(Editor's Note: Jerry Robinson asked his children to recall their most memorable Thanksgivings. Here are their responses, starting with Jerry.)

The family will never let me forget the year I decided to cook the turkey outside using the charcoal briquette barbecue.

To feed a big gang I bought a big bird around 19 pounds.

I pinned his wings back so they would not fly around as he rotated on the spit, filled him with dressing, tucked his tail in neatly and speared with him with the sharp end of the spit.

I had the charcoal giving off a rosy glow and I figured it was ready so I had one of our sons hold one end of Tom and I held the other.

Carefully we hung the spit on each end of the cradle and turned on the motor. It turned about half way when the carcass of our dinner which was horribly out of balance, went crashing into the hot coals.

I instantly shut off the motor. Together my son and I were able to hoist the charcoal covered bird out onto a table, and reinserted the spit. We held it while another son turned the bird and it worked pretty well.

So after wiping most of the ashes off it we put the bird back in place. I turned on the motor and it went galumph, galumph but stayed in place.

Slowly turning it appeared to be browning nicely after about two hours when it suddenly crashed again.

We managed to lift it out once more and then gave up.

Poor Tom was so ugly we were going to throw him out. By now all the family was hooting and getting ready to order a pizza but my bride decided it could be saved by peeling it clean and pop it in the oven.

So we did, but I suffered many slings and arrows from the kids.

He tasted okay.

The revolving turkey story is true but it happened when I was the father of just five boys. After my first wife Lee died from lung disease I subsequently married Elsbeth who was the mother of two girls, Carla, a graduate of Sealth High, Linda, a Roxbury Elementary student and son Mike, also at Roxbury.

I already had a Mike but having two daughters was a new adventure.

And it changed my life and Thanksgiving. Now we had to add bedrooms and a new culture.

Girls added a new dimension to holidays. Elsbeth had lots of help, now, preparing the turkey (no more barbecue), the pies. the salads, the table setting, the decorations, the chatter.

Now, forty years later I look back with much joy to the difference having daughters has made for me.

Mike Robinson

The next one.

Actually, it was down in Vancouver, when Grandpa Bill--who grew up on a farm in South Dakota---suddenly erupted at the table with his classic turkey warble--a cross between a French fire truck and a drowning swimmer.

Sean, age 7-8 at the time, was sitting near him and was so stunned he spit out his food and leaped off his chair.

Second best was the time Mom carried the turkey across the kitchen and stumbled. It went flying and landed in the corner on the linoleum. She picked it up, rearranged it nicely, though one of its legs was now poking up like a Swiss Army salute--and said, "DON'T YOU BREATHE A WORD ABOUT THIS."

I never have. Tim ate the part that landed on the floor.

Ken Robinson

The best Thanksgiving we have had was the last one where were all together and had dinner in the garage.

There was nice energy in the room with the entire family there, laughing, teasing, sharing, even though we used paper plates and plastic utensils.

Just that we were all together was what made it special.

Tim Robinson

The night the lights went out across the NW. Turkey Day 1983.

We ate dinner at Abigail's in Federal Way. Dick Seibert's company owned the restaurant chain at the time.

I had been in a near death boating experience during the morning.

High winds nearly drowned Dick and Mike Benbow and myself. We luckily made it back to north side of point and relative safety.

I was truly thankful. The boat was not so lucky. I beached it during the most violent part of the storm and hit an old engine block someone had discarded on the beach years before.

It left a big dent in the hull. I did not realize how dangerous that was. I motored the boat back on Friday a.m. to Des Moines.

It sank in the slip on Sunday a.m. after leaking for days.

Patrick Robinson

I have a few Thanksgiving memories that I hold dear.

The earliest was from when I was six and Dad was having fun preserving family memories using his movie camera.

I remember the super bright light he set up pointing at the dining room with the turkey, cooked but under a small towel.

He coaxed me to go ahead and do what he did. He first "snuck up" to the bird and "snicked" a piece. So I did the same. Years later we all had a great laugh when we played the film backwards and put the bites back!

When I was in my early 20's, our family had grown quite a bit so Dad had to improvise and we "built" a table by putting two sheets of plywood on top of a much smaller table.

The result was both good and bad. Good because our entire family could sit together and bad because it made it similar to trying to serve from a trampoline!

Challenging but fun.

Scott Robinson

I can think of a few memorable holidays, one was the year that I decided to cook a turkey for myself.

I picked out a huge one, plopped it into the oven, then got a call from a friend with a dinner invite.

I thought, "I can still cook the bird if I turn the heat down to 200 degrees, it should be perfect by tomorrow."

Big mistake.

The old electric oven malfunctioned and the bird came out looking pinkish-green and far too sickly to eat. My dog seemed to enjoy it though.

About the year 1978 when we had the first full-house family gathering, it was a great time. Nobody was overseas in the military, nobody was away at school or married off and living in another state.

I think this was the first of several years when we had as many as twenty people at the table. Mom had to borrow dinnerware and she added a card table for the little ones with it's own cloth and festive decorations.

We all sat ragtag, wherever we might fit, and because there were so many brothers, the noise and laughter level competed with the blare of the TV and the stereo, which always seemed to be playing a Bing Crosby or John Gary tune.

The smell in the house; that wonderful roasted bird, mixed with scented candles, good wine, pumpkin spice and someone's perfume or the scent of a cigar.

There were a couple of years, at the new house where we had guests join us, and it was even better than just family, knowing that those guests might enjoy the camaraderie, and one year in particular I had my girlfriend (now my wife) her father and her sister with us.

We had a rare, early snowfall that night and right after dinner a few of us ran out and grabbed a sled and tried out the big hill around the corner.

Now that all of us have grown and gone our separate ways and many of us have our own families, the Thanksgiving holiday feels a little less boisterous, but still a welcome and enjoyable time.

Charlie and Linda Ganong

The Thanksgiving I remember best was my first with Linda, 1983.

The gathering was held at a restaurant in Federal Way. Linda and I had been together about three months. I think you (Jerry) asked everyone to say what they were most thankful for (imagine that).

When it got to my turn I kind of bumbled and stumbled around, saying something about how much better my life had become since Linda had entered it.

"All right then, you're engaged!" you (Jerry) declared, nicely summing up everything I was trying to say.

The Thanksgiving Linda remembers best is the one we had in the cabin.

Again, everyone had to say what they were most thankful for (Do you sense a pattern here?). When it got to Carla, she replied, without hesitating, "Shoes!"

Thanks for the opportunity to share warm memories.