Rosalind Rogers is making her famous potato salad for a crowd on Thanksgiving, and she doesn’t need any help, thank you very much.
Rogers (at left in photo) did get some help from her friend Doug Bethea (at right). He swung by Tuesday afternoon to drop off a frozen turkey.
“I’ve got everything but the turkey. Now I’m all set,” said Rogers, who lives alone on Webster Street in the Monterey Homes.
The turkey came thanks to Bethea’s Nation Drum and Drill Squad, which passed out 40 turkeys to Dixwell neighbors as part of an annual donation drive supported by the Mid‑K Beauty Supply store.
“Hey, Auntie!” said Bethea as Rogers opened the door Tuesday afternoon.
“Hey, Dougie!” she replied, welcoming him inside.
Rogers, who’s 68, is practically family to the drill team leader and street outreach worker. She knew his mom growing up. They all lived in the old Elm Haven projects, which were torn down and replaced with the Monterey Homes. The neighborhood’s buildings have changed. The faces — and the spirit that comes with the turkey each November — have remained.
“I knew Dougie when he was a baby running around here in the projects with his loud mouth,” said Rogers.
“He’s a good guy,” she said. “He never forgets me.”
After he brought the turkey into her kitchen, Bethea took a paper towel, got to his knees, and wiped a trail of turkey juice off the linoleum floor.
The crime-ridden Elm Haven high-rises have been replaced with a mix of nicer, lower-density apartments and homes. But a lot of the community remained, as families returned to the revamped housing complex.
Rogers has lived in Elm Haven and the Monterey Homes for 41 years. Now her kids are all grown, and have delivered grandchildren and even a great-granddaughter.
Many of them will fill her home on Thursday for a Thanksgiving feast. She’s cooking a meal for 20 — and she’s cooking it mostly alone.
“I don’t want nobody in the kitchen but me,” Rogers declared. “That’s why I have do everything little by little, so I don’t exhaust myself.”
She has been preparing for the feast one dish per day. Wednesday was the day to cook her most popular dish, potato salad. It’s made with white potatoes, eggs, and onions. Rogers spices it up with relish, mustard and a little sugar — “to give it a little tang taste.”
Rogers insisted she doesn’t know what the secret is. “I just make it and everybody loves it. It’s gone before I know it.” She decided to make a big pan so there’s enough to go around. It will have to be enough to feed her two daughters, her twin brother and other siblings, and a host of grandchildren.
Also on the menu: sweet potatoes, cranberries, rutabagas, rice, and ham hocks with collard greens—fresh collard greens, mind you, not frozen or from a can.
On the big day, Thanksgiving morning, she planned to get up at 5 a.m. to start cooking the collard greens, ham and turkey. Her two daughters will come later, bringing cakes, dinner rolls and pies. (“I’m a cook, not a baker,” she explained.)
To drink, there will be soda, and when the soda runs out, Kool-Aid.
“Remember the Kool-Aid?” asked Rogers, turning to Bethea. She used to keep it stashed in a mayonnaise jar back when he was growing up, she said.
As Bethea made the rounds through the Monterey Homes Tuesday dropping off frozen turkeys from Shaw’s, everyone seemed to know him. He greeted the older women with “Hey, beautiful!” and “Momma!”, often with a hug.
Meanwhile, four kids from his drill team drove through another sector of the Dixwell neighborhood Tuesday, dropping off another batch of turkeys.
The turkeys were paid for by the Mid‑K Beauty Supply store in the Dixwell Plaza at 176 Dixwell Ave.
Storeowner Inju Kim (pictured) said the shop has been in the plaza for 17 years. He inherited the store from his father, who started the turkey tradition five years ago. For five years, Mid‑K has bought 20 to 40 turkeys, and the drill team has distributed them through the neighborhood.
The store remains a family operation — several family members were spotted in the aisles of wigs and beauty products Tuesday.
“He’s always been a big supporter,” Bethea said. Kim smiled shyly and turned to serve his next customer.