[HPforGrownups] Thanksgiving

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 6059

Neil Ward wrote:

> I was just watching a kids' TV programme where the presenter interviewed a
> contestant in a game they were playing and said: "I hear you're working on a
> certain film about a boy who's a wizard?"
>
> [Neil leaps from sofa and cranks up volume]
>

<Snip>

> Oh, and a late Happy Thanksgiving to all our US members!  Apart from eating
> turkey or counting chads, what do you guys actually do on this holiday?
>
> Neil

Thanks for the tidbits of news that you folks across the big pond are so
obligingly providing.

Thanksgiving is very much a family holiday.  Some people might go to
church the
night before, to a Thanksgiving service.  You try to get together with
members
of your family to celebrate it--it's one of the biggest travel days of
the year
in the States.  For those who don't have families, friends will gather
together
(sometimes called "orphans thanksgiving").  People really do try to
avoid
spending this holiday alone.  (I have a scene in The Wild Swans showing
one such
orphan's thanksgiving get together.)

Turkey is the traditional food, will all sorts of high-caloric
accompaniments,
as Penny described.  Long distance calls to other family members are
traditional, too.  After the meal, many watch American football or take
furtive
catnaps.  Everyone feels quite logy from eating so much.

The day after Thanksgiving many people also have off work, and it's the
kickoff
of the Christmas shopping season.  There are many sales, and the stores
are a
mad house.

I remember when I was studying at Cambridge (I was over there for about
five
months in 1982) the ONLY time I ever got homesick was when the American
students
in my group was preparing a Thanksgiving dinner, and I desperately
wanted to
make pumpkin bread, because that's one thing my family always served,
and I kept
popping in and out of all the specialty food stores in Cambridge asking
the
sales people, "Do you have canned pumpkin?" and they'd look at me as if
I was
nuts and say, "No," backing away slowly.  After about the sixth store, I
realized I wasn't going to find it, and I remember standing there in the
aisle,
fighting off tears because there would be no pumpkin bread this year at
Thanksgiving.

Ridiculous, but true.  As I say, it was the only time I was homesick.
Otherwise, I enjoyed my stay England tremendously.

This Thanksgiving, instead of eating turkey with my sister's family (the
original plan) I spent it at the hospital watching as the doctor
administered an
I.V. drip to my youngest daughter (who had a fever of 105 from strep
throat).  I
celebrated the holiday by offering fervent thanks for modern
antibiotics.

She's home now, and on the mend.  My sister and brother-in-law later
delivered
their turkey leftovers to us later that night.

Cheers,
Peg