As the last couple of days of November get used up by time, I thought of the theme of the month, thanksgiving.
We were all raised with the notion that Thanksgiving Day began with the Pilgrims and Indians. We were taught, "38 settlers from the ship Margaret, which landed in Virginia, immediately held a religious celebration, specifically dictated by the group's charter from the London Company. The charter declared, "that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."
Well, thanks be to you, dear God. I appreciate the bounty - my girth declares it so, too, LOL.
Everyone indulges in the seasons harvest with gusto and thanks - turkey (or ham for the dissenting), sweet potatoes (or yam for the persnickety), carrots and corn, fish, pumpkin and squash, and much more. Ne'er forget the much appreciated follow-up naps.
I just read that "early settlers hollowed out pumpkins, filled the shells with milk, honey, and spices to make a custard, then roasted the gourds whole in ashes." That may not be pie, but still sounds good to me, gobble, gobble!
So today, in reflection, for what am I grateful?
My true choice is modern conveniences.
It started with the television. Being a sickly child I used the distraction of a television show to pass the time. My very earliest memory is of crying at the end of a movie where Jesse James and his girlfriend got killed. Then there was the shock of the black and white sci-fi shows on Saturday, especially Tarantula. "More terrifying than any horror known to man" it screamed in white words from the black screen.
As Dad took us to many, many historical sites over the years of our youth, I began to appreciate other modern conveniences.
We went to Lincoln's birthplace, and childhood home, of dirt floors.
Gag, choke, wheeze. Give me laminated hardwoods and a good Swiffer.
On to the Stephen Foster Story performance and his home where there were fireplaces in every room and heating the beds with warming pans of hot coals.
Shiver my bones, and foggy breath, no thank you! Electric baseboard heaters clicking away makes my night and day.
A fourth grade tour of Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement showed that they made candles in an outbuilding, and hung meat to cure in a smokehouse. Conner, a wealthy businessman and landowner, had a huge house and servants, but I prefer Sam Walton, creator of the Wal-Mart selling Yankee Candles, and Tyson meats - his department store!
As me and my siblings aged into teenagers, to Washington D.C. and all its museums we went. One display was of president's wives dresses. They had whole lines of tiny buttons down the backside, they required a maid with a handy dandy button puller.
Unt-uh, Muumuus for mom and sweatpants for me, thank you!
A later trip to Jamestown Settlement, revealed they had poor drinking water and a man died from a ball bearing type bullet wound. Please, give me a reverse osmosis filtration system! Come on, let's get sophisticated and use big words! You can't get more handy than purified bottled water, either!
And one of the final trips was to Florida, Oglethorpe's monument. We learned Oglethorpe wanted to make life better for convicts and debtors in England, and created a colony in Savannah for them to do so. "Not for self, but for others" was their motto.
That's me, I'm part of "others" and I'm thankful to live in the 21th century of ... ready? you can hear my answer, can't you? ... modern conveniences.
Yes. The clothes washer and dryer rumbling downstairs, the dishwasher singing the end of its cycle, and the electric clock alarming "time to wake up" are all things for which to be thankful, I think.
I think I may want to lay here a bit longer to enjoy last days of November under my electric blanket with my coffee on a warming pad.
Ah, my pillow top mattress is so cush, another modern convenience, for sure. I'm so thankful, "zzzzzzzzzzzzz."
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