Tuesday, November 26, 2013

A Thanksgiving Long Ago

Every year memories of a long ago Thanksgiving come to mind.  It was a Thanksgiving on Nov 23, 1981, the year me and my family went to Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth Massachusetts.   We were living in Rhode Island at the time, so it wasn't too long of a drive.   Plimoth Plantation (they use the old English spelling) is a living history museum where the people there are 'character actors' of Pilgrims of 1621.  They live in a village of homes built to look like the originals of that time.  Now, wouldn't that be an interesting "job", to be a Pilgrim from April through November and act like it is 1621?  When you visit this living history place, you watch them do gardening, cooking and general living.   You can ask them questions, but if it is about something that happened after 1621 they don't know what you are talking about!
     Here is a photo of the general place, and one of me and my children.   They were about 7 yrs old in the photo and I was about 33. (Was I really that young?  Sigh.......)
Me and my boys at Plimoth Plantation
A general view of Plimoth Plantation
This is a living replica of the original Mayflower ship
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!   And by the way, please don't call it "turkey day".  This day is not to honor the American turkey!  It is a day set aside to give thanks to God for our many blessings!   That is what the original meaning was back in 1621.  The Pilgrims were a very religious bunch of folks and came here for religious freedom.  They patterned their thankful celebration after the Harvest Home celebrations in England at that time era.  And if you really want to celebrate like they did, then you need to eat clams, venison, wild game birds, corn porridge, and boiled pumpkin.  Yum, yum, eh?  Our Thanksgiving  menu has changed a lot over the years, and the modern day menu bears little resemblance to what was eaten throughout our country's history.  Every generation added something new, and cooks added their new ideas, and suddenly it is the 21st century and people think you should 'only' eat turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie.
     Well, whatever you decide to eat this year, think about the many blessings we have received.  And Happy Thanksgiving!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for showing that photo! I've grabbed it from the blog post here, so I can post it up on my Facebook page. I remember that trip! - Jerry

Diana said...

I remember when Dan and I and Becky and Danny came to Rhode Island for Thanksgiving.
We also went to the plantation with you - really enjoyed it. I'll have to look up our old pictures of the trip.Brings back memories