With Thanksgiving only two days away I thought you might find this little bit of our history appropriate. Being a lover of history has been a source of pleasure for me for many years. I love reading about anything historical especially everything I could find on the United States and how it was created. We’re coming up on one of my most favorite holidays, Thanksgiving. In my mind it was the only holiday that we had that meant something real to me. People giving thanks for the things in their life that needed to be appreciated and shared with friends and family. To show appreciation for the many good things and good people that have impacted our lives in the last year and before.
I sometimes think how many of our holidays have changed in the eyes of the citizenry. Christmas went from being a religious celebration of the birth of Christ and turned into an insanely greedy holiday about gifts and presents. Thanksgiving always meant much more to me than any holiday for all of the best reasons. Time with family and friends that was hard to come by most of the year. When Thanksgiving came everyone showed up regardless of any interruptions from outside influences like work and business. It was quality time for me and mine which was sorely lacking most of the year. It was time to eat grandma’s special gravy of which she never gave anyone that recipe. It was the goal of all of the younger generations to somehow convince her to give that up but the old girl took it to her grave except for a few hints she gave me. I make a one helluva gravy but it’s still not as good as hers.
These days Thanksgiving is just a prelude to shopping. I’d like to meet the guy that came up with the Black Friday nonsense and beat him senseless. I hate to say this but there might be one plus coming out of this pandemic and that is the hope that Thanksgiving will return to what it was in years past. Most of the younger generations now know little or nothing about the history of how Thanksgiving became Thanksgiving and all of the people that suffered and died to make the first one happen. I’m finishing this post with three letters written by a young lady named Lizzy to her aunt Constance. The first letter was written during the crossing from England to Plymouth on the Mayflower, the second is about her arrival and the setup of the colony, and the third is concerning the first Thanksgiving celebration with the local Indians. Put yourself in her place as you read these letters and show or read them to your children or grandchildren. It’ll give all of you a better understanding and perspective on what it actually means to be thankful for something. I hope you enjoy them.
LETTER #1
Dearest Aunt Constance,
You wondered what life in a ship would be like. I can now tell you, I would trade my bed for yours in the beat of a heart! I sleep on a damp bed in a tiny cabin with mother and father. We are all packed in like so much cargo below deck. We do not know many of the other passengers, yet we live nearly on top of each other. Few of us have ever been aboard a ship, and there is much seasickness. The stench is most awful! I welcome the times when we are allowed to go on deck to empty our chamber pots and breathe the fresh air.
When the weather is fair, the days are much the same. We pray as we rise in the morning and before and after we take our meals. For food we commonly have pease or bean pottage, cheese and ship’s biscuit. For drink, we have beer. We have some water but they say it will soon go bad.
Did I tell you that I have a friend? Her name is Mary and I am so grateful for her. Mary and I play games, tell riddles, sing or just speak to each other. It is often too dark to even read. There are few other lasses on the ship since most families left their daughters behind until our town is built. The sailors will sometimes allow us on deck, but they are a hard lot and frighten me somewhat. Master Goodman brought his two dogs—a mastiff and a spaniel—and we chase them as they chase the mousers that chase the rats. Have I made mention of the rats? They are almost as great in size as the mousers!
May the Lord help us when the weather is not fair. Father told me that sailors usually seek safe harbor in the autumn and now I know why. The storms are fearsome! They roll and toss our poor ship which creaks and moans as though it will break apart. My arms and legs are bruised from being thrown about and having things fall on me. In one storm, a young man was thrown into the sea, but by God’s good will he caught hold of a line that was dragging in the water and was saved. Just a fortnight ago came the worst storm yet. Aunt Constance, I thought we would all surely drown and become food for the fishes. The ship’s upper works were leaking and of a sudden there was a great snap! Master Carver told us that one of the ship’s main beams had cracked. Many of the crew wanted to turn back, but after much consultation, t’was decided that we would continue . The carpenters and sailors mended the beam and caulked the leaks.
Thus we put our faith in God and we press on. I do not think that I can stand such a fright again. I pray that we reach the New World soon.
Your loving niece,
Lizzy
LETTER #2
Dearest Aunt Constance,
I was so grateful to arrive in the New World, but I am now beginning to wish that we had never left home. I know that father had a hard life in England because he was punished for following his conscience and worshipping in the Separatist Church, but I wonder if it could have been as hard as this.
We arrived here just as winter did. It is bitter cold and snow is almost always upon the ground, but God has blessed us with a place to start our new town. There is a fair brook running under a high hill that Father says will offer us protection from our enemies. The men have begun building houses on land, but we must remain on the ship until they are nearer to being finished. I never thought I would still be aboard the ship for so long after we arrived! I suppose it is safer on the ship. I know not what to think of the naturals of this place that are called Indians. The first time some of our men encountered them, there was a fight though by God’s blessing no one was injured. We are on our guard now.
Master Goodman—the one with the dogs—has become quite ill. He was out cutting thatch with Peter Brown when his dogs chased a great deer deep into the forest. They chased after them and were soon lost, and had to pass the night in the wilderness. When they found their way back the next afternoon, Master Goodman had to have his shoes cut off his feet as they were so swollen with the cold. Many of our party have already died, among them Mary’s mother and father. I cannot think how lost I would be in this strange and frightful place without mother and father. I pray that they will not succumb to scurvy and other diseases. I mean not to be so grim, but I fear that things could get far worse. We are near to scraping the bottoms of the barrels of rice, peas, and biscuit, and the men have had little fortune in hunting. I am worried, though I know that with God’s help we will survive this dark winter.
Your loving niece,
Lizzy
LETTER #3
Dearest Aunt Constance,
Pray forgive me for being so long between letters. After the great sickness it seemed that there was little good to write about. By the time spring arrived, nearly half of our number had died. Twas truly a mournful time. Since then we have continued to build houses and have planted our gardens and many acres of our English corns. In time, I think we may come to prosper here. We have even begun to grow a curious corn that we call Indian corn or turkey wheat.
How we learned to grow this Indian corn was most unexpected. Last spring a tall Indian walked into our town, causing great alarm. To our great astonishment, he spoke in our tongue, saying “Welcome Englishmen.” He told us that his name was Samoset and that he had learned English from fishermen to the north of here. Samoset returned the next day with Tisquantum, whose English was as fine as yours and mine. Tisquantum told us how his people used to live where we now live, but that a few years before we arrived a plague had come and wiped out the town. He has been a great blessing to us, showing us how to grow Indian corn in mounds. He even told us to put herring in the ground to make the corn grow better. It works as well as using manure and our harvest was quite fine. Tisquantum also showed us how to fish and the best places to hunt. I fear that we would not have survived here were it not for the help of Tisquantum and others.
To celebrate our first harvest our Governor, Master Bradford, called for a celebration. Four men went hunting wild fowl and brought back enough geese, ducks and other birds to last nearly a week! We ate, played at games, and the men practiced shooting their muskets. The Indians came amongst us as well, among them their greatest King Massasoit and more than 90 men! I was most frightened at first, but they stayed for three days and we entertained and feasted them. And they went out and brought us five deer. While they were here I even saw some of their children! One boy, father says he thinks that his name is Po-met-a-comet, threw a ball to me. Of course he could not speak English and I could not speak the Indian tongue.
And now we have a new ship in the harbor! It is wonderful that we have new folk to settle here, but I fear that our harvest, which seemed plentiful enough, will not be enough for all of us and the newcomers. Father says that we will fill this ship full of timber and furs to send back to England. Perhaps on the next ship they will send over cows!
Dearest Aunt Constance, I truly hope that you will come to join us in New Plimoth. I pray that soon we will be a thriving town.
As I’ve repeatedly stated I am a huge fan of Thanksgiving. I am also a huge fan of debunking silly and unusual superstitions when I find them. I found one about Thanksgiving after reading a book in my collection. For most of my life I looked forward to Thanksgiving dinner and always made a point of collecting the wishbone. I was told as a kid by people who I trusted, Mom and Dad, that if I won the larger half of the wishbone after it was broken I would have good luck. I did it year after year and we made quite a thing of it but now I come to discover I was lied to. Here’s the truth of the matter . . .
Two people make a wish, and then grab the two long ends of the wishbone and pull. The one who breaks off the larger piece of the bone gets his or her wish. You must be sure the bone is dry – a day in the sun or on the stove dries it perfectly. The bone must be from the collarbone of a hen or a rooster. All of my family loved the routine of pulling the wishbone of the turkey after their meal. “Spoiler Alert”, turkey collarbones don’t work. I know this is devastating news to all of you but the truth will out. Here’s a short history lesson . . .
The Etruscans, those folks that came before the Romans, had a Hen Oracle. That person was often called upon to reveal hidden and magical knowledge. A hen or rooster was killed, the entrails examined – for what, no one can fathom – and the birds collarbone put in the sun to dry. The wishbone was then pulled apart as it is today. The Romans actually stole this custom from the Etruscans and it then spread throughout the Roman Empire and where did it end up, on this blog today.
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it’s time for a few days of respite before the Christmas holiday kicks in. Just 28 more shopping days, Yikes! Today is as good a day as any for some self-reflection. Back on 11/07 I posted twenty questions designed to help a person reveal interesting things about themselves. I answered them as truthfully as I could as an example and thoroughly enjoyed the self-analyses that it caused. This post is just a continuation of that exercise with fifteen more questions. My answers as always are truthful and will make for some interesting discussions with my better-half and others. Hope you will do the same. Have fun with it . . .
What are your most compulsive habits? Do you regularly struggle to break these habits? My compulsions are neatness and organization. I never struggle with them, I embrace them.
Knowing that you had a 50% of winning and would be paid 10 times the amount of your bet if you won, what fraction of what you now own would you be willing to wager? None, I only bet on sure things.
At a meal, your friends start belittling a common acquaintance. If you felt their criticisms were unjustified, would you defend the person? Absolutely!
Do you usually make a special effort to thank someone who does you a favor? How do you react when you aren’t thanked for going out of your way for someone? I make the effort to be polite but if others choose not to it’s not my problem. But I’ll certainly remember who was polite and who wasn’t.
Since adolescence, in what 3 year period do you feel you experienced the most personal growth and change? My three years in the Army.
If you were having difficulty on an important test and could safely cheat by looking at someone else’s paper, would you do so? No way.
If you were at a friend’s house for Thanksgiving dinner and you found a dead cockroach in your salad, what would you do? Using humor, I would let the hosts know without embarrassing them.
If you were you able to wake up tomorrow in the body of someone else, would you do so? Whom would you pick? I’m fine with things, both good and bad, as they are.
If you went to a beach and it turned out to be a nude beach, would you stay and go swimming? Would you swim nude? I love being naked therefore I’d be swimming and nude.
If you knew your child would be severely retarded and would die by the age of five, would you decide to have an abortion? No.
What if anything is too serious to be joked about? Deaths of children under any circumstances.
You notice a self-destructive behavior pattern in a friend who is clearly unaware of it. Would you point it out? Yes, as quickly as possible.
If you could increase your I.Q. by forty points by having an ugly scar stretching from your mouth to your eye, would you do so? Yes, facial scars can be sexy.
If you decided to do something and your friends strongly advised you not to, would you do it anyway? Almost always.
What do you most strive for in your life: accomplishment, security, love, power, excitement, knowledge or something else? Creativity,Excitement, Love, and then Knowledge.
Well, that was interesting. The next series of questions appear to be much more complex and I’ll be posting them in a few weeks once I figure out what my answers will be.
With just 33 shopping days left till Christmas, I thought I’d start the season off with a few facts about the list we are all familiar with, “The Twelve Days of Christmas’. This information was in part sourced from the Cumbrian Church newsletter.
Catholics in England during the period 1558-1839 were prohibited by law from any practice of their faith, public or otherwise. According to a popular urban myth, “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written as a catechism song to help young Catholics memorize the tenets of their faith and avoid being caught with anything in writing. They found a sneaky way to put Christ back into Christmas.
The True Love referred to God himself, the Me to every baptized person. The Partridge in a Pear Tree is Jesus Christ the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, an expression of Christ’s sadness over the fate of Jerusalem.
The Two Turtle Doves are the Old and the New Testaments.
The Three French Hens are Faith, Hope, and Charity, the theological virtues.
The Four Calling Birds are the four Gospels and/or the four Evangelists.
The Five Golden Rings are the first five books of the Old Testament, which gave the history of “man’s” fall from grace.
The Six Geese a’Laying are the six days of Creation.
The Seven Swans a’Swimming are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments.
The Eight Maids a’Milking are the eight beatitudes.
The Nine Ladies Dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The Ten Lords a’Leaping are the Ten Commandments.
The Eleven Pipers Piping are the eleven faithful apostles.
The Twelve Drummers Drumming are the twelve points of doctrine of the Apostles Creed.
This is the result of living and worshiping in a country with little or no religious freedom. The English of the time were more than a little intolerant of just about everything and everybody. Be glad you weren’t there.
During my formative years as a corporate “slug” working my way up the ladder of success, I discovered many helpful tools. Many times we’d get assignments requiring the creation of new programs of one type or another. You’d name, create, and implement the program while being “eyeballed” by the upper-level executives. A group of us young upstarts were always looking for ways to ease tension by messing with the stodgy “suits” who were just so full of themselves and their positions. We used the following table for years to name our new programs and never once had the names of the programs questioned or changed. Here’s how it works:
Name the program by selecting one term from each of the following three columns. If it was a “Personnel” program you could use 5-1-6. Responsive Organizational Time-Phase or “ROT” for short.
If it sounded good the “suits” approved it every time. Our all-time favorite was a program developed to build morale within the Corporation with petty incentives designed to convince the associates that the company cared. We chose 3-1-0. Parallel Organizational Options or “POO”. “POO” was anonymously leaked to the rank-and-file in the company and the name became the actual morale builder. We had associates across the country talking up the “POO” program for weeks at every meeting. I freaking loved it.
Feel free to use it as often as you please because it’s a worth million laughs. Please be careful out there because the “suits” will get you if you’re not paying attention.
While I don’t fully respect most politicians, I do respect the office of the Presidency, regardless of party. It doesn’t change my opinion that most if not all politicians are underprepared for the responsibility of the office. Here are some facts concerning past presidents you might find interesting even if the individuals weren’t.
Our first president was George Washington. He is portrayed along with three other American presidents carved into Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. His birthday is the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen and was implemented by an act of Congress in 1879. He stood 6’2″ tall, weighed 200 pounds, and wore size 13 shoes. He is the only president who didn’t live in Washington during his presidency.
Eight presidents were born British subjects: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, Jackson, and W. Harrison.
Eight presidents never attended college: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, A. Johnson, and Cleveland.
The college that has the most presidents as alumni (seven in total) is Harvard: J. Adams, J.Q. Adams, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes, John F. Kennedy, and George W. Bush.
Presidents who would be considered “Washington outsiders” (i.e., the 18 presidents who never served in Congress) are: Adams, Jefferson, Taylor, Grant, Arthur, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover, F. Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Trump, and G.W. Bush.
The most common religious affiliation among presidents has been Episcopalian, followed by Presbyterian.
The ancestry of all 46 presidents is limited to the following heritages, or some combination thereof: Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Swiss, German, and African.
The oldest president inaugurated was Joe Biden (age 78); the youngest was Kennedy (age 43). Theodore Roosevelt, however, was the youngest man to become president – he was 42 when he succeeded McKinley, who had been assassinated.
The tallest president was Abraham Lincoln at 6’4″, Madison was the shortest.
Fifteen presidents served as vice presidents: J. Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon, L.B. Johnson, Ford, George Bush, and Joe Biden.
For two years the nation was run by a president and a vice president who were not elected by the people. After VP Spiro T. Agnew resigned in 1973, President Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as vice president. Nixon resigned the following year, which left Ford as president, and Ford’s appointed, Nelson Rockefeller, as second in line.
James Buchanan was the only president never to marry. Five presidents remarried after the death of their first wives – two of whom, Tyler and Wilson, remarried while in the White House. Reagan was the only divorced president. Six presidents had no children. Tyler – father of 15 – had the most.
Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy were assassinated in office.
Assassination attempts were made on the lives of Jackson, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush.
Eight presidents died in office: W. Harrison (after having served only one month), Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, F. Roosevelt, and Kennedy.
Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe all died on the Fourth of July; Coolidge was born on that day.
Kennedy and Taft are the only presidents buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
There you have todays trivia. Can’t wait to see what odd facts Joe Biden will leave for us. For sure he won’t be a candidate for Mt. Rushmore. Hollywood has the Walk of Fame with hundreds of gold stars on their sidewalks. We should institute a Walk of Shame around Bill Clintons presidential library with gold 🚽’s instead of stars. The first three recipients could and should be Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Donald Trump. Coming up fast on the outside is Joe Biden looking for his spot. Actually I think I’ll just nominate him right now to avoid the rush later.
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