KENSINGTON - A lot of Turkey Days begin with a tradition in the morning from volunteering at soup kitchens to watching the Macy's parade to running the Manchester Road Race.
This Thanksgiving, one Connecticut neighborhood started off their yearly activity with a snafu.
While the rivalry on Noah Mihalko’s lawn (converted into a football field) was cooking, turkeys were not. An accident around the corner from the Kensington home had knocked out power.
“I was thinking in my head, what are the odds?” said Mihalko, 13.
“Oh, s—" said his mother, Barbara of her reaction, laughing and stopping short of using colorful language.
The Mihalkos have hosted the "Annual Thanksgiving Neighborhood Football Game" for the past 4 years. It’s much more than a football game; it’s a whole production.
“We put the music together, we get all the food going, our friends donated their hydraulic lift so we could whole game on video” said Michael Mihalko, Noah’s dad and the brains behind the operation. He dusted off the family’s generator to save the day.
“We were wondering if this was going to all happen still,” said 13-year-old Olivia Biscoglio, a neighbor. “But Mr. Mihalko always finds a way.”
The generator, in use for first time, was a bit noisy and created some communication confusion between the referees and Mr. Mihalko, the MC (two seconds left became second down and 5 yard penalties became 5 yard gains, etc).
The situation also created fodder ahead of the food.
“I actually thought there was a conspiracy going on today because you know how the accident was out here and there`s no power - I thought it was the black team that was behind it because they didn't want the red team to show up,” said red team quarterback Darren Yovan. “I mean, you can`t make this stuff up!”
In the end, it was the biggest turnout yet and with powerhouse numbers, you could say the Kensington crew “jumpstarted” the holiday.
“We`ve been doing this for four years and in my opinion I think it`s better than Christmas,” said Noah.
Even with the electricity outage (and uncertainty that their own turkeys and stuffing would get cooked), neighbors brought an abundance of canned goods to this year’s event. It was the first of many more installments of the “Annual Thanksgiving Neighborhood Football Game” to come to include a food drive.
