Thanksgiving? Texas had it first. No kidding (unless you count the Vinlanders, who probably were grateful to be out of Greenland, but left no records that they ever actually had a feast to say so — but see the comments in the posts linked at various places).
Last year, Mrs. Bathtub was in the hospital. We sprang her before dinner, but barely. This year, #2 son is off in the wilds of Wisconsin — the first Turkey Day he’s spent away from home and family. We empathize with the families the first colonizers left behind.
Still, there will be dinner with the family, thanks for the endurance of storms and trials, reflections on good times past, and hopes for the future.
Thanksgiving is a national holiday, one of the 18 days designated by Congress as a “Fly the flag” day. It’s been a historic year. It’s a good day to fly the flag.
So, in keeping with that spirit of remembrance, it’s reprise post stuff mostly, today. If you need more, go here:
Here’s the main reprise post, text below (there were some good comments in 2006); Margaritas and nachos do sound good, don’t they?
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Patricia Burroughs has the story — you New Englanders are way, way behind.
Palo Duro Canyon during inversion, Winter 2001, site in 1541 of the first Thanksgiving celebration in what would become the United States. Go here: www.visitamarillotx.com/Gallery/index3.html, and here: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/paloduro/
Update, 11/27/2006: Great post here, “Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving.”
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Resources for 2007:
- The Butcher Carves a Turkey, video from the New York Times
- History.com ignores Texas, giving a good rundown of the old shibboleths about Pilgrims, etc., with some regard for accuracy (See the “Top 10 Myths” post above, from History News Network, too)
- Dates for Thanksgiving in the U.S. through 2013
- Canadians, claiming to have beaten the Plymouth Colony to Thanksgiving by 43 years, hold their Thanksgiving feast in October, to get all the good turkeys, I suppose, or at least the drumsticks (Canada’s Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October)
- Rachel Carson is often blamed for it, but she had nothing to do with the U.S. Department of Agriculture ban on cranberries in 1959 (Carson’s Silent Spring wasn’t published for another three years) [regular readers know why this is noted here]
- Cranberries are loaded with antioxidants, and other stuff from The Cranberry Institute
- ABC’s Good Morning America 2007 story on harvesting cranberries
- The Food Network on stuffing
- Post explaining the real, legal and historical meaning of the Mayflower Compact — no, it doesn’t mean the U.S. is a Christian Nation.
- George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, from the Library of Congress
- Smithsonian Institution says the Cherokees beat Texas to it, and Thomas Jefferson wouldn’t proclaim it
- James Madison issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in April 1815, as the War of 1812 was winding down – this was the last such proclamation until 1862
- Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
- Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up a week, for economic (”shopping”) reasons: 1939, the Year of Two Thanksgivings — from the Marist Institute, with images of original documents (via the FDR Library)
- Who was first between Plymouth and Jamestown? No, the pilgrims did not tie their ship to Plymouth Rock; no, the Prudential logo is the Rock of Gibraltar, not Plymouth . . . and more travel stuff, from today’s New York Times.
- For 2008, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Thanksgiving,” from Time, via HNN
- Indianapolis Star reports travel way down in 2008 – air travel in Indianapolis is easy with small crowds, brand-new terminal
- Plymouth Hall Museum has features on Thanksgiving not generally found at other sites
Google's 2008 Thanksgiving logo - click for search on "Thanksgiving"
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
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