Thanksgiving — it’s a time to come together with family. To cook, eat and make memories. What could go wrong? Apparently, a lot. Here’s five funny stories from students who will never forget these Thanksgiving mishaps.
“We forgot about our turkey and we went to a different town and when we had come back, the turkey had exploded. The oven door was open and there was turkey everywhere. It was all over the ceiling, too.”
— Jana Russell, biological sciences freshman
“We had just finished dinner and my dad was telling all his college stories. So me and my brother decided to challenge him to a game of beer pong. In that game, I step backward to take my shot and there happened to be a candle behind me and my hair caught on fire. It wasn’t too bad because my brother noticed it really fast and put it out. … (My family) just laughed at me and posted it to Facebook.”
— Claire Leslie, psychology sophomore
“One day on Thanksgiving — I think it was last year — my uncle had come to my house and he had the weirdest looking hair style I’ve ever seen him have. He was getting old. He has gray hair now and he was so angry at the hair being gray, he cut off half of the hair. And then he was still not satisfied so he dyed the other half but it was only on the fringes.”
— Owen Schwaegerle, agricultural business senior
“A few years ago, I was at my grandparents’ house with my family and my grandparents had the entire buffet of Thanksgiving food and we were about to start and we started praying. Then, all of a sudden, we opened our eyes and the power was out. And we’re like, ‘What happened?’ The clock wasn’t working and it was all dark and (we) didn’t know what to do. We were praying, ‘Jesus, please turn on the lights.’ The lights weren’t on, so we ate Thanksgiving dinner in the dark. Toward the end, the lights came back on and it was so much fun.”
— Camille Lethcoe, communication studies junior
“Well, we were all working in the kitchen (mainly the women) and the guys were outside drinking beers, doing stuff. Then, all of sudden, we had the candles out on the table lit. While we were in the kitchen, we started smelling smoke and we just thought it was something burning in the oven. And for a long time we were still looking around the kitchen trying to find something that was burning. Finally someone discovered (what it was). I actually think it was one of my 3-year-old cousins (who) said, ‘Mommy, the table’s on fire.’ We go into the living room and the whole tablecloth was ablaze. We started wrapping it up to try and smother it and then all of my family came in and started pouring water on it. Some people started pouring alcohol on it — not the right thing to do. It took a good 15 minutes to really get it out. It was still a really good Thanksgiving. None of the food was ruined, so we were able to eat, just without a tablecloth. We didn’t even set up candles for next year.”
— Sydney Jones, architecture freshman