Culbreath Isles: Decades of memories and being thankful
Twenty-four years ago, three couples with no family in the bay area got together and have been celebrating ever since.
By AMY SCHERZER
Published November 28, 2003
The three couples were new to Tampa - none had family in town - when they sat down to Thanksgiving dinner for the first time.
It was 1979.
Hermanda and Myles O'Connor hosted at their waterfront home in Culbreath Isles. Adrienne and Carl Larson and Eve and Ian Matheson brought dishes to share.
Twenty-four years later, the couples still give thanks together. As life would have it, the initial six has grown to 30, including 11 grandchildren.
The link was the Academy of the Holy Names, where all three families sent their daughters.
Over the years, the dinner table expanded to accommodate college roommates and boyfriends. When boyfriends became husbands, in-laws joined in.
"We saw young men come and go until they turned into sons-in-laws," Adrienne Larson said.
The Joyce and Michael Gerwe, and Margo and Hilliard Eure families joined shortly after the first feast. The core group rarely misses a year, choosing to spend Thanksgiving with their friends and Christmas with family.
About 10 years ago, Hermanda and Myles O'Connor, who helped develop malls in Citrus Park and Brandon, decided to compile a scrapbook. They asked others to dig up pictures, recipes, menus and memories.
Every year, she updates the group in her annual Thanksgiving newsletter. She gives each family its dinner duty and offers her gratitude.
"We have shared our joy, our love, our children, our family, and most of all our friendship," she wrote in 1993. "I ... am so happy that we have made ourselves a family away from family. ..."
The three families alternate as hosts. "Occasionally, the order gets out of synch, but someone always jumps in and takes over," said Adrienne Larson, whose husband, Carl, is a truck cargo broker.
Hermanda O'Connor is considered the gourmet of the group. One year, she organized a Thomas Jefferson-inspired Monticello menu with celery souffle and brie in filo.
"Hermanda can make water taste like champagne," Eve Matheson said.
When it comes to champagne, plastic surgeon Ian Matheson takes charge. His champagne cocktail is a smash: a sugar cube soaked in Angosturas bitters, a layer of brandy, champagne and an orange slice garnish.
Every family brings a specialty. For the Mathesons, it's an English trifle. For the O'Connors, it's a molded cranberry salad. The Larsons bring Brussels sprouts.
After turkey and all the trimmings, the group plays charades and other games. Eve and Hermanda always lose.
"No one ever wants us on their team," Hermanda said.
Through the decades, disasters have been few. There was that gravy shortage a few years ago, and in 1992, Hermanda O'Connor used baking soda instead of sugar in the apple crisp.
Thanksgiving has a special meaning for O'Connor, born in Rotterdam, Holland, and Eve Matheson of Dublin.
"It's so precious to us that we've been able to blend," said Matheson, who was raised in London, where she met her husband, Ian, a Canadian. "It's the All-American scene when we all arrive with our dishes."
The women were young mothers when they began the tradition. Today they are grandmothers, hoping the next generation will carry the holiday torch.
A few years ago, daughter Dianne Larson Rossi bought her parents' house in Beach Park. Last year, she and her husband, Rob, hosted the dinner.
"It was a little overwhelming," she said. "But we all pitch in and that makes it a lot easier. We chat all night long.
"Friends come and go, but these are always here," she said.
