Most of you that have perused the pages of the "News" and have looked at "Highlights" for the past 12-15 years have probably noted that Fall is the favorite season of the year with many folks of the Hill Country. In case you have happened to notice, it is the only season that I give the distinction of capitalizing, regardless of what "spell-check" tries to tell me. The rationalization of that distinction is simple in the fact that it is the most important of all the seasons. Though they all have a reason, Fall stands at the head of the class in my book for several reasons, some of which include cooler days compared to the dreaded heat of summer, prettier colors in the landscape rather than the stark dullness of winters cape, and more constant weather cycles instead of the indecisiveness of spring. If that isn’t enough to convince the populace, then we can throw in a few more Fall seasons such as football, deer, duck, Pecan harvest, dove, and more football. Oh, did I mention football more than once. Well, there is good reason for that as one can watch the Armadillos, Coyotes, Indians, Aggies, Longhorns, Cowboys, or Texans. Some folks will even watch the Red Raiders. Whether you might subscribe to all of the above, or just some of your favorites, then let’s not forget the season of Thanksgiving.

Most folks honor and celebrate Thanksgiving with a gathering of family members and cooking much more than most of us can ingest. Turkey and dressing is the time honored main item of the menu, sided with copious quantities of gravy, mashed or sweet potatoes, and Pumpkin pie. Though I prefer sweet potato pie to pumpkin, I seriously doubt that very few would gamble on a blind taste test. Green bean casseroles are pretty popular and a lot of folks around our parts prefer Pecan pie to pumpkin. Many like to combine the two and put a fair amount of Pecans in the pumpkin pie. We’ve also noted a variation of preparing the traditional turkey. While Grandma spent most of the morning checking the turkey & dressing in the oven, a lot of households prefer to let the men smoke or grill the big bird on the barbecue pit or borrow the recipe from our Cajun neighbors to the East and deep fry the symbolic bird in peanut oil with a liberal marination and injection of spices. Duke and I have done a couple on the latter methods, while Lady Z prefers the more traditional method in the oven. Fact is, she likes to roast a bird that is as near to twelve pounds as we can find, as it fits perfectly in the ol’ roaster pan she pulls out each year. Eddie Ragsdale and Buster had to look through a lot of turkeys to find one as near as could be had. Eddie had a simple suggestion to fixing her request, but I’ll have to fill you in on that one another day. Anyhow, by the time we get around to eating all one can hold, we’re usually dozing through a couple of the football games that are also traditional on the day. The A&M-Longhorn game is of utmost importance to most, but many enjoy the Cowboys or might even check on the Alabama-Auburn game. It’s also a pretty sure bet that most households will have enough left-overs to last through the games of the rest of the weekend.

If you don’t have a horde of folks coming in to help cook at the house, then you can make your way down to the Thanksgiving dinner down at the Father’s House. The Church folks down there have been sponsoring a big dinner for the entire community for several years with many other benevolent folks chipping in to help with the event. Joe Ragsdale, Roger Verette, and John Northern usually roast the turkeys on a big pit and lots of ladies tend to all the trimmings. Jim Childress will even pick out a piece of pie of one’s choice, but he sometimes misreads the code printed on top of the container. Anyhow, if you want, go down and dine with them or they even have "take-out" if you want to eat at home. Whatever you choose to do, take time to enjoy the time for Thanksgiving and give thanks for all that we have in this great land. We need to also add a reminder to all the producers and home owners to get their variety samples of Pecans down to the County Extension office for the up-coming San Saba Pecan Show. San Saba is noted for hosting the oldest County Pecan Show in Texas and we need to keep it noteworthy. Give them a call or drop by the office if you need any additional information on the Pecan Show or the Pecan Food Show. Other than that , I’ll guarantee that the Mayor & yrs. truly will surely be doing our part to up-hold tradition out around———Harkeyville!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!