Remembering the Thanksgiving without power

by Connie Bellet

Nearly everybody who has lived in Palermo for a number of years has stories to tell about power outages (no disrespect to CMP, whose workers are heroic). However, when the power went out after the usual November storm right before Thanksgiving a few years ago, we all had to get creative. At least we can all laugh about it now.

My husband, Phil, won a large turkey at a raffle sponsored by the Palermo Community Library. Don Barrett had raised the monster bird and I think it was trying to take over his farm. It weighed in at 38 lbs. It would not fit into my oven. It would not fit into my large roaster, either. So, we called around to see if anybody would saw it in half.

The guy at Hussey’s finally said he’d do the deed. So, Phil wrapped it in a towel so he could get a better grip on it and lugged it into Hussey’s. It was like hauling a beer keg. He hoisted it onto the meat counter, amidst a number of curious onlookers. The butcher considered this a challenge, so he turned on his big band saw and grabbed the turkey’s ankles to guide it through. The band saw made some unusual noises in protest, then, almost halfway through, shrieked and ejected the saw blade.

Nobody was hurt, but there was a lot of crashing and clanging, drawing more onlookers. The butcher was now taking this personally. He carefully cleaned and remounted the band saw blade. Then he turned the turkey around and guided it in by the wings. The band saw protested, but kept going until the turkey stuck in the gateway. Only an inch or two remained. It was just too big.

Not to be deterred, the butcher decided he needed a tool to split the last inch of breastbone and spine. I thought he’d grab an axe, but nooooo. He was a real Mainer (who shall remain nameless to protect his innocence). Without an axe handy, he picked up a tire iron and stabbed it into the breastbone. It struck with a resounding crack, the turkey fell open, and the crowd went wild!

No sooner had I cleaned and brined the turkey, the power went out, and stayed out. Our next door neighbor had a generator, so he offered to plug in my roaster. I had a gas oven, which held the other half of the turkey and its stuffing, so we were good to go.

As usual, I had invited local people who didn’t have family to share Thanksgiving to join us at the Community Center. About 23 people showed up, even though we had no heat or lights. Phil collects oil lamps, so we lit several of those, and somebody brought in a space heater. Everybody brought some food, so very shortly our laughter warmed the rooms and eyes sparkled with reflected lamplight. We toasted the power company trucks as they hustled down Turner Ridge Road and in a couple of days, the power came back on and we were thankful again.

Once again, we will host Thanksgiving Dinner at 2 p.m., on Thursday, November 27. To reserve a place at the table, please call Connie at 993-2294 or email pwhitehawk@fairpoint.net. We will be delighted to welcome you.