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As soon as Halloween was over, the TV ads jumped over Thanksgiving and began advertising Christmas. Black Friday was moved to the first of November. My wife and I flew back to the Midwest to visit relatives and found tinsel and holly decorating the terminals.
The airport in Las Vegas had as many decorated artificial trees as they did slot machines. What happened to Thanksgiving?
My grandchildren, who go to school in Seattle, tell me that Thanksgiving is out of favor because the Pilgrims displaced the natives. It seems Seattle schools no longer teach that the original immigrants were idealists ill-prepared for survival in the new world. Without help from the natives, they would all have starved.
As it was, half of them died that first year. Then the surviving half and their native friends gave thanks for their salvation. We should also thank them for their contribution to democratic ideals. If you have never read the Mayflower Compact, you should. It is the genesis for every constitutional democracy the world has ever known.
Contrary to what my grandchildren tell me, I believe we overlook Thanksgiving because Christmas has more economic clout. The only Thanksgiving specific merchandise I remember were little candles that looked like pumpkins, pilgrims, or turkeys.
Speaking of turkeys; my grandmother and I used to raise them as our contribution to the local economy.
Grandma usually started with 50, but expected to lose a few, so she contracted to deliver 45. She had an old iron witch’s cauldron set over a fire made from corncobs gathered in the pig pen. We spent a week defeathering and dressing turkeys. She let me keep one, and the monetary proceeds from the others went into her Christmas fund. Good memories.
My uncle Shorty and I hunted rabbits Thanksgiving morning. We planned to arrive at the clan gathering in time to wash up for the feast. Before the meal, Grandma would ask me to give a blessing, then she would go around the table and ask each of us what we were most thankful for. I was thankful that we were finished picking turkeys, but I never said that. I was most thankful to be surrounded by family.
Thanksgiving is more than remembering a small group of Pilgrims who survived against all odds. It is a time for all of us to think about how blessed we are. Those Pilgrams had lost half their number and still were thankful for what they had. Thanks to their example, we are blessed to live in a country governed by the will of the people. We have the highest standard of living in the world, access to the best health care, and an education system that is the envy of people the world over. Not only are we blessed to be Americans, we are blessed to live in a corner of that nation filled with natural beauty and rich with caring neighbors. I am grateful to be who I am, where I am.
FRANK WATSON IS A RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL AND LONG-TIME RESIDENT OF EASTERN WASHINGTON. HE HAS BEEN A FREE-LANCE COLUMNIST FOR OVER 20 YEARS.
