I am contemplating Thanksgiving and thankfulness, along with most of
the rest of the nation this week. I love Thanksgiving because -- for me
-- it's one of the "easy" holidays. All you really need to worry about
is the meal. No gifts, decorations, cards to write and so forth. For
the most part, it's pretty relaxing as traditional family events go.
This gives a person more time to reflect on what there is to be thankful
for.
Reflecting on thankfulness is a valuable
exercise. It takes us outside ourselves to think about influences
beyond the confines of our personal space. And when you join families
through marriage or relationships, these influences can spread to the
following generation. Such is the nature of my gratitude for your
family's efforts to keep cousins connected.
My mother
was an only child so I had no aunts, uncles or cousins from her side of
the family. My father was the oldest of 3 boys and he was 13 years
older than his next youngest brother. My dad settled and started his
family several hundred miles from his own hometown of Gloucester
Massachusetts. His brothers stayed in Gloucester, married and started
families. We saw very little of our Gloucester aunts, uncles or
cousins. It was an unusual event indeed to see them.
But
your family has always seemed to be able to maintain pretty close ties
with their associated families. Even as youngsters, your parents seemed
to spend a great deal of time with their extended family--this, of
course, was partly due to the close geography and culture of the day.
But as you grew to adulthood, you all have made amazing efforts to allow
our children to spend time with their cousins. As I've come to know my
own cousin a little better in recent years, I've learned to understand
the value of this family bond. So, thank you for making it so!
Originally
I had planned to research what Thanksgiving was like for Italian
immigrants in Astoria in the 1940s. Oddly, I didn't find the kind of
information I was seeking but I did find an interesting little factoid
that perhaps you will find interesting. Apparently in 1939, the fourth
Thursday in November (the traditional date to celebrate Thanksgiving)
was late in the month, as it is this year. At the time, it wasn't
considered proper to begin Christmas prior to Thanksgiving (imagine
such a world!) and retailers were worried about the bottom line in a
shortened shopping season especially as the Depression effects
lingered. President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving back a
week in order to allow the extra shopping week. Did you know this?
Derisively, it was known as Franksgiving and resulted in certain and
rapid response from our US Congress. It's an interesting story. Check it out here.
Regardless of when you celebrate or with whom, please enjoy every minute of your time together.
As I get older, I have come to appreciate the "family ties" more and more. Sometimes I think it is because of losing our parents so young, that we all try to stay close and make our efforts to see Aunt Rose, Diana, Angela, etc. I like Thanksgiving, too, just stick the bird in. I wish there was something we could do about Christmas being rushed, earlier and earlier every year. The poinsettia plants were at Walmart yesterday. It's Floirda. It's still 80 degrees out. How long will they last?
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