Thanks

  Planning on a downsized Thanksgiving this year. The kids have plans to go to Deep Creek Lake with their children and Grandpa is staying home. Not really up to traveling over the river and through the woods to Oneonta New York where my son lives either. So, this year the plan is for the old folks to cook about a twelve-pound turkey with all the fixin's and simply be thankful. The big dinner is always something to look forward to, a tradition that must be carried on. I can think of no other reason for doing all the work when the meal only lasts about twenty minutes. The preparation and clean up takes all the time. Still, the turkey will be roasted, no ham this year, and I will have one of my favorites, rutabaga! A purple top rutabaga is one of those things that makes it a holiday for me. It isn't thanksgiving without a rutabaga and jellied cranberry sauce. Why, to leave those out would be unamerican. My mother shared my love of rutabaga and I think of her whenever I eat it. At Christmas my mother always had a fruitcake. I don't eat fruitcake but will purchase a small one in her memory this year.

 I remember back in the day when Thanksgiving was all pilgrims and pies. No one was talking about how the Indians were treated and all of that. The Pilgrims were just fine upstanding Christians sharing the bounty of the land with the natives. After that, Santa Claus arrived on the scene, at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. See ya Pocahontas, the big man is in town. Thanksgiving dinner was about three in the afternoon as I recall. When I was young there wasn't any football on television, at least I don't recall any, but we only had two channels and besides, you were watching the parade! Yes, you had to get dressed up for dinner on that day, even when you didn't have company! It was a rule. It was also the only day I recall grace being said before the meal at my house. I mean as a family thing that is. What whispered thanks may have been offered by others I couldn't say for sure, but on Thanksgiving it was like the Waltons, without the hand holding part. It was always a question just who "had" to say the grace. And yes, someone was forced into it. 

 Thanksgiving if you really think about it is a rather strange holiday. It's a day to eat a lot of food. Yes, I know the whole story about the starving Pilgrims and being thankful for the bounty of the earth and all that. I know how we should all gather out families around us and enjoy that meal. The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 when those pilgrims celebrated their first harvest in a new world. Squanto was responsible for that and so he and his tribe were invited. That's what I was taught anyway. Then two hundred and twenty-two years later in the middle of the Civil War Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, a National Day of Thanks. The fourth Thursday in November was chosen. But why the fourth Thursday? Well because at first it was simply the last Thursday in November and some years there were five Thursdays in the month. Then President Roosevelt in 1941 decided to change it to always on the fourth Thursday. The reason? He thought it would benefit the economy. You see his political supporters thought having the last Thursday would interfere with the Christmas retail season. An extra week of shopping certainly wouldn't hurt anything, So, that's it. Thank a Democrat for that. George Washington was the first President to mention a National Day of Thanks. Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday. Roosevelt moved it to the fourth Thursday. 

 Well, I'm just thankful that I'm still here in America. I can buy a Turkey, cranberry sauce and a rutabaga. Life is good.