Most plumber-ful time of year

TYLER-Thanksgiving isn't just for those giving thanks. Plumbers all across the country are gearing up for clogged schedules in what will be their longest day.

We were all taught the meaning of Thanksgiving from an early age, but most Americans weren't given any advice on table-scrap disposal.

The nation's day of gratitude has a growing, and humorous, dark side.

Thanksgiving is the busiest time of the year for plumbers trying to take out what nature-or good sense-never intended to be put in the garbage disposal.

"Potato peels are the enemy of Thanksgiving," Shannon Bearden of C. Woods Company in Tyler, said.

Plumbers at C. Woods in Tyler said they respond to 20 to 35 calls a piece Thanksgiving Day alone.

"Sometimes plumbers are called the 'saviors of the holiday,' " Bearden said.

They told us they've seen everything from potato-packed pipes to stuffing-stuffed sewers, all thanks to those table clearers trying to make Thanksgiving cleanup a little shorter.

"People like to put things down the disposal that they wouldn't normally put down a garbage disposal," he said.

Any kind of bones or peeling are better off in the trash than down the sink.

One key piece of advice, if your disposal is broken, don't try to fix it yourself because it could end up costing you a lot more in the end.