Thanksgiving For Foreigners: A Bit of Odd. A Lot of Wonderful

In my early years here in the USA, I was baffled as to why any country would schedule a holiday that upstaged Christmas. Not only that, but this Thanksgiving thing-y drastically reduced the dinner menu options for the December 25 holiday (turkey with trimmings is the traditional Irish Christmas dish).

But that was almost 30 years ago.

Now, I’ve grown to love this gift-less, secular holiday and all that it teaches us about appreciating what we have and how far we’ve come.

Last week, I came across an old essay of mine that I wrote for a 2008 issue of “Merrimack Valley Magazine,” one of our local lifestyle glossy here in Massachusetts. I wrote this piece about a different holiday (St. Patrick’s), but I’m adapting the closing paragraph for Thanksgiving.
Enjoy. And remember, while you’re preparing to feast, someone else is worrying about how she will feed or clothe her family this winter. So dig deep. Donate.

Oh, and remember who plants or picks that crop of American-grown food that you’re about to cook or enjoy, like the migrant workers featured in this NPR story from this morning.

From “Merrimack Valley Magazine,” 2008

“This Thanksgiving I’ll get up and go downstairs and feed the cat. Then, I’ll put on some coffee to take back upstairs to my attic room that looks out over the back garden.

Until our New England spring comes and the trees fill in, I work within eye-view of the Merrimack River and Salisbury Point — at the crossroads of this country’s maritime and industrial histories.

From my attic window, I look up-river toward the mill girls and my own immigrant and laboring past. I look down river to the Atlantic and all of our journeys out and back, west and east.

When my laptop boots up, the Google page will, I’m sure, be sporting a cornucopia of seasonal food.

“Gosh, yes,” I’ll think. ‘It’s a great day to be grateful.’ ”

My other essays on Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving’s a holiday Over Here
At “Books By Women.”

On Thanksgiving: What Immigrants Bring To Our Shores

An earlier blog post.