Portales prepares for annual turkey feast

Want to "talk turkey?"

Meet Shelly Cissell Atwood of Portales.

She may know more about turkeys (especially the oven-roasted kind) than anyone in eastern New Mexico.

Atwood is the longtime "head turkey" for the mammoth Thanksgiving feast hosted each year at First United Methodist Church in Portales, where preparations are already under way to feed 2,000 of us on Thursday.

This community fixture has been part of Atwood's life as long as she can remember, and she's at least the third generation of her family to play a part in it.

This year's rendition is special in two ways.

First of all, it marks the 70th time the church has hosted this event.

Secondly, it's the first time it has been offered as a "dine-in" experience since 2019. After skipping completely in 2020, the event has been a drive-through and pick-up only experience for the last three years.

This time we are invited to join our friends and neighbors for lunch from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and supper from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at the long tables in the fellowship hall. The $15 tickets may be purchased at the door.

The Portales Methodists began this event in November of 1952 with a meal put on by the "Methodist Youth Fellowship" to raise funds to buy new choir robes for their young singers.

(In case you are crunching numbers, yes, that was 72 years ago. It wasn't held in 2020 and one other year, according to older church members, who failed to pinpoint an exact date. So this is officially number 70.)

That first event sold out, according to the Portales Daily News, which described it perfectly: "So successful was the dinner that the number of guests exceeded the quantity of turkey prepared."

The youth (almost certainly with unmentioned help from their parents) fed 250 people that evening. The tickets were $1 for adults and 75 cents for children.

Atwood began attending as a child when her grandmother, Alice Cissell, was one of the pumpkin pie makers.

Until 2003, the dinner (and a slew of other community events) took place in the undercroft (a.k.a. basement) of the original Methodist church on the same block where the replacement structure sits today.

"I always remember going to the basement," Atwood said. "My grandma would buy us tickets and always have four pieces of one of her pies waiting for us," one each for Atwood, her brother Brad Cissell, and their parents, Gail and Sharon Cissell.

Atwood said it was in 1987 or 1988 when her immediate family began getting more involved with preparations but "always behind the scenes," baking cornbread, cooking turkeys, making the gallons of broth that are used each year for gravy.

The late Frankye King was "head turkey" for many years in that era, sporting a necklace constructed from turkey neck bones painted blue.

One year, Atwood recalled, "I told Frankye she had a cool necklace. I said I liked it. She said, 'You can have it.'"

Atwood will be wearing that necklace again on Thursday as she has for a couple of decades now, in a job that includes overseeing the preparation of 52 "extra-large" turkeys, 33 roasters of dressing, and untold gallons of green beans and gravy.

Around 100 to 125 people play a hand in the production, Atwood said, counting church members who have been baking cornbread and biscuits after Sunday services for the last few weeks to fill the freezers with dressing ingredients.

At least half of the volunteers are not members of the church, she noted, but rather community members, friends, and family members, many of whom travel to help at the event each year.

Atwood and her brother Brad Cissell co-own Cissell Transfer and Storage and Burkett Moving and Storage.

Come "turkey week," as they call it, "Brad stays to run the business," while Atwood and six to eight of their employees are deployed to turkey duty.

The senior Cissells - Gail and Sharon – were mainstays in the kitchen for so many years that "I still catch myself wanting to call my parents to ask a question or tell them something," Atwood said.

Atwood and the Methodist turkey team are preparing to be able to serve at least 2,000 meals on Thursday.

Her advice to those who are coming to eat is, "Don't wait until the last minute. If we run out, we'll give you a refund ... or give you double dressing and gravy. Call me at 575-760-9604 and I'll make sure you have a ticket."

After too many wishbones to count, "I do still have fun," Atwood said.

"This event shows the camaraderie here," she said. "We are still a community, no matter what. We can still come together and enjoy a meal."

Betty Williamson tips a thankful drumstick to the Cissell family and this enduring Portales tradition. Reach her at:

[email protected]