Emfinger said. “We prayed, laughed, cried and loved on each other. I’m so very thankful for those memories and more because today she is in Heaven singing with the angels. Always in our hearts, until we meet again.”