Residents share Thanksgiving memories

STAFF WRITERS

Thanksgiving brings with it thanks for and memories of family time for Clovis and Portales residents.

Clovis resident Cory and Breann Cupp said family gatherings were a fond Thanksgiving memory.

“My favorite memory is when I actually used to live here,” said Cory Cupp. “Every Thanksgiving we used to go to my Aunt Rhonda’s and everybody used to be there. It’s always fun to see family, even if it’s just for a little while.”

Breann Cupp said packing a lot of family members into a small space is a fond memory of hers, while of course mentioning the food.

“(I’m thankful for) coming home, and thankful that we can visit family,” said Breann Cupp.

Clovis residents Matt and Chelsea Garcia said food and family brought them thanks.

“I’m thankful for my kids and my husband and my family, and to be alive,” said Clovis resident Chelsea Garcia, who added her family cooks a variety of different foods every year. “We change it up,” Garcia said. “We do enchiladas and our family’s famous hatch green chili.”

Clovis resident Mario Vega also said family was an important part of the holiday.

“We should be thankful every day, but that’s the day (Thanksgiving) we all get together and be thankful,” said Vega.

Vega also said he was thankful for his wife, celebrating three years of marriage.

Muleshoe, Texas residents Crystal Vasquez and Belo Hernandez said bringing family together despite some potential conflict was something to be thankful for.

“It’s probably more of the gathering, the feeling of everyone coming together,” said Hernandez.

Clovis resident Jacky Grider said she was thankful for her 4-month-old son Noah and spending time with her family in Clovis.

“I’m thankful for just sitting at the table with the family,” said Grider. “(I’m also thankful for) being healthy. I’m thankful for a lot of things.”

Lane Stevens, a Portales resident, was thankful for several things this year, including family, friends, music, and for “the weather being so nice so late.”

Stevens fondly remembered a Thanksgiving from a few years ago, when he was spending time with his family in Colorado.

“I was spending it with my family — aunts and uncles — and I told them that I loved deviled eggs, and they made me a gigantic platter of deviled eggs just for me; literally, probably two dozen of them for me,” he said.

Melissa Lopez of Portales said she makes sure she is grateful every day, not just on Thanksgiving.

“I am very thankful for another day, because if it wasn’t for God, we wouldn’t be here. We give thanks every day,” she said.

Portales resident Dennis Hales was grateful to be alive to spend Thanksgiving with his family every year.

“I survived Vietnam back in the ‘70s. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have my wife and kids, and things would be totally different,” Hales said, adding that his favorite Thanksgiving memories were from when he was a child. “We didn’t have a lot of money, so when we had Thanksgiving with a turkey, it was nice. We didn’t have that very often.”

Portales resident Patricia Horton was especially thankful this year for her family.

“I lost my husband this year, and so being with the rest of my family is important,” she said.

Horton’s favorite memory of Thanksgiving was “getting together and everybody bringing their favorite dish, so that we’ve got a table full of good food to eat.”

Jerry Young of Portales said that Thanksgiving was one of his favorite holidays, because “it takes a lot of the commercial aspect of holidays out. My interpretation is to have family and friends, and have fun and enjoy each other.”

Young’s Thanksgiving dinner this year is anything but commercial.

“We very at different times, but this year we’re going to have leg of lamb, and then I’m going to make some oyster dressing and some mashed potatoes to go with it,” he said. “Then, we got a cheesecake. Holidays are special. We mix it up.”