Many Give Thanks Along the Beach, With All the Traditional Fixings

It was a quintessential Thanksgiving dinner: a lace tablecloth spread over the large table, adorned with a chrysanthemum-and-rose centerpiece. Silver goblets marked each setting, and the cooks were busy with each little detail of the pending feast.

Genevieve Harrison was especially proud of her mixed vegetable casserole--carrots, cauliflower, green beans and Swiss cheese in a sour cream and cream of mushroom soup base, topped with onion rings. But then, the cream cheese-and-walnut congealed salad was nothing to sneeze at. There was, of course, the piece d’resistance: the stuffed roast turkey.

Not a bad little spread for roughing it outdoors.

For thousands of Southern California families, the best place--if not the only place--to celebrate Thanksgiving is under a warm, blue sky at their favorite campground. And on Thursday you could count among them the campers at South Carlsbad State Beach, many of whom were old hands at not letting a little dirt underfoot get in the way of a major holiday feast.

A couple of campsites away from the Harrison group was Matt and Sherri Curtis from Scripps Ranch and Fred and Teri Snow from Chino, who dined on smoked turkey from the nearby barbecue and toasted Thanksgiving with white zinfandel in fluted champagne glasses. Camping in style, they said.

One of the larger parties at the beach belonged to a group of college chums, their spouses and their families, who have celebrated virtually every Thanksgiving together for the past 10 or 15 years. “This is the Big Chill,” laughed 21-year-old Elisa Schrader, one of the children present, as she watched her parents and their friends reminisce about their college days at Cal State Long Beach. She said every Thanksgiving she could remember has been celebrated at a campground, either here or at Big Sur.

Why not get everyone together in one of their homes? “My ceiling isn’t as nice as this one,” said Vince Biondo of La Mesa, waving his arms skyward.

“And my stereo doesn’t sound this good,” added Richard Schrader, cupping his ears toward the surf. “This seems more religious than staying at home,” chimed in his wife, Pat.

What ever happened to spending Thanksgiving at grandma’s? “We invited her to come along,” Schrader said. She opted not to.

But there were a bunch of grandmas and grandpas in the campground Thursday, like Georgia Arnett, who was tagging along on the camp-out with her children, Harvey and CeciliePadelford from Riverside and their children. She said she hasn’t had to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for the past seven years because they’ve gone camping instead. “It tastes a lot better out here,” she said. And all she had to do was sit back and look at the sparkling blue Pacific.

Tars and Peggy Hans of Vista said they made the short hop to the beachfront campground because “mentally, it’s like being a million miles away,” the husband said. “If we were drug addicts, this is our drug.”

Perhaps the most veteran Thanksgiving campers of the lot were Weldon (Hoot) and Jane Gibson from Clairemont, who said they’ve been celebrating the holiday for 20 years at South Carlsbad State Beach. This year they were celebrating the day with their two sons and their wives, and between the 28-foot trailer and a 23-foot mini-motorhome, the family did not go for want of modern conveniences.

No one in sight Thursday was cooking hot dogs or hamburgers. And what could be expected for dinner tonight?

“Turkey tacos,” Richard Schrader said. “Everyone’s invited. Just bring your own shells.”