By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Bill Goentzel’s most memorable Thanksgiving was a snowy day when his father had to pick up kids from school and take them home.

The year was 1952, and Goentzel’s father’s Model A Ford was the only vehicle that could navigate deep snow that had piled up on roads during a morning snowstorm.

Goentzel’s friends from Morningstar School were dropped off before Goentzel and his sister were taken home, but another task had to be taken care of before his father could call it a day.

A semi had gone off the road and into a ditch. Despite the comparative size of the vehicles, his father hooked a chain to the semi and managed to drag it out of the ditch.

A Model A’s heating system was primitive.

“The heater came off the manifold,” Goentzel said. “You either sweated or you froze.”

The car worked extra hard to drag the semi out of the ditch, so it got “really hot” in the car, he recalled.

“We had to take the back roads to get home,” Goentzel said. “I think it took a long time.”

The family already was well stocked for the holiday meal. He doesn’t remember having to make any more trips out in the Model A.

Roger Hannaford’s favorite Thanksgiving memory was fraught with trouble.

His uncle and cousins came down for the holiday, and a group of the men and boys decided to check on his grandfather’s farm near Peabody.

They looked at everything but lost track of time.

Coming home an hour after Thanksgiving dinner was supposed to be served, they quickly learned they had irritated the cooks.

“The women were mad,” he said. “The turkey was overcooked, and the rest of the meal was cold. That was a bad Thanksgiving.”

Hannaford admitted the men and boys didn’t have any defense.

“We were guilty,” he said.

Alex Case’s best Thanksgiving memory is from just last year.

“I took my wife deer hunting for the first time in her life,” he said. “She shot a 14-point buck with my crossbow.”

He and Nicki went home and had Thanksgiving dinner with a special memory to be extra-thankful for, then returned a couple of hours later to field-dress the deer.

“Whenever you shoot a deer, you should give it a couple of hours,” he said.

Nicki had the head mounted. It now stands in their shed.

“Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday,” Case said.

Marlin Buchholz and his wife, Debbie, take turns spending Thanksgiving with their three grown children.

Despite the routine of circulating among the children’s houses, another thing is routine.

Debbie is always asked to bring rolls for the feast, and she always forgets them.

“One year, she forgot the ham” he said. “It’s always a big family get-together for us.”