PACKET EDITORIAL, Nov. 22
By: Packet Editorial
One of the nicer traditions associated with the celebration of Thanksgiving is taking the name of the holiday literally and giving thanks.
This, of course, is not what the first Thanksgiving was all about. Depending on your frame of reference, the first Thanksgiving was either a gesture by the brave colonists in Massachusetts to thank their friendly Native American neighbors for their help in producing the particularly bountiful harvest of 1621 or a ploy by the intolerant Pilgrims to co-opt the heathen Indians by stuffing them with food for three days so they wouldn’t raid their farms, destroy their crops and attack their families.
Over the centuries, America evolved from an agrarian society to an urban and suburban one. And Thanksgiving evolved with it from a celebration of the harvest to a gathering of the extended family. As the horse and carriage gave way to the automobile, folks from all walks of life and all corners of the continent started traveling over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house for the annual feast.
This, in turn, has had a profound effect on the day before Thanksgiving. This used to be the day grandma trimmed the turkey, the aunts prepared the pumpkin pies and the nieces made the cranberry sauce. Nowadays, they’re all packed into the family SUV, sitting on the interstate for hours on end or, if they’re really intrepid, elbowing their way through the throngs at the airport or cramming themselves into a train that resembles a rolling sardine can (or, perhaps more appropriately, the insides of a stuffed turkey).
Then, on Thanksgiving Day itself, they’ll rise early to watch the parade on TV the one that used to culminate in the arrival of Santa Claus before Santa started appearing at shopping malls sometime in October. Between oohing and aaahing at the colorful balloons making their way down Broadway (and cringing at the lip-synching performances offered by various stars of stage and screen as they arrive at the front door of Macy’s), grandma and company will cook the big bird and everything that goes with it.
Afterward, overdosed on tryptophan, grandpa and all the male relatives will fall asleep watching football. Or, as the incomparable Erma Bombeck once observed, "Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare. They are consumed in 12 minutes. Halftimes take 12 minutes. This is not coincidence."
But for many, the real highlight of the Thanksgiving holiday will come the following morning Black Friday. If the day before Thanksgiving is the biggest travel day of the year, the day after is the biggest shopping day of the year. For everyone who hasn’t already taken advantage of the Christmas sales that began with the premature arrival of Santa a month or more ago, here’s a chance to replicate the enjoyment of doing battle with Wednesday’s crowds on the interstate, at the airport and in the trains by engaging Friday’s crowds in the stores.
Which brings us back to giving thanks.
For all the hassles we go through to get to grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving, and for all the commercialism that has come to be associated with the holiday, it’s still a heart-warming occasion. No other secular holiday places so much emphasis on the gathering of family or offers, through so many charitable causes, a chance for those who participate in such gatherings to extend a helping hand to those who don’t. From faraway military bases to nearby hospitals, from soup kitchens to shelters, Thanksgiving brings out the volunteers like no other holiday, extending the family spirit all across the country and around the world.
For that, and for so much more, we all have good reason to be thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

