Turkey Bowl 2025

 

Turkey Bowl 2025

 

It’s the night before Thanksgiving, and I don’t have much time to write because as tradition dictates, I have to get ready to go out and hit the bars on one of the biggest drinking nights of the year.  Sure, I’m currently in bed, but I’ll rally.

 

I went to bar trivia last night and one of the questions was to name the 18-minute song that’s often played on Thanksgiving, as well as the artist. The question was a layup, because every year on our drive down to Orchard on Thanksgiving morning I’d make Sam and Owen listen to Alice’s Restaurant. Then once we got into South Orange and Maplewood, we’d take a tour of my childhood, making sure to sing a verse of the South Mountain song as we drove by.

 

Yeah, I miss the Turkey Bowl. These traditions die hard. I don’t know if I’m happily retired from the Turkey Bowl, but I am retired.

 

I like to think that somewhere out there as I type this a group of friends is getting ready to go out and talk a little smack before they wake up tomorrow morning and settle it all on a field.

 

Recently I was talking to some friends about a local golf course that closed a few years ago and is now a wildlife area. In the years since its closing, Pine Grove has become a local legend, a paradise place where birdie putts flowed like honey and drives were always straight and true. Here’s a picture of one of the course’s most famous holes, a par-5 that was more and a third of a mile long:

 

 

 

This is what I want the Turkey Bowl to become, a collection of memories, stories, truths, half-truths, and out-and-out lies that finds room at everyone’s dinner table tomorrow.

 

With no game tomorrow, I’ve instead signed myself up for a local Turkey Trot, a 5k happening a couple of towns over. This will be the first road race for me since I got my new knee in January. Don’t tell my orthopedist that I’m running.

 

Here’s a picture of the new hardware:

After the race, I will have a beer around 10 a.m. to celebrate running in yet another race without winning. And then I’ll go home and take a nap before I cook dinner.

 

Here’s a picture from Peak Turkey Bowl, 2015, a year the parents won. I’ll be with my family tomorrow for dinner, but these are the people we’ll talk about, the legends who walk among us.

 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Spread the word about the battles we fought and the laughs we shared. Peace.