Anyone else ambivalent about Thanksgiving
- Thread starter Barbsjw
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Dr. Feelgood
intellectual nerd
It builds character to spend an incredibly long afternoon trying to make small talk with relatives whom you see once a year and with whom you have nothing in common beyond a few strands of DNA. If you are religiously inclined, it can also serve as a penance.
Colonial Warrior
Well-Known Member
For me, Thanksgiving is an entire season that really wakes up the inner child on me. I have lots of memories about that season.
Even I take out from the closet an electronic football game I bought in 2016. It makes me remember a friend who had the original one in 1980. It also makes me remember the group of friends I had in that time.
Even I take out from the closet an electronic football game I bought in 2016. It makes me remember a friend who had the original one in 1980. It also makes me remember the group of friends I had in that time.
Colonial Warrior
Well-Known Member
Colonial Warrior
Well-Known Member
I wish to share this movie quote from the movie Stand by Me that resumes that wonderful early 80s time with you!
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
The Writer (played by Richard Dreyfuss) in Stand by Me.
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
The Writer (played by Richard Dreyfuss) in Stand by Me.
Tad
Dimensions' loiterer
I had that same game! I'd forgotten all about it (and how terrible at it I was, lol)
I'm fortunate in that the friends I made around the age of 12 have mostly stuck. This will be the first Christmas season as adults when we haven't gotten together for a big meal and to swap presents and stories old and new.
Canadian Thanksgiving was last month, less directly associated with the early colonists although we get some of that colonialism associationg through similarity to the US holiday. Still typically involves long family gatherings. I have more patience for it since my father passed away a couple of years ago, reminding me that I'm only going to see these people so many more times.
Sonic Purity
Jiggle Junkie
The history of the holiday is only one of many factors that have long made Thanksgiving problematic for me.
As a child there was the thought in my mind {Why are we all getting together like this as a family today, but not any other day of the year?}
Also, one of my early life traumas—flunking out of kindergarten—happened related to this holiday. My inability to use scissors to cut a turkey hat out of construction paper was the precipitating incident. Oh the shame of having to have the teacher give me her hat because i couldn’t cut my own! Oh the shame of my father showing up from work in his full business suit, taking me home this final (for me) day!
Back to those family meals. It’s difficult to get inspired about a holiday featuring turkey cooked so dry that it could be used for (or confused with) desiccant, vegetables murdered via overcooking so severely that there should have been at least one criminal investigation, and mashed potatoes bearing a striking resemblance to the white paste i used at school. With no pets to feed under the table nor other means of ready disposal, for my brother and i Thanksgiving became an exercise in how little we could eat before being cleared to go off and play.
I can count on one hand the number of times i’ve enthusiastically celebrated Thanksgiving and have a lot of fingers left over. The outstanding time was the year i bought my van (used)—to this day my first and only motor vehicle. In my 30s, single, living alone, steady job/career & hobby. It was magical taking some time off from work the day prior, to go do some specialty foods shopping.
Very early Thanksgiving Day i drove from my home in the San Francisco Bay Area east across California to Bishop, California, where a few groups from my extended family (each group having few members, as is my family’s way) were scheduled to gather. Made it there whilst the meal was still going: “Surpriiiise! I drove here” (giggle, grin). The return trip the following day as a snowstorm was starting and me without chains, snow tires, or any meaningful winter driving experience in a vehicle i’d only owned for half a year i’ll leave for another time (or never).
Now adjacent holidays for other purposes with chosen friends/families are another matter—vastly superior in general—and separate (long) stories.
I was so dang awesome at this game (among others)!
squeezablysoft
Well-Known Member
To me, Thanksgiving is just the Big Food Day that comes after Candy Day and before More Food, Presents and Pretty Lights Day.
Colonial Warrior
Well-Known Member
My excuses but my twelve years old self have urged me to share this with you.
On a Thanksgiving Eve of 1981 I was in a restaurant and found this piece of wonder. It was the first time I saw a video game one the format of one credit, three lives. The first one in history was Space Invaders from Taito but I have found this first. It is Space Demon from Nintendo.
Since then I developed an interest in computer programming. Something I studied in the 90s.
I have not developed a game yet, this is still my main inspiration for do it so in the future. It happened around a time like this (7:00 pm) and it is still in my memory and heart.
On a Thanksgiving Eve of 1981 I was in a restaurant and found this piece of wonder. It was the first time I saw a video game one the format of one credit, three lives. The first one in history was Space Invaders from Taito but I have found this first. It is Space Demon from Nintendo.
Since then I developed an interest in computer programming. Something I studied in the 90s.
I have not developed a game yet, this is still my main inspiration for do it so in the future. It happened around a time like this (7:00 pm) and it is still in my memory and heart.
I don't have any surviving family I'm still in contact with, and my husband only has a handful of family members living in the state still. If the pandemic wasn't happening, we'd get together for the day with my husband's parents who live less than an hour away now, and their neighbor who is "chosen" family. But it would be informal and low key.
Instead, my husband and I are staying in and cooking a massive feast. He's working the last weekend of his seasonal side job Friday-Sunday from 8 am - 10 pm each day, so we needed 3 days worth of leftovers to hold us through. I'm going to be busy making and addressing about 100 Christmas cards for a big swap I do most years.
So, it's kind of a "meh" holiday and weekend. But that's ok. We're getting a lot accomplished.
Instead, my husband and I are staying in and cooking a massive feast. He's working the last weekend of his seasonal side job Friday-Sunday from 8 am - 10 pm each day, so we needed 3 days worth of leftovers to hold us through. I'm going to be busy making and addressing about 100 Christmas cards for a big swap I do most years.
So, it's kind of a "meh" holiday and weekend. But that's ok. We're getting a lot accomplished.
Same here @Tracyarts
Joker
Well-Known Member
I have spent the last 8 Thanksgivings feeding the homeless and underprivileged so I enjoy it.
Colonial Warrior
Well-Known Member
The nicest thing on your part! Thanks for them, @Joker !
Happy Thanksgiving!
My thoughts today are with my daughter faraway she celebrates Thanksgiving in USA at college.
Most students left for their homes. She cooks her first Thanksgiving dinner for her best friends that stayed, she likes cooking and baking.
Last 2 years she had invites to american students homes and celebrated there with them.
Europe has no such tradition so is just dinner making some stuffed vegetables and pasta.
Planning the Xmas foods. No dinner this year as both her dad and me, do not want to or feel like sitting down to a traditional Christmas dinner missing our daughter very much with this Corona situation.
My thoughts are also with my american best friend very far away.
My thoughts today are with my daughter faraway she celebrates Thanksgiving in USA at college.
Most students left for their homes. She cooks her first Thanksgiving dinner for her best friends that stayed, she likes cooking and baking.
Last 2 years she had invites to american students homes and celebrated there with them.
Europe has no such tradition so is just dinner making some stuffed vegetables and pasta.
Planning the Xmas foods. No dinner this year as both her dad and me, do not want to or feel like sitting down to a traditional Christmas dinner missing our daughter very much with this Corona situation.
My thoughts are also with my american best friend very far away.
Traditionally, Turkey Day was spent at my mother's house or my ex-in-laws before they passed. For the year of the plague, I had a small gathering of just my grown up kids and I smoked a turkey for the first time. Cajun seasoning and pecan smoked. Every dish made with that turkey meat afterwards had that wonderful smoky taste. Even the turkey noodle soup. Good times.
