Last Updated 9/1/00

From the Durand Gazette, November 23, 1977, page 2:

Dinner for 55 no challenge for Durand woman

Thanksgiving Recipe

    Take 42 pounds of turkey, cooked to perfection. Add 11 pies and two giant squash and head for the Durand Masonic Temple.
    Add 55 hungry people - give or take a few. Sprink liberally with laughter, warmth and cheery chatter.
    Makes one Thanksgiving feast for the LaVerne Moore family.

    Rowena Moore started her Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. She had turkey to thaw - two of them, to be exact. And she had her squash cut up by the day before.
    Today there's even more to do. Six pies to make and cabbage to grate for cole slaw.
    But tomorrow, the pay off.
    By then, most of the work will be over. That's when Rowena sits back and enjoys the company of her 14 children, "approximately" 40 grandchildren, their spouses, girlfriends or boyfriends.
    "I never know how many to expect," Mrs. Moore said Monday. "Most of 'em usually come home, though."
    The Moores started holding their Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts in the Masonic Temple about three years ago.
    "There's just too many of us for one house," Mrs. Moore said. "It just got to be too big of a hassle."
    Holding the celebration in the hall makes for a more relaxed day, Mrs. Moore said.
    "It doesn't make any difference how hard you try," she said, "because someone always spills something. And at the Masonic hall, you can just wipe it right up."
    By tomorrow morning Rowena and LaVerne Moore will be all ready to enjoy their family.
    "I don't want anything to do Thursday Morning," she said. "My daughter and son-in-law will be coming in from Tennessee in the wee hours and I want to visit with them."
    Relatives come from as close as Rockford and Davis and from as far as Edgerton, Wis. and Tennessee.
    "We always have Thanksgiving and Christmas here in Durand," Mrs. Moore said.
    By Thursday afternoon, Rowena and LaVerne and their kin will have eaten their Thanksgiving fill. The men will watch football, the women will catch up on family news.
    And no one will have to waste the afternoon washing dishes for 55 people.
    "We've gone modern," Mrs. Moore exclaimed. "We eat on paper plates."

[Caption] With a little muscle and a lot of concentration, Rowena Moore energetically stabs into a squash. The squash is just part of the feast she'll serve her 55-member family on Thursday.

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Genealogy of Stephen R. Moore - Article on Rowena Moore and Thanksgiving 1977 © 2000 Stephen R. Moore, 8504 Enochs Dr., Lorton, VA 22079