Give Thanks
It's a short trading week in the US, where Americans will gather with family members and plus-ones to eat themselves into a gravy-drunk stupor in celebration of the time their ancestors were bailed out by the locals, who didn't have the heart to let entire communities of pale, hapless settlers freeze and starve.
No Native Americans will be invited to Thanksgiving feasts across the country. What few are left will spend November 23 drinking vodka on reservations, which is to say November 23 will
This is spot on and I am already looking forward to your “Christmas” post- and I sincerely mean that!
The best Thanksgiving I ever celebrated was with my daughter’s boyfriend’s (now fiancée) parents. His mother was born in Syria and his father was born in Egypt. They immigrated to the US in their late 20’s…..in addition to serving unbelievably good Middle Eastern food for Thanksgiving (I am not a turkey, stuffing, gravy fan)- it was amazing to celebrate with people who were so happy that they live in the USA.
This coming week I will enter my 80th year on earth, notable only to me. As I contemplate that milestone it occurs to me that the single biggest change in our country through those years is a sharp rise in impatience. We want all our problems to disappear so there have to be rate cuts now to get this ugly mess over with. Last year is was rushing to get stupid COVID over with. As we get sloppier, more selfish, less respectful (MTG will soon be our queen?), and less responsible, we want someone to clean up behind us, yesterday. I suddenly remember an old sitcom with a mayor in some small town whose catch phrase for everything was was: “Handle it, handle it.”
Whenever my birthday is neigh, I recall this really interesting piece of research that showed that a highly statistically significant number of people die in a 30 day window window around their birthday. Moreover, the cause of death was irrelevant. Natural causes, murder, car accident, suicide, whatever the cause, all still had the same timing. Creepy.
My favorite TG day was on my 6th birthday, the first of many times my birthday has been on Thanksgiving. Over two dozen of our immediate family attended, the largest family gathering of any time in my memory. To add to the festivities, my grandfather and two uncles had gone hunting in Wyoming and Montana for several weeks and we got to eat what they killed. I got to eat Black Bear, Pronghorn (the tastiest of the lot), White Tail, Moose, Pheasant, Quail, and of course, Turkey with all our family’s best sides. We ate for hours and I got to try it all. What a day!
Bless you, sir. Your opener today was first class.
Happy birthday, Mr. Lucky- I hope you get to spend the day with your daughter and your grandson!
Happy birthday Mr. Lucky. I enjoy your comments. Yes, impatience has permeated our society. So has civil disrespect.
Happy birthday man!
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday Mr. Lucky. Always enjoy your comments which give us a glimpse of the days past…
Happy birthday, my friend. I’m fortunate to have you as a longtime subscriber.
Since we’re sharing Thanksgiving stories…
The first Thanksgiving after moving in with my girlfriend (now wife), her mentor at work, Ken, learned that we weren’t visiting family for the holiday, so he invited us over to have Thanksgiving with his family. They were numerous, friendly, fun, and interesting. The Thanksgiving dinner isn’t the interesting part of the story though. Ken was. A few years later, Liz & I lived in Oakland, and he met up with us one day while visiting the area. He had grown up in Oakland, after having been born in a Japanese internment camp during WWII. We walked around the city, and he pointed out to us all the beautiful fancy houses where his father used to work as a gardener.