Thanksgiving is a holiday not to be forgotten. Every year my family celebrates the special day with festivities and a big feast at the end. There’s turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, potatoes, pumpkin and pecan pie, and more, and although this year will be different, the food will hopefully stay the same.
Thanksgiving! Just think of it! Relatives pouring through the doors, heaping piles of food, loads of family tradition! But this year’s different. Here’s an interview with Charlotter Charlie Moore and Charlotte pod teacher Sarah Attig on how all that might have to change due to COVID-19.
It was my first year as a resident of New York City over Thanksgiving. I lived off Union Square, around the corner from Max’s Kansas City where Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground were the house band and where I knew the audience would be small on the holiday, so I decided to accept an invitation from a co-worker at my advertising agency to join her family in the Bronx for Thanksgiving dinner.
When you think of Thanksgiving, you think warm, cozy, lots of food, and smiling faces lighting up the room. Let’s hold on to all your family traditions! Here’s an interview with Rory Donahue about some of his family traditions.
In pondering the topic of Thanksgiving and gratitude, I find my mind wandering not to what on earth this Thanksgiving will bring, but back to past Thanksgivings—specifically, to Thanksgivings of my childhood, which would typically be spent at my grandmother’s house in Connecticut. A part of me didn’t love going there. In fact, if you had asked me at the time, I would have told you it was boring.
For the first time in years, I won’t be gathering for a Thanksgiving dinner with friends or family, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have plenty to be grateful for. An early November trip to New York City to visit my almost 96-year-old mother—my first visit in over a year, thanks to the pandemic—reminded me of how much I love my adopted state.
I have memories of two types of rituals for this holiday. The first revolves around football; the second revolves around food. In this issue of The News I’ll tell you about how in Green Bay, Wisconsin, football rules the roost on Thanksgiving. I will get into food next time.
Thanksgiving means a lot of things to a lot of people. For most of us it’s about family and expressing gratitude for our blessings. For some those blessings are simply having a roof over our heads, food in the cupboard or enough wood for the stove or oil for the furnace.