Turkey. Stuffing. Green bean casserole. Hot rolls. Cranberry sauce. Mashed potatoes. Those are the foods that often grace our dining table on Thanksgiving day, along with one other customary staple — gravy.

Yes, gravy. The wonderful potato topper made from the juices of meats running naturally during cooking and often thickened with corn starch for added texture. Mmmm. Mmmm.

Gravy is sometimes colored and flavored with gravy salt or gravy browning or ready-made cubes and powders. Canned and instant gravies are even available. I don’t really care, as long as there is gravy.

Gravy is the Shamrock Shake of our household. It only comes out once per year, and I always look forward to it.

Some of you may recall the 1951 Looney Toons classic cartoon called “Chow Hound” featuring a dog who bullies a cat for meat. When the cat brings the dog steak, the dog replies each time, “What, no gravy?” If you are a gravy lover, take 1:23 and check it out.

A few decades ago, Jolene and I were at a community festival that had a princess competition for young girls. It was cute and innocent, unlike the uncomfortable glamour events so often seen today. The girls were tested with a few simple questions on stage by the host. One was asked, “What’s your favorite food?” She turned her head to the side, grinned ear to ear, and quietly said, “Gravy.” Kids are so honest.

With all this love for gravy, one has to wonder how it became involved with a locomotive as a term for a source of income that generates abundant money with little effort. Yes, the gravy train. Not the dog food. The term “gravy train” apparently has roots to the 1920s when railroad men invented the phrase to describe a run that provided good pay and little work. The words made their way into general speech, meaning to have a cushy job that pays well, or, more commonly, to be prosperous. Easy living, you might say.

Well, if there is one day that should be easy, it’s Thanksgiving. Maybe not during the prep work for the person cooking (Jolene) or the clean-up time for the person doing the dishes (me), but the rest of the day is meant for relaxing.

And that, my friends, is a well-deserved gravy train. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and thanks for reading.

Shane Goodman 

President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
www.thedailyumbrella.com

View Shane Goodman's archived columns from past issues here.