Thanksgiving is a great day

Opinion

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November 28, 2008

By JOEL WILSON The Glasgow Daily Times Fri Nov 28, 2008, 08:36 AM CST

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to a group of ladies about Thanksgiving. That necessitated a visit to the worldwide Web to find out all I could about the holiday.

We know at the first Thanksgiving in America was in 1621 when the pilgrims of Plymouth Colony gathered to give thanks after the first harvest. They probably didn’t have turkey and dressing but with the help of some friendly Native Americans, they had enough food for a celebration.

The pilgrims had suffered terribly those first few years. There was a constant shortage of food and they fought the weather, hostiles and strange diseases they hadn’t known before. We’re told there were many more graves than new homes and when ships arrived from England they brought more mouths to feed and precious few provisions.

Nevertheless, Gov. William Bradford proclaimed the day of Nov. 29 as a day of thanksgiving.

The nation’s first president made it official in 1789 when he proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November. Another president, Thomas Jefferson, abolished the holiday, declaring it a “kingly practice.”

President Abraham Lincoln reinstated Thanksgiving and designated the final Thursday of November as the day it should be observed.

In 1941, the day was finally set for the final Thursday of November after the nation observed two Thanksgiving days in 1939. When merchants complained that Nov. 30 was too late to celebrate because it shortened the shopping season, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving be observed on Nov. 23 and that’s when he carved his turkey in Warm Springs, Ga. But much of the nation ignored FDR’s orders and waited to celebrate on Nov. 30.

Things have certainly changed since then. Halloween is barely over when the Christmas stuff starts coming out. Thanksgiving seems to just get in the way in recent years.

Growing up, Thanksgiving was a holiday celebrated separately. I don’t remember ever having turkey as a lad but we always had a fat hen with dressing and dumplings. We raised our own chickens on Cleveland Avenue and my mom would sacrifice one of her pets for the cause.

I always looked forward to the Thanksgiving meal at school where we did have the turkey and all the trimmings.

It was only after Thanksgiving that we started thinking about Christmas.

Later, after I started at the Glasgow Daily Times, I had the pleasure of chairing the Glasgow Christmas Parade for several years, following Hank Royse who had been the man for a dozen years or more. Our parade was always held on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving and formed at the Houchens-Methodist Church parking lot. Billy Huffman and I co-chaired the event for several years and the two of us were the committee. With some volunteer help that morning, mostly for guest high school band directors, we always seemed to get it started on time.

Schools had the most beautiful floats in those days and the competition was as hot as some crosstown rivalries in sports are today.

I trust you had a happy Thanksgiving and you are indeed thankful for all that God has provided. Now we can start looking forward to Christmas and to our bigger and better parade next Saturday.

Joel Wilson can be reached by e-mail at afwilson@glasgow-ky.com.

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