Thanksgiving rolls around, and so do the dishes

That grandest meal on wheels, Thanksgiving, will park at my table this year.

In our family, everyone hauls in a dish. Crisscrossing the countryside on laps and floorboards, and in shallow boxes, Tupperware, and lidless bowls with dishtowels for covers, will be all our family favorites.

The dishes vary according to road and passenger conditions, but the menu always includes Overly Tossed Salad, Crammed Corn, Cranberry Slosh, Raked Beans, Footprint Pie, Defiled Eggs, and assorted Casserolings.

The Footprint Pie will be a berry, pumpkin, or pecan. They all look alike after a restless kid gets bored with balancing it on his knees and plops it on the floorboard.

Crammed Corn is another must-have. During the first jostle of its journey in a casserole dish on the back seat, wedged between the hot rolls and oyster dressing, the Crammed Corn starts to slip and slurp. By the time it arrives on the table, there are just a couple of clods left. But the hot rolls are super-moist.

Our Thanksgiving fare always includes Defiled Eggs. A starving passenger can't resist snatching just one of the yellow middles. Then just one more.

The potholders can't keep their mitts off the homemade cakes, either. I was a young potholder once, so I know how "just a little lick" to waylay starvation turns into dips and dives along the sides of the cake where it won't immediately be visible. By the time the cake lands on the table, the frosting will have more dents than the turkey on the day after Thanksgiving.

Our cornucopia always runneth over with Raked Beans with limp bacon surfing on top, Picked-on Pickles, Squashed Yellow Squash, and Bandied Yams.

It wouldn't look, sound, or taste like Thanksgiving, though, without these well-traveled dishes and their tales. We laugh about potholes and potholders. Then we give thanks for a Relished Tray and all those responsible.