Thursday, November 12, 2020

Raise Your Glasses!

 

 

In November of 1905, Good Housekeeping magazine advised Americans on the order of toasts at Thanksgiving Day Dinner:

"The toasts should be in the following order:

Our Mother Country

Plymouth Rock

Oceanus--the Youngest Colonist

Our Indian Allies

Pilgrim Fathers

Pilgrim Mothers"

 

And my esteemed author Richardson Wright advised his readers in my first edition 1926 copy of his The Bed-Book of Eating and Drinking on the wines we could serve with our Thanksgiving Day Dinner:

If the purse and the menu allow, the climb up to this should be gradual. A cold, still wine could precede the march to the table. With the soup a glass of Sherry or Madeira. The heights of a good Claret or Burgundy type captured with the roast turkey, then you finish off, according to taste, with a sweet wine or a lively Champagne. Each of these plays a part in digestion. One rises from such a dinner glowing--granted you have had no second helpings--and a walk will finish off what has been well begun.

Thank you, my dear Richardson! Everything possible in 2020 should be glowing!  

[And my heartfelt thanks to the Steenbock Memorial Library of Madison, Wisconsin for my rare original 1926 copy of this book that I read month-by-month. There are very few of this book to be found online and they are 1943 editions. Here's one on Amazon.]