Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving Stories

 

This year, I felt like reading some classic stories about good old-fashioned Thanksgiving celebrations. Here is my “reading” list, with the first one to watch rather than read.

·       A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. This is not as well known as A Charlie Brown Christmas or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, but it does highlight the real purpose of the holiday. It is available on DVD or for streaming from one or more services.

·       Over the River and Through the Wood is a poem by Lydia Maria Child about the trip by sleigh to Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving. It has been published in picture-book form numerous times using different illustrators.

·       “An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving” is a short story by Louisa May Alcott. When the parents leave to visit a dying Grandma, can the children handle Thanksgiving on their own? You’ll have to read the story to find the answer.

·       “Aunt Suzanna’s Thanksgiving Dinner” is a short story by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The main characters are already young women, but children will also enjoy this story of how they save Aunt Suzanna’s Thanksgiving dinner.

·       “Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen” is a short story by O. Henry. Although there is nothing in the story that is inappropriate for children, it is typical O. Henry and works better for adults.

Happy reading.

__________

The illustration is “Homestead Winter” by Currier and Ives, circa 1868. It is in the public domain because of its age.

Getting Thanksgiving Right

 

This Thanksgiving week, I am reworking a post I originally wrote in 2014 for the Indiana Writers’ Consortium blog. The changes are mostly due to the difference in audience, but the historical perspective is the same.

In 2014, I looked for a picture of the first Thanksgiving to include with the post. Unfortunately, the only ones I found that were clearly in the public domain were also historically inaccurate. The image I ended up using, and which accompanies this post as well, is a good example. The clothing and feather are all wrong, and the position of the two groups, with the members of the Wampanoag nation sitting on the ground and the Pilgrims standing, implies that the Pilgrims were the dominant race. Since a white woman is handing out the food, the picture could also imply that the Pilgrims provided the feast and the Native Americans were simply recipients.

That’s wrong.

When I think of the first Thanksgiving, I think of friendly Native Americans bringing their knowledge, skills, and provisions to feed the starving Pilgrims. Squanto and his tribe taught the Pilgrims how to survive, and they would have perished without that help.

That’s one of the reasons I like Thanksgiving. It’s the one time of year when we remember the Native American participants as the generous people they were. That’s a lot better than the frequent stereotype of half-dressed warriors burning homes and scalping white settlers.

Those of us with European ancestry have many reasons to be grateful to Native Americans.

And I am.

Thank God

 

No, I’m not swearing. With Thanksgiving coming up, I decided to take a traditional approach to this week’s blog post and thank God for His many blessings: a loving husband, three wonderful children (including my son-in-law), great friends, good health (for my age), my writing, plenty of activities to keep me busy, a church where I can grow in my knowledge of and relationship with Christ, and, of course, Christ’s death on the cross to save me from my sins.

But most of this post will be taken from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. Here is his explanation to the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer.

Give us this day our daily bread.

What does this mean? God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

What is meant by daily bread? Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

So thank God this week and always.

__________

The photo shows Martin Luther’s study at Wartburg Castle where he translated the New Testament into German. I took it during a Reformation tour in 2016.

"Please Sir, I Want Some More"

 

I was going through some old blog posts and found one from Thanksgiving 2011 that is still perfect today. So here is the reprint.

“Please Sir, I Want Some More”

Oliver Twist asked for more gruel because he was hungry—and because of peer pressure, but that isn’t the subject of this post.

I get hungry, too. If I haven’t eaten for four or five hours, I become so crabby that nobody wants to be around me.

Of course, Oliver’s definition of hunger was different from mine. He was near starvation, and I’m used to a full stomach.

Oliver held out an empty bowl and asked the cook for what he needed.

I hold out a full bowl and ask God for what I want. After all, why would I ask for what I need when He’s already given it? A loving family, good friends, a comfortable home, plenty of food for the table.

So when I say, “Please Sir, I want some more,” am I being ungrateful?

Still there are some things I do need more of. I need more contentment with what I have and more thankfulness to God for giving it to me.

That’s why my Thanksgiving prayer starts with “thank you” and ends with, “please God, give me more contentment and thankfulness.”

And that’s my prayer for you this holiday, too.

__________

The picture is George Cruikshank’s illustration for the first printing of Oliver Twist. The book appeared as a monthly serial in Bentley’s Miscellany, and this illustration probably accompanied a March 1837 installment.

A Thanksgiving Acrostic

 

It’s a little late to be wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving, but I’m doing it anyway. The days between Thanksgiving and Christmas are a busy time for most of us, and that includes me, so I’m going to use reprints this year. I’ll start with a Thanksgiving acrostic originally posted on November 23, 2015.

A Thanksgiving Acrostic

Here is a list of things that I am thankful for as a writer.

Thesauruses for finding the perfect word,

Handkerchiefs to cry into when my characters get in trouble,

Authentic dialogue,

Notebooks to preserve ideas,

Kind friends and relatives who don’t laugh at my lousy first drafts,

Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life for those moments when I need encouragement mixed with humor,

Gripping plots,

Imaginary friends (and enemies) who come to life on the page,

Vivid description,

Imagery that puts the reader in the setting,

Nerve to cut out those favorite passages that just don’t fit, and

Groups of other writers to provide critiques, support, and networking.

__________

The picture at the head of this post wasn’t in the original 2015 post. It is a Currier and Ives print titled “Home to Thanksgiving” and is in the public domain because of its age. (Currier and Ives went out of business in 1907.)

A Thanksgiving Acrostic

Here is a list of things that I am thankful for as a writer.

Thesauruses for finding the perfect word,

Handkerchiefs to cry into when my characters get in trouble,

Authentic dialogue,

Notebooks to preserve ideas,

Kind friends and relatives who don’t laugh at my lousy first drafts,

Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life for those moments when I need encouragement mixed with humor,

Gripping plots,

Imaginary friends (and enemies) who come to life on the page,

Vivid description,

Imagery that puts the reader in the setting,

Nerve to cut out those favorite passages that just don’t fit, and

Groups of other writers to provide critiques, support, and networking.

Happy Thanksgiving.

You Had to be There

I knew I should go, and I was one of the first people to sign up, but I wasn't excited about it.

My church invited Dr. Paul Maier, a well-known Christian author, to present a seminar this past Saturday. I had read one of his novels and enjoyed it, but I was lukewarm about devoting all morning and most of the afternoon to lectures that promised to make extensive use of archaeological finds and manuscripts by ancient historians. Not my idea of an interesting day.

But I was wrong. Instead of dry facts and boring academic analysis, I heard a  riveting speaker whose entertaining and informative presentation created a verbal mural worthy of Michelangelo. Okay, so nobody can compare with Michelangelo, but you get the idea.

Or maybe not. I went straight from church to my writers' critique group, where I tried to explain the experience I had just been through. The members of the group listened to me with yawns in their eyes and "whatever" in their body language. They didn't catch the fever at all.

I guess you had to have been there.

It's like that with the first Thanksgiving, too. These days, Thanksgiving is simply one more holiday. Although most of us remember to thank God for our blessings, Thanksgiving is often just another chance to get together with family and eat the table bare.

When the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth in December 1620, there were 102 of them. When they held their harvest festival in November 1621, there were only 53 left. Those 53 had survived a hard winter filled with hunger, cold, and diseases such as pneumonia and scurvy. They finally had sturdy homes and a plentiful harvest, but they must have grieved for the 26 men, 14 women, and 9 children who weren't there to share the celebration with them.

I can't know either the depth of their grief or the height of their joy as they contemplated a more promising future. I do know that my Thanksgiving celebrations are just a shadow of the harvest festival that we recognize as the first Thanksgiving. With a comfortable home and very little true sorrow in my life, I haven't experienced what the Pilgrims did.

You had to be there.