Thanksgiving--What it means to me.
Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn
harvest feast in 1621, which is now known as the first
Thanksgiving. Pilgrims were religious and Thanksgiving to them
was not a day of feasting but a day of prayer and fasting. No
particular date was set for this event but whenever they felt
they needed a day to pray and fast they would do so. The first
Pilgrims planned to settle in Virginia but because of weather
conditions only made it to Plymouth Rock.
As a child, Thanksgiving was a big tradition living in New
England. We learned of the first Pilgrims that came over on the
Mayflower in school and from other adults. On Thanksgiving
morning we would play out in the woods behind our house and
pretend that we were Pilgrims coming in on the Mayflower. There
were eight children in our family. We were hungry most all the
time so this was an exciting event for us. This would also be a
day for all of us to fill our bellies full. We would play
outside until the food was ready, usually about noon time.
We always got a turkey, potatoes, squash, celery, bread and
butter that would arrive at our house from social services the
day before. Mom would make home made bread stuffing for the
turkey. She would break up the bread by hand, add cut up onions,
celery and seasoning. I hated celery but I would eat it anyway.
She would stuff the turkey the night before, put it in the oven
and the turkey would cook all night. Dad had to keep getting up
in the night to put wood in the stove not only to keep us warm,
it was our only source of heat, but to bake the turkey as well.
The next day all the other food would be cooked on the wood
stove. Mashed potatoes with home made gravy, and mashed squash
with lots of real butter. Everyone wanted the drumstick because
it was so big. Dad and my older brother, Bobby, usually got to
have them. There was always conflict over who would get the wish
bone so mom usually wouldn't let any of us have it and she would
keep it for herself. Mom would make fresh pumpkin and squash
pies from what she had canned the summer before. She made
cranberry sauce from the berries that the whole family had
picked down by the ocean bank the past year. Mom would can
enough so we would have the sauce during the holidays. If she
had enough bread left after making the stuffing she would make
bread pudding for later on that evening. After Thanksgiving and
Christmas, we had no more canned food left. We were thankful of
the food that we had for that day.
We ate until we could barely move then it was time to go outside
to play to help wear off the food we had eaten. We would have to
make room for more food later on that day. We always had snow on
Thanksgiving and most of the time it would be snowing. I don't
ever remember of a Thanksgiving with no snow or it not snowing.
We would make angels in the snow but sometimes it was hard to
get back up because we had eaten so much, we couldn't move.
Besides Christmas, Thanksgiving was the most looked forward
holiday in our family.
My dad got to take off from his job to be home with the family
but he still had work to do at home. It took a lot of wood to
keep the stove going all day and dad had to slit more wood that
day to keep enough for us to stay warm. Some times he would have
to kill some hens or rabbits that we raised--skin and clean--to
put in the freezer to eat later. Thanksgiving for him and my mom
was another day to work. My grandfather and my aunt would come
over at some time on Thanksgiving Day. Dad would also take us up
to see my grandfather, aunt, and cousin. My dad and grandfather
would go rabbit hunting out behind his house. I would watch them
skin the rabbits when they got back. That was his fun time of
the day.
The Pilgrims had the right idea to have a day for prayer and
fasting. It should not be a chosen day. It should be when each
person feels it is a needed day. I look back on the time in my
life when I was hungry; our family was the poorest family in our
town. I would not like to go back to those times but the love we
had during the holidays I would take in a minute. That is what
Holidays are about to me, sharing, loving, giving and being
together, not just on a given holiday but any day.
When released it will be available at PublishAmerica,
http://www.publishamerica.com/books/ at a special pre-release
discount price. Also available at any on line books, such as
Amazon.com, B&N.com, using my ISBN number 1-4137-9156-5. For
more information about my book or about the author, please visit
my websites at http://www.pdbenton.org/ or
http://www.freewebs.com/dianesfantasy/
key words: Thanksgiving, tradition, being thankful,what it
means, love, hunger, poverty, giving, turkey, blessing, sharing