Thanksgiving Day Comments

At this Thanksgiving time I am in a reminiscent state of mind. I think it is because my three sons and their families came to help my wife and me celebrate my birthday. And while I am in a reminiscent mood I will tell you about some of my early Thanksgiving Day experiences along with other comments concerning Thanksgiving.

My earliest recollection of Thanksgiving Day, about 80 years ago, had to do with the ride to my Grandfather Day's farm and the reception that awaited us when we arrived. There were six of us in a spring wagon. Father, Mother and four boys of which I was the youngest. It took about four hours over not too good roads to make the trip. I recall one unfenced section of land that we drove over diagonally in order to save a bit of mileage.

But what a cordial reception when we arrived. I remember especially an Aunt of mine who hauled me out over the side of the spring wagon and hugged and kissed me. Think of it. A boy who had reached the advanced age of four or five years being kissed and hugged by a girl. Visiting manners however prevented me from making any violent objections.

And what a plate of food Grandmother fixed for me - turkey, cranberry sauce, hot potatoes and gravy, etc. topped off later by a piece of pumpkin pie. My good Mother, I am sure, had premonitions of digestive upsets on my part but Grandmothers then as now have their way on Thanksgiving Day and grandmothers are quite indulgent with grandchildren and I suppose grandfathers are too at times. By the way I saw a spring wagon in a museum recently that looked almost exactly like the one we had on that trip.

Thanksgiving Day hasn't changed much since I was a boy. It remains a day of rejoicing and thankfulness for a bountiful harvest as well as a day of feasting and good fellowship. The dinner I sit down to this year will be I feel sure very much like the one at Grandfather's farm 80 years ago. There will be the preliminary expression of thankfulness to divine providence for the many good things in life which are ours, followed by a bountiful meal - probably too much to eat.

During the past few years our family has carried out a custom which I think is quite appropriate. Just before the meal we clasp hands around the table and sing "Blest Be The Tie That Binds". Thanksgiving has always been a get together homecoming for our family. The song is quite appropriate. Two of my grandchildren will not be present this year. One is studying for a masters degree at the University of Wisconsin and the other is an undergraduate at the University of Utah. They will be called by telephone sometime during the day or perhaps Bob Jr. will come home from Wisconsin.

The Puritans

As we celebrate Thanksgiving with family reunion festivals and religious observances it is appropriate to review briefly the sturdy character of the Puritans who established the Thanksgiving tradition in this country.

The Puritans were truly heroic. In religion they refused to bow the knee to the Church of England or anyone else other than their God and their Bible as they interpreted it even though it meant persecution. They were also out of sympathy with the political system in England. They wanted more liberty in government less dictation from the central government in England, the Throne, and they suffered persecution for their views. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth one of the sects of the Puritans, the Pilgrims, took refuge in Holland. Later they decided to migrate to America.

They had much difficulty in getting started. At one time one of their ships sprung a leak and they had to return to the embarkation point. Finally in the early fall of September 16, 1620 they sailed from England on the Mayflower, a 180 ton boat with 100 passengers and the crew aboard. They had to take enough water with them to last the entire trip and also enough food although they may have caught a few fish on the way.

The Pilgrims sighted Cape Cod on November 10th, 1620 and their ship dropped anchor in what is now Provincetown Harbor on November 21st. Here they took on water and wood for fuel and explored the coast in a small boat. On December 21, 1620 more than three months after leaving England the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor and the work of establishing a settlement began.

Prior to this on November 11, 1620, the Pilgrims prepared a remarkable political document for that time which provided for a civil body to make their laws. It was in fact a declaration for self government. It provided in part that they would "in presence of God and one another covenant and combine themselves together in a civil body politic for our better order and preservation..... and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and form just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time as shall be thought to be most mete and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience etc. etc......."

This was the first self governing document produced in he new World. It may be said to have been the beginning of the "cradle of Liberty".

The Pilgrims suffered terrible hardships that first winter. They had to build shelter in December in the cold New England winter. They had difficulty in getting enough food to keep them from starvation that first winter. Sickness assailed them. About half of their little band died. They kept their losses a carefully guarded secret lest the Indians discover the number of their little band that had perished.

Spring came at last and they planted their fields with grain which they cared for with great anxiety for their very lives depended on the harvest. The corn was furnished by friendly Indians.

The Pilgrims owed much to the Indians that first year. An Indian named Squanto who had spent a few years as a slave in Europe and had been returned to his homeland was very friendly and showed how to grow the new crop - corn. Squanto probably conducted the first agricultural demonstration in this country. In addition to showing how to plant the corn he told the Pilgrims that a small fish placed along with the corn kernels in a hill of corn would make the corn grow big. It was a demonstration in the use of phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer. It is believed that the little colony might have perished had it not been for the corn and the help given by friendly Indians.

The harvest of the grain crops exceeded their expectations and late in the fall as recorded in the historical account "our harvest being gotten in our Governor sent four men on fowling so that we might after a more special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. The four killed as much fowl as with a little help besides served the company almost a week".

Governor Bradford invited the friendly Indians in to share in the feast and the Indians in turn came bearing gifts of venison. The harvest feast lasted three days. The fowl to which the historical account refers was wild turkey. Turkey was the main meat at this first Thanksgiving feast and still has the distinction of being the center of attraction at present day Thanksgiving dinners.

We owe much to the Puritans and their descendants. We are thankful for the political ideas of Adams, Hancocks and Daniel Webster for the philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau, for the literature of Hawthorne, Lowell, Longfellow, Holmes and Harriet Becher Stowe and for Horace Mann in education. These are a few of the prominent thinkers and idea makers that emerged from the Puritan colonies.

During the past half century one of the pastimes of some of our writers, speakers and jokesters has been to discredit the stern beliefs of the Puritans. One of the ways of winning an argument that involved moral principles and personal conduct has been to point out that the one with whom you argued was Puritanical in his views. If that could be made to stick you might have him licked. This debunking of the Puritans has come close to debunking our own moral standards. It is time we began upgrading the ideas of personal responsibility and moral conduct that have made our nation great.

Let us at this Thanksgiving be thankful for the Puritans. Let us give thanks for a people who had the courage to leave the security of England for the then wilderness of America, for a people who prized liberty and freedom above security and ease and who were willing to endure great sacrifices to achieve it, for a people who faced the challenges and hardships of a new country and conquered it and in so doing established one of the world's finest civilizations. At this Thanksgiving let us be thankful for the Puritans.

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