ROADWAYS ARE BLAZING RED WITH TAIL LIGHTS IN THE NIGHT AIR.. Snowstorms across the west.. rainstorms in the east! Mother nature is not very sympathetic to travelers partaking in highway dramas from sea to shining sea in 2019..
But travel we will! Travel we must!
It’s grandma’s house or bust in America 19..
55 million or more Americans are set to be on the road this week.. Those our left are seeing a monster of an early storm: Some parts of Colorado have already been buried under as much as 30 inches of snow. Interstate 70, a major east-west highway, was closed in both directions near Denver… coastal areas in Northern California and Oregon should brace for “stronger than hurricane-force winds,” the National Weather Service said..
To the Midwest!! Areas in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are expected to receive between six and 12 inches of snow Tuesday evening. Cheyenne, Wyo., has gotten about a foot of snow in 18 hours… The Nebraska Transportation Department notified travelers Tuesday that miles of highways had been blocked because of severe weather conditions..
And here in the East: The East Coast can expect some wet and windy weather, with heavy snow in northern New England and northern parts of Maine later in the week… Otherwise it will be warm enough to be plain old gobbled up rain..
But all of this weather is a yearly event.. a yearly challenge..
Thanksgiving is one of those special days when fiction takes over fact.. when the history of what really happened becomes less important than the quaint tales of Pilgrims and Natives eating in peace… While there maybe some resilient tales that are true that lasted through ages, the meaning of Thanksgiving is a little more complicated..
We can attribute what we know today as Thanksgiving to old pagan traditions! And why not! So many other holidays have similar origins!
Numerous cultures in history celebrated the harvest at this very time of year..
The Egyptian’s fall festival was centered around the worship of Min. The Israelites had Yahuah.. The Babylonian’s fall festival was centered around the worship of Marduk. The Persian’s fall festival was centered around the worship of Mithras. The Chinese’s fall festival was centered around the worship of Chung Ch’ui. The Greek’s fall festival was centered around the worship of Demeter. And the Roman’s fall festival was centered around the worship of Ceres.
By the 6th century the old Roman festival of Cerelia became known as the Harvest Home Festival and later Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving.
In the 1600s, explorers we now know as the Pilgrims began to travel to a new world .. they traded furs and cloths with the Wampanoag tribe..
King James issued a decree to claim all of the new land for England. In 1620, Pilgrims settled in Massachusetts and promised to protect the native land.. in 1621 the Pilgrims had a corn harvest celebration.
Eventually from 1636 to 1638, war raged between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims.. In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, Puritans raided the native villages and burned over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe alive..
Battles raged.. trails of tears were founded.. the rest become history.
During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress designated one or more days of thanksgiving a year, and in 1789 George Washington issued the first real Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1827, writer Sarah Hale launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. It was 36 years later that her campaign was answered by Abraham Lincoln.
In 1863, as the Civil War raged, Lincoln issued a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November..
In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. Roosevelt’s plan, known known sarcastically at the time as Franksgiving, was met with opposition, and in 1941 the president reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.
Today we know it all as “door busters,” Black Friday, small business Saturday.. AND CYBER MONDAY.. Franksgiving became the law of the land..
Presidents pardoned turkeys..
Trump still does.
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In 2001, when I ran an old website that does not exist at this time, I picked up this photo from an AP News Alert:
I found it to be a true example of modern day America at that time.. It was an unnamed man running to catch his train on the day before Thanksgiving of that year in New York City — the same year as 9/11… To this day, I wonder if this unnamed panicky man with a brief case made it home.. if he was able to masticate Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends..
And since then it became my personal staple.. it was a symbol of America then. And now.
It became my annual yearly posting.. And with the photo comes the headline based on the 80’s movie that is one of the few Thanksgiving films worth watching…
