Another Thanksgiving at Jincy's

Jincy's.

Sheila and I made our annual pilgrimage to Jincy's for Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon.


Turning off the turnpike and heading into the ancient hills of the Cherokee Nation has deep significance for me.  Despite the lifetime I have spent away from them, Eastern Oklahoma is my home, the Okies are my people and the Cookson Hills are often just a little shy of heaven in my thoughts.

I don't see the place with the dewy eyed sentimentality that some people ascribe to their homeland.  Like the lover of a complicated and  compromised woman, I know Eastern Oklahoma for all that she is, from the beautiful misty hills and valleys cut through by cold, beautiful lakes and streams to the pockets of generational poverty, crime and violence. But, despite its' often dark and bloody history, Eastern Oklahoma is nevertheless the ancestral home of one of America's proudest, most resilient, creative and when necessary violent ethnic groups, the Okies.  Part Cherokee, part hillbilly, part cowboy and part outlaw, a true Okie is a force of nature. 

Jincy's is located in Quall's, Oklahoma.  The  Cherokee name for the place was Quall's Burnt Cabin.  The settlement kept the former cabin's owner's name and the Corps of Engineers who mapped nearby Tenkiller Ferry Lake kept the "Burnt Cabin" part for the nearby inlet and recreation area. It is south of historic Park Hill deep in the Cookson Hills of the Cherokee Nation.  I won't go on about the history of Jincy's.  I've done it before.

The food is always fabulous and this year was no exception, country food cooked properly and seasoned not only with skill and care but with love for the heritage being preserved. A restaurant at Thanksgiving can be one of the loneliest and most depressing places on earth.  That is not the case at Jincy's.  The crowd is friendly and Debbie the owner goes out of her way to make everyone welcome.

Debbie Rucker, the owner.

As we ate our meal, I thought over the years past when we had eaten there and just how much we had to be thankful for.  There were the years that Sheila was recovering from breast cancer.  There was the year that I was in so much pain that I couldn't walk up to get my own plate even though I was trussed from my upper thighs to my ankles in high tech carbon fiber braces and was taking powerful pain killers.  And, there was the year that we were there with Sheila's sister who had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Sheila resting over an empty plate.

This year, Sheila and I were both healthy and feeling good.  I was walking on my own power and not even using a cane.  My latest book has been very well received, is selling well and I have a couple of more projects on the burner.

It has been a good year and this Thanksgiving was a good time to sit quietly before a plate of good food and give thanks to God for his many blessings.