November 2023 By: Bennett Kubischta
As Thanksgiving nears, we will be completing plans for the gathering of our family and friends. As they have for over 100 years, guests will be travelling in motor cars and pickup trucks to our homes along the Red Trail. Be it a cold day or be it a warm and sunny day they will arrive and smiles and hugs will be given.
Pies will be made, potatoes will be mashed, and the turkey will be carved. As much as we enjoy the food, we enjoy more the conversations in the kitchen and around the table. The table in our house has been in my Judy’s family for 70 years. Within its wood it holds the stories of people who were born in three different centuries. Stories told by farmers and farm wives, preachers and teachers, musicians and athletes, nurses and a highway man (myself). You, the people of the Red Trail, your stories are within your tables and homes.
Like our tables, North Dakota’s most historic highway holds the stories of those who have traveled upon her ground. The Old Red Old Ten Scenic byway has followed the same route for over 100 years. The road knows your trips and the trips of your forebears. Your stories are ingrained in the dirt of the Red Trail.
As you gather in kitchens and around tables this Thanksgiving, remember and retell the stories of the past. Talk about Grandpa hauling wheat to the elevator and cattle to market. Talk about Grandma butchering chickens and then getting dressed in her finest to go to church. Talk about the football and basketball games played between the schools along the Red Trail. Talk about when your old Ford was parked along the road and you kissed your best girl for the first time.
Talk about the happy times such as when babies were brought home from the hospital. And especially talk about the sad times when friends and family were laid to rest. Always retell the stories of those who have passed before us. We must keep their stories alive.
Goodbye for now. Remember, promoting the Old Red Old Ten promotes our towns, and always take time to talk to the cows.
Bennett Kubischta is the President of the Old Red Old Ten Scenic Byway Committee.