Written By Joanne Morvay Weant
When Thanksgiving dawns, most residents of Carroll County follow the holiday’s customary agenda.
The day has always been an occasion for gathering family and friends.
So we gather, we pray and we eat. We watch football, we eat some more and we talk. We reminisce, we play games and we tuck into one last slice of pie. And before we know it, the sun has set and another Thanksgiving has passed.
But the day after Thanksgiving is a different story.
If our unscientific survey of local folks holds true, the same Americans who gather for similar celebrations on Thanksgiving Day return to their usual–and diverse– agendas the day after.
Shopping, working, recharging body and soul, visiting with family and engaging in athletic competition; the day after Thanksgiving can play out any number of ways. For example:
Super Shoppers
Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, Vicki Lemmon and Gretchen Dimling find themselves in a convenience store at 5 a.m., fueling up on cappuccino.
Lemmon, of Manchester, and Dimling, of Reisterstown, are the “Black Friday” poster girls every retailer dreams about.
The two best friends began their annual shopping sprees 10 years ago. Their families were on a Thanksgiving vacation to Cape Cod, Mass. Lemmon admitted she and her friend were seduced by the colorful sales fliers slipped into the local newspaper.
And so a tradition was born.
Armed with strategy that they plot Thanksgiving night, the women work their way across Carroll County, canvassing Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, the Town Mall and any other establishment that has bargains enough to lure them in.
“We love it,” said Lemmon. “We usually race to the doors at every store. We run screaming through the parking lot just for fun.”
Crowds don’t deter the dynamic duo for one second.
“We like the excitement,” Lemmon said. “There’s crazy people out there out for the bargains and we’re out there watching the crazy people.”
Of course, she and Dimling can lay claim to some craziness all their own. Last year when they got to Target and there weren’t any shopping carts left, the women improvised by hauling a brand-new, wheeled trash can around the store.
“People were telling us ÔBoy that’s a good idea,’” said Lemmon. “And we filled it up.”
When they checked out, however, the can wasn’t among their purchases.
Lemmon and Dimling stockpile Christmas gifts throughout the year, so Black Friday is often near the end of their shopping season.
But they refuse to let true bargains pass them by. Lemmon recalled standing in line one year before 6 a.m. to purchase a 20-inch television for $100.
And the two super shoppers still get compliments on the beautiful hand-knit wool sweaters they snagged for a steal ($30 if Lemmon remembers right) during that original Cape Cod outing.
Of Peace and Plenty
Thirty-nine years ago, Nona and Joe Schwartzbeck (above) hosted their first Thanksgiving at their Union Bridge farm.
It wasn’t a fancy affair. The Schwartzbecks were moving to Peace and Plenty Farm that day. The dairy cows outnumbered the guests. The dinner table was a piece of plywood on sawhorses. And everyone brought a dish.
Fast forward to the current decade. Thanksgiving starts like any other day with the usual 3:30 a.m. milking. At 6:30 a.m., the Schwartzbecks’ daughter-in-law hosts a chipped beef gravy breakfast in the old farm house. And at 12:30 p.m., everyone gathers for dinner at the house that Nona and Joe built a few years back.
The Schwartzbecks have held their annual Thanksgiving dinner every year since they moved to the farm. Some years, there have been as many as 64 guests.
Over the years, four generations have gathered at the farm to give thanks for family, health, farming and of course, the food. There has been at least one 50-pound turkey and a few country hams, vats of gravy, dressing, lima beans and sauerkraut. Mashed potatoes have been whipped in five gallon batches using an industrial-size paint mixer. The iced tea has flowed freely. And it was not Thanksgiving without Key Lime pies and Aunt Margaret’s Vanilla Butternut Pound Cake, a cherished family recipe that has been baked every year by Joe’s late aunt and has since been taken over by Nona.
Friday will dawn the same as every other day. Thankfully, Nona Schwartzbeck does not have to wake for the 3:30 a.m. milking.
“I’m tired,” she said with a deep laugh. “I’m not as young as I used to be and I really don’t sleep well Wednesday night.
Friday morning there will still be dishes to do, odds and ends to clean up and leftovers to savor. Usually, 12 to 15 cousins and other family members will have spent the night so there’s plenty of help.
Among the things that everyone agrees upon is Nona Schwartzbeck’s cardinal rule for the day after Thanksgiving.
“We do not cook that day,” she said emphatically.
Wrestlemania
One of the first things David Dodson (above) did when he became North Carroll High School’s varsity wrestling coach was to organize a wrestling event of his own.
Dodson likes to keep his Panthers competitive. He likes to keep them motivated. And he wants practice to be tough, but also fun.
Five years ago, on the day after Thanksgiving, Dodson hosted his first scrimmage at North Carroll. He invited wrestling teams from other county schools, out-of-county schools and even out of state institutions.
The event was a success. And now Dodson spends every Friday morning after Thanksgiving managing his scrimmage. There are details that must be attended to before the event. But Dodson runs four mats at a once that day, so the scrimmage is usually over before lunch. Not bad, considering that about 140 wrestlers typically participate.
The scrimmage “motivates the kids a little bit more,” said Dodson. “To come into practice on the day after Thanksgiving is hard but to work out against other schools – it helps make it more of an incentive.”
Wrestling season does not officially start until early December, so the scrimmage gives wrestlers who participate the chance to evaluate their own skills and size up their competition.
“They’ve been practicing for a few weeks against their own teammates. At that point, you need to wrestle somebody different,” said Dodson.
Preparing for the scrimmage is not too tough on the wrestlers. They are not weighed before the matches. No scores are kept. The wrestlers are not even required to watch what they eat, as they must during the season.
“Oh, they eat Thanksgiving dinner,” Dodson said. “Sometimes a little too much.”
Oh Christmas Tree!
For Lori and Ronnie Sewell, the day after Thanksgiving is actually the first day of their Christmas season. The Sewells have opened their Taneytown Christmas tree farm at 8 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving since 1984.
If you think they are jumping the gun on the holiday, know this: Plenty of customers have urged the couple to open the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Although the Sewells work all year long, the 31 days from the day after Thanksgiving to Dec. 23 really represent the farm’s entire business year. The first two weekends in December are usually the busiest, Lori Sewell said.
“But the day after Thanksgiving has gotten a lot bigger the last few years,” said Ronnie Sewell. “A lot of people think they won’t have a good choice if they don’t come those first few days.”
The Sewells’ ideal opening day is sunny with just enough nip in the air so that customers don’t work up a sweat as they cut down their trees. As the field crews haul the trees in, customers can sample some hot cider and browse the farm’s Christmas shop while their tree is baled for travel.
The Sewells pride themselves on offering a large number of trees that range from 8 to 12 feet tall. Lori Sewell says that the farm’s selection draws customers from Carroll County as well as more distant locations like Northern Virginia, Annapolis and Prince George’s County.
Customers can choose from three kinds of fir trees, two pine varieties and blue spruce. The choices are plentiful; the farm offers 100 acres of cut-your-own trees. Balled and burlapped trees and already-cut trees are also brought in from the other three farms that the couple owns.
“It’s an enjoyable first weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” Ronnie Sewell said. “We’re busy each day, but it’s not crazy busy.”
