Turkey in Turkey

Since this past Thursday was Thanksgiving Day, I have had numerous inquiries from friends and relations back in the US regarding Turkish Thanksgivings and the typical menu – or more to the point – Is turkey on the menu?  As a friend and colleague in Charleston wrote to me: “The average person would think that would be the number 1 meat in the country.”  Aside from the fact that Thursday was a typical work day here in Turkey, there was a bit of excitement among us US expats here in Ankara for our first Thanksgiving.  Is there turkey in Turkey?  If so, where would we find one?  Would it already have been defeathered, decapitated, and declawed?  Now before we get to the answers and actual menu, I’ll digress momentarily to discuss word etymology.

• The word for the country Turkey (or Türkiye as it’s known to its natives) did not come from our word turkey and is not related to birds or fowl.  It simply means “land of the Turks.”
• The word for turkey in Turkish is hind – which is related to the Turkish word for India, or Hindistan as they call it.
• The English word turkey is shortened from “turkey cock” or “turkey hen” which was originally used in the 1500s to designate a guinea fowl from Madagascar.  Apparently because the bird arrived in England by way of Turkey, someone got mixed up as to its origins.  The mistake was further compounded when someone started applying the same name to the big American bird.
• Bonus etymologic tip: the Turks’ word for Egypt is Mısır which means corn.  To my knowledge, there are no countries other than Egypt and India with edible Turkish names.

Back to the menu… We were invited to have Thanksgiving with our American friends Alice and Carnot Nelson and their grandson Josh.  We arrived at their apartment at 7pm not knowing if there would be a bird or any of the other usual fare that we associate with this holiday.  Much to our surprise, Alice had located a rather large bird (which she needed in order to feed the 21 of us in attendance).  Miraculously, she had gotten this bird in her petit Turkish oven (along with stuffing and everything else she had to cook).  She had even brought cranberries from Berlin, someone else had located sweet potatoes, and there were various other contributions which made for a really fine Thanksgiving feast.  By my count, there were only 7 Americans, but it was one of the best and most memorable Thanksgivings that I’ve ever attended.  And the next day, for the first time since I’ve been here, there was turkey on the lunch menu at the faculty dining room.  Yes, there is turkey in Turkey!

Elite Status

It was on this day, 10 years ago, that my status in the world changed completely and irrevocably.  Although I had known that it would happen for some months, I had no idea how profoundly I would be affected.  You see, on November 13, 2001 little Eric was born and I became a grandmother for the first time.  Grandmother status is not without its drawbacks – the age thing being the prime one -- and I certainly thought of my grandmothers (for whom I was not the status changer) as elderly.  But then again, they were both in their 60’s when I was born.  In addition to my grandmothers as role models, my own mother has been an outstanding grandmother role model.  It was her embracing grandmotherhood that made me aspire to achieve it.  Once I achieved this status, I often imagined how the headlines might read if there were ever anything newsworthy about me.  For example, “Grandmother Completes Half-Marathon,” or “Grandmother Goes to Turkey on Fulbright.”  You see how amazing it sounds when it’s a grandmother?  Grandfatherhood doesn’t have quite the same impact (thus, rarely mentioned in headlines).


But enough about me and more about my amazing grandson, little e, who is talented in somany ways.  Just to mention a few of his many facets: he sings and is now in his 2^nd year in the Atlanta Boy Choir, he plays basketball and is frequently called on to set up a crucial play, he runs in road races, he bikes in a velodrome, and he plays chess.  He has alwayshad a very strong super ego.  I’ll never forget learning that one day Katie picked him up from nursery school, and he was sitting alone while the other children were running around.  When asked why he was alone, little e said that the children were playing Star Wars and Katie had told him not to play Star Wars, and that was why he had to take himself out of the action.  I wish I could say that it is the genes, butit’s definitely the parenting (and maybe a little grandmothering?).

 



So thank you, little e, for my moving me into a new status.   It makes me eligible (eventually) for an even more elite status – great grandmotherhood!