Good morning. Welcome to Jo Ann’s Virtual Café 2023. Come on in and help yourself to a breakfast beverage. Let’s talk.
Joe has a Thanksgiving story.
It was getting close to Thanksgiving. The weather was turning colder. Ben and his wife, Laura were babysitting their granddaughter, Shirley. They lived on a small farm in a rural county. Shirley was about ten years old.
She noticed an old photo album sitting on a bookshelf in the parlor. She picked it up and carried it into the living room. “Shirley, what have you got in your hands?” said Laura. “It’s an old book of pictures of people that I don’t know. It looked interesting to me. Can we look at it together? Can you and Grandpa tell me about the pictures of the people?” asked Shirley.
“Come on over here and sit between us on the couch. Grandpa and I will tell you some things about them,” her grandma replied. Shirley sat down between her grandparents. Shirley opened the book. The first picture they saw was a group of people sitting around a big table eating. “What’s that picture about?” she asked.
Ben replied, “That’s an old gathering of your relatives celebrating Thanksgiving. That’s my Uncle Jake and his wife with all their kids. There are your great grandma, Olive, and great grandpa Ray.” Ben went on to explain to Shirley all the others sitting around the table.
“It looks like they are having a good time. There’s a picture of women cooking and putting a big turkey into a big old stove. They are laughing. There are also pictures of kids playing board games and such together. I see that the adults played card games and such. There’s one thing I don’t see. There are no Christmas decorations. Nowadays, it seems that people have Christmas decorations up before Christmas. Why is that?” asked Shirley.
Grandma Laura answered, “Why Thanksgiving once was almost as important as Christmas in our day many years ago. It was a big and special holiday. It was a time when families would get together and have a big meal. When we were young, we couldn’t wait for it. We would get to see a lot of our relatives and close friends. We knew we would get to eat as much as we wanted and eat all those great desserts like pumpkin pie, apple pie, cakes, and especially sweet potato casserole. Now back then, the only time we usually ate turkey was on Thanksgiving, unlike now, where many people have it throughout the year. It was a special day of uncles, aunts, grandparents, and even cousins coming together and just being around each other.”
Grandpa Ben said, “I sure miss those days. We have always tried to celebrate Thanksgiving like we used to, but things are different now. It seems that Thanksgiving has gotten lost. It seems that after Halloween, all you see is Christmas everywhere. We didn’t even think about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was the one special day with a large gathering of family members.”
“People would eat and talk about what they did throughout the year and catch up. Now great grandpa would tell stories of when he was young. He was funny in telling them stories. We kids learned so much listening to all the old people talk. We got to play with cousins that we usually didn’t see much. It was a fun day. Nobody talked about Christmas much. Thanksgiving was a day to be thankful for family and friends. It was not a day to think about Santa Claus and gifts.”
Shirley asked, “What happened to that special day? How did it get lost or become so unimportant? Why is all the talk about Black Fridays and commercials on Television and buying toys and gifts?”
Grandpa Ben said, “People got greedy. Businesspeople started to realize that they could make more money by getting people to buy more gifts and things. They started putting on commercials and displays earlier each year. Thanksgiving was starting to get lost with all emphasis on Christmas. People started to put up Christmas decorations earlier to show off, I guess. Now stores are putting up Christmas decorations right after Halloween. You don’t see many Thanksgiving displays anymore. I remember in school drawing pictures about Thanksgiving and taping them on the blackboards. You know the biggest thing I miss about Thanksgiving?”
Shirley asked, “What?” Grandpa answered, “Waking up on Thanksgiving morning and smelling all that delicious food being cooked. Then packing it up and going to my grandparents or church to be with family and friends. I sure wished I could feel that way again. Now it’s hard to get all the family together with people moving away or saying they are too busy with this or that. I feel that Thanksgiving has been ruined. It’s just not the same anymore.”
For the next two hours, Shirley’s grandparents told their favorite stories about their Thanksgiving. Shirley loved listening to them talk and laugh, telling their stories. She really had fun being with her grandparents. She only wished that Thanksgiving was like it was that way now.
That night when she stayed at her grandparents’ house, she went to sleep thinking about Thanksgiving and her grandparents. The next morning, she woke up smelling food cooking. She went downstairs in the old farmhouse. She could hear several kids and adults talking. She knew something was wrong. The house was different. The kitchen had old appliances and even a wood cook stove. There were people standing around, talking and laughing. At first, she didn’t recognize anyone.
Then she realized that the people were the ones in the pictures that she saw the day before with her grandparents. She knew she was dreaming, but it was so real. As the day wore on, she saw everyone arriving and bringing food. Kids playing and having fun. Then it was time to eat. Everyone gathered for the dinner prayer. Kids got to eat first and had their own table. Then everyone else ate. It was a fun day. Then suddenly, all things vanished. She woke up from her dream.
That morning at breakfast, Grandma asked Shirley, “Did you sleep well last night?” Shirley told them about her dream. “It was so real. Great-grandma was so funny, and Great-grandpa would tell stories all day. He even told one about Grandpa Ben eating too much sweet potato pie and getting sick on Thanksgiving. It was funny the way he told it.”
Grandpa Ben said, “I never told you that story. I don’t think grandma knows that story. How did you know that?” Shirley replied, “Because I was there!”
Grandma replied, “You got to see a real Thanksgiving like we had. That’s enough for me.” Shirley smiled, “I learned a lot about what Thanksgiving should be. When I get older, I will always have my family celebrate Thanksgiving like it should be. I will never have any Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving will be a day of Thanks and family. Christmas will have its own place after Thanksgiving.”
The phone started ringing. Calls came in one after another all morning. Grandma and Grandpa answered all of them. “Shirley, guess what? This Thanksgiving, everyone will be coming to our house. We are going to have an old-fashioned Thanksgiving like we once did. We have sent letters to everyone to come. You know what? Everyone called and said they are coming here. The one thing, Shirley, you will have to do is show everyone pictures from that old photo album and tell everyone who they were. This year Thanksgiving won’t be lost,” smiled Grandpa Ben.
Many of us have found that Thanksgiving is different than when we were kids. We only hope that we can capture it again, like when we were young. Thanksgiving should not be lost between Halloween and Christmas. As Pastor Joseph would say, “Thanksgiving is a very special day for giving Thanks for each day of sunlight that lights our path.”
Having said that, let’s share a breakfast beverage and a Native American Proverb. The Proverb of today goes like this, “The more you are thankful, the more you attract things to be thankful for.”
Thanks for coming! Enjoy your gift of today. Have a great day!
PS The idea behind this story came from Jo Ann talking about what Thanksgiving was when most of us were young and not how it has become today. She said I should write something about that.
