Happy Thanksgiving

Many years ago when I was a youngster, I couldn’t wait for Thanksgiving because of the visions I had dancing around in my head of all of the wonderful food that I was going to dig into! Turkey, dressing, my mother’s special mashed potatoes and of course her very special green beans with French fried onions and mushroom soup sauce (which I have since learned that every mom cooked these “very special” green beans thanks to Campbell’s, Betty Crocker and Readers Digest!) This was a special time as we always had my Aunts, Uncles & favorite Cousins visiting with us.

Of course my parents and teachers told me about how some of the people from England had grown weary of the King telling them were they could worship. They decided they had had enough and wanted to be free from the Church of England and the King’s rule, thereby making it “Pure”, these “Puritans hightailed it over to the New World on the Mayflower and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts ready to begin their lives with the religious freedom they had been denied.

Unfortunately they landed in December and it was very, very cold! They were able to get thru the harsh winter in large part with the help of the Native Americans who supplied them with seeds and food and the skills needed to survive in this strange, new land. I love the image of the friendly Native Americans teaching the new arrivals how to survive in their new home. After a particularly hard year they were blessed with a great fall harvest and decided to celebrate their good fortune by having a feast of thanksgiving and invited the Native Americans who had helped them so much during their first year.

Now this was in 1621 and a lot of history has been written since that time, some good and some not so good. But now in 2013 I’m impressed by how far our country has come and, while not perfect by any means, still the greatest country in the world and trying very hard to live up to the vision that our founding fathers had.

Happy Thanksgiving from our Maggies family to yours.