Volume 17 , Issue 42

NW Okie's Journey

After the example of our ancestors, pioneers whose names had made the Plymouth colony immortal, we should never cease to give thanks for the goodnesses and the mercies showered upon us and our land during the past decades.

Do you find it a little strange that our earliest National holiday, the one at least which had its origin in the very early days of our country, should always be associated with the dinner table? Thanksgiving Day and Thanksgiving Day dinner are synonymous terms with a great many people. Did you realize that our immigrant ancestors feasted for three days, giving thanks in mid October for a bountiful harvest?

We have a good precedent for this, as early as 1621 the renowned Governor Bradford, after the first harvest of the colonies at Plymouth, sent four men out fowling, that on the Thanksgiving day he had appointed they might, "after a more special manner,rejoice together." We have continued that special manner of rejoicing ever since.

It is probably due to the fact that those early Thanksgiving Day fowlers chance to bring down a generous supply of plump wild turkeys that we have immortalized the turkey of later days, making it our National Thanksgiving Day bird.

Governor Bradford also gave an object lesson at the first Thanksgiving Day festival of the hospitality which is preached to us now on all sides.

He entertained, so history relates, the "Greatest King Massaoyt" and ninety Indians, and they feasted for three days.

Foremost of there might have been lost turkey, dressed with beechnuts; then came rare venison pasties, savory meat stews with dumplings of barley flour, delicious oysters (the gift of the indians, and the first ever tasted by the white men), great bowls of clam chowder with sea biscuit floating on the steaming broth, roasts of all kinds, broiled fish, salads, cakes and plum porridge; while the centre of each of the long tables was adorned with a large basket overflowing with wild grapes and plums and nuts of every variety.

"It was the time of the Indian summer. The soft, mellow sunlight shone warmly through the drowsy haze, illuminating the sombre woodland with a rich golden light, while the gentle winds of the South, laden with the sweet perfumes of the forest, came as a lingering dream of summer to add to the joy and brightness of this Thanksgiving feast. Upon the balmy air arose the hum of many voices and the merry music of laughter, as the Pilgrims with their Indian guests partook of the feast that the Provider of all things had given them."

A Thanksgiving Day Menu

When Thanksgiving Day began to be generally celebrated in New England, where it had its first stronghold, the regular dinner of the day was very much the same everywhere, varying somewhat as to quality and quantity.

A New Yorker's Thanksgiving Day dinner in 1897 may include anything and almost everything. The one familiar feature which still obtains is the turkey, which seldom fails to form the piece de resistance everywhere.

Here is the menu of what claims to be a simple, good, old-fashioned Thanksgiving Day menu, although some few concessions have been made to the times:

Oyster soup, Breadsticks, Olives, Celery, Chicken pie, Creamed macaroni with cheese, radishes, Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips onions, squash, cranberry sauce, lettuce salad, mince pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, cider, apples, nuts, raisins,

First Thanksgiving Proclamation

There is in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society a proclamation announcing a Thanksgiving for a victory in King Philip's War, and during the following year, 1677, the first Thanksgiving proclamation as printed.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Good Night! Good Luck!
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