Thanksgiving break evokes fun, sad, fiery memories

Food, fights and fire are part of the Thanksgiving memories of University of Detroit Mercy students.

In light of the holiday break, which begins next Wednesday, Nov. 25, The Varsity News asked a few students to share their favorite Thanksgiving memories.

Senior political science major Zana Brown spent many holidays at her aunt’s house.

“But usually something bad would happen,” said Brown.

While Brown and her family were finishing their meals once, the unforeseen occurred.

“My aunt had this antique punch bowl with like a spigot on the front and it was glass,” Brown said. “We were all eating dinner about to finish up, and we heard something explode.”

The spigot blew off the punch bowl, spewing sticky punch everywhere in her aunt’s kitchen.

“Another Thanksgiving, my aunt made some sweet potatoes and she put them into the oven. She accidentally turned on the oven’s self-cleaning feature,” said Brown. 

The sweet potatoes were in the oven for two hours and caught on fire.

“We had to put out the fire,” said brown.

Sophomore Jessica Williams recalls a family holiday that involved an injury.

Her relatives came from New York to celebrate. She and her cousins passed some time playing hide and seek in the basement.

“My cousin from New York, he’s not use to the basement and there’s this big pole right in the middle of it,” she said.

What happened next has given Williams laughs over the years.

“He was ‘it,’ and we were all hiding. Next thing you know, we just hear this loud ‘thump,’ ” said Williams.

Yelling and crying followed.

“We cut the lights, he’s holding his forehead, and there’s just a big ole knot on his head,” said Williams. “He had run into the pole.”

Junior Javon Holland’s favorite Thanksgiving memory goes back to 1996.

“I was like five years old, and me and my cousin we were sitting at the kiddie table. We were arguing about which wrestler was the most popular and stronger,” said Holland.

The juvenile argument led to a big blow-up.

“I just got real frustrated with my cousin and flipped the table over,” said Holland.

He and his cousin had to clean the Thanksgiving food off the floor.