OT: The Meaning of Thanksgiving, Whats it to ya? Options

[Bleyseng]

Ok, I have three friends from the Netherlands staying with us (yes I do know other Dutch folk besides Yaroon). They have been asking me to explain Thanksgiving. I gave the story I know about the first settlers in the Americas having a feast with the Indians.
But after explaining all this story stuff I learn eons ago in school to them it made me think of what it means to ME these days. To me its a special day to share with family and friends and be thankful for all we do have and enjoy each others company.
I would love to see what it means to others.


Geoff (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Katmanken]

It's been many things....

For me while growing up it's been a great day of family and food and fun. It was one of the few days that the wandering military branch of the Wales/Brodbeck families went home to Oregon Missouri to share times with their relatives...

Later on, after Mom's death and when we only had one child, it became a great day of college friends and food and wine and fun. Also known to me as the only day Bill Proctor ever let me drive his Ferrari Daytona (the green one, not the silver one)... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif)

And after that, it became creating a special day for for our kids to let them enjoy the thanksgivings our parents threw for us... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)


but now it's a day of sadnesss... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

My father-in-law Sidney Melnicove MD died on that day.

He was a hell of a guy.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)

Mechanical Engineer, MD, and started the second TV cable company in the U.S. so he could have TV in his Dr's office in a small town in Pennsylvania. This was back when NY and Philly were the only TV stations. The neighbors wanted TV too and he made a bundle building up his cable company.

Alzheimers got him. Went from brilliant man to a vegetable and death in 3 years. It's really rough on my wife on that day.

Rough on me too,

I gotta cook.

Ken

[Elliot_Cannon]

I've heard it refered to as National Native American Genocide Day. A little harsh but a bit of truth in there somewhere. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Cheers, Elliot

[spare time toys]

Thanksgiving is a Big pain in the ASS. Family I can not stand (IMG:style_emoticons/default/finger.gif) comes over and I have to pretend I like them for the day to keep momma happy. They go home I have a mess to clean up. Not this year no way I schedualed a trip to get a car so I gotta go out of town. DAMN the luck (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) thats the only time I could go (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[Two914s]

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! It might sound simplistic or old fashioned, but I really am thankful to God for my life, my family, and the freedom that I enjoy every day.

I am in the middle of a 914 V8 conversion right now. I also rent the bedrooms of my house to European engineering students who are doing some short term graduate study at Georgia Tech. They can't believe that it is legal to drive such a modified car on public roads. It simply wouldn't be legal in some of the countries that they are from. They look at the turbocharged Civic's and jacked pickup trucks and they marvel at our freedom and bounty here in the US.

I am traveling from Atlanta to Beloit, Wisconsin to eat a meal with my family on Wednesday. I look forward to pausing for time of prayer with my family. I will thank God for the salvation that I have found in Jesus Christ, the love of my family, and my two (curently dis-assembled) 914's back in the garage at home.

By the way, I have owned 914's since I was 17 years old in 1985. I once drove my 1972 from Atlanta to Detroit with the top off the entire way. Definitely a great memory! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving-girl.gif)

[Sparky]

Thanksgiving... Well to me it's a day of reflection and gratitude. I spend a little time each Thanksgiving looking back on the past year and everything I've accomplished, screwed up, moments that I shared with my family and friends, and I also look forward to what the new year is going to bring.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year. My marriage has survived this house remodel, I have a new job and don't have to travel all of the time, and I have 2 914's in my garage (one is still for sale)!!! My health, as well as the health of my family is well and my financial situation is the best it has been in a long time.

I spend the day doing the cooking. Anyone that has met me knows I'm not a small man, thats because I love to cook, and sample. But I do the cooking and enjoy being in the kitchen surrounded by the warmth of the food as well as the warmth of my family and friends.

My 6 year old summed it up really good for me the other day. "I'm thankful for everything I did this year and everything I learned, and I like to eat cranberry sauce and green beans."

She wrote a paper for school that was about 20 lines long a portion of it was published in our local paper. She rocks!!

I hope everyone enjoys the day but take a moment, sneak off by yoursef and reflect.

All my best,
Mike D.

[anderssj]

This is what I think of at Thanksgiving (Mom, brothers and sisters, 30+lb turkey, picture taken by Grandma in 1975) . . . I missed this one--was at a "remote" radar site in Alaska.

Now we're all grown up (more or less), but it's still our favorite time to get together (even if only by phone) and remember what we're thankful for: family, friends, and freedom to do our best.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Steve A-

[campbellcj]

It used to mean food and fun and family...

Now it mainly means PITA cooking and cleaning, and chasing after the young'ns after they're overfed, tired and amped on sugar.

But it's a FEW HOURS OFF WORK and who can complain about that?!?!?!?

I plan to actually -START- my 914 this weekend. Driving it might be a stretch, but hey it could happen (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)

[SirAndy]

I would love to see what it means to others.

absolutely nothing ...

[MattR]

Thanksgiving has pretty much been the same my whole life; dinner at my aunts house with my two aunts, grandpa, mom, dad, and two brothers. This past year, however, my grandpa has passed away, and my brother is living in France. Its going to be rough for the family, missing two of the members, but I know we'll make it. I have a feeling this thanksgiving will be very quiet.

[BiG bOgGs]

For me this day is a more reverent 4th of July, where all Americans from every background can come together to celebrate and truly take a moment to be thankful for the country whose freedom we each enjoy in our own way.



(IMG:style_emoticons/default/jester.gif)

[Howard]

I would love to see what it means to others.

absolutely nothing ...

C'mon Andy, give it a try. Get together with friends and family, have a party, and thank (insert your favorite deity/higher being here) that for all the gifts that have been bestowed on you. The tradition preceeds our traditional American and Canadian Thanksgiving Holidays by thousands of years, usually in celebration of the Harvest. Isn't Erntedankfest similar in that regard?

Look around for your blessings. If you see them, you may be able to understand why we throw the party.

[skline]

Thanksgiving and Christmas were the only times of the year when all the family would sit down at the same table and have dinner. That was some 20 years ago. Most of the family is spread out across the country, mom passed away, I cant stand to be around my brothers and sister for more than an hour or so, but I miss my father a lot. He is getting up there in years and I worry I will never see him again. So this year, Thanksgiving to me is being thankful he is still alive and will be coming to be with me this Christmas. I truly hope it is not the last time we are together. There are many other things to be thankful for, that is just the main one in my life right now.

[SirAndy]

you may be able to understand why we throw the party.

yes, Erntedankfest is the closest to thanksgiving that we have in germany.

but to be honest with you, i don't need a calendar to tell me when it's time to get together with friends and/or family.

i host dinners for friends on a regular base (not much family here in the US but i managed to make a few friends (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ),
throw parties, drink beer and yak all night about live, the universe and the rest ...

celebrating live is part of who i am and i don't see any reason why i should participate in a well orchestrated media frenzy about spending money on useless crap at a certain date just because someone, who makes a shitload of money off people who do just that, says so ...

i am disgusted by todays "holidays" like x-mas, eastern or thanksgiving.
nothing but a big corporate moneysucking schema ...

just my $0.42 cents,

you asked ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Andy

[krk]

you may be able to understand why we throw the party.

yes, Erntedankfest is the closest to thanksgiving that we have in germany.

but to be honest with you, i don't need a calendar to tell me when it's time to get together with friends and/or family.

i host dinners for friends on a regular base (not much family here in the US but i managed to make a few friends (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ),
throw parties, drink beer and yak all night about live, the universe and the rest ...

celebrating live is part of who i am and i don't see any reason why i should participate in a well orchestrated media frenzy about spending money on useless crap at a certain date just because someone, who makes a shitload of money off people who do just that, says so ...

i am disgusted by todays "holidays" like x-mas, eastern or thanksgiving.
nothing but a big corporate moneysucking schema ...

just my $0.42 cents,

you asked ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) Andy

Heh.

If you drop the disgust part, you will be totally driving them nuts. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif) (it's mueba day after all -- next year will have a decorating contest (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif))

That is, most holidays start out innocent enough -- and some parts of big biz push them to push up the $$. So what. That doesn't invalidate the holiday. Ignore the hype and enjoy the time off in the way that you want. (I'm sure this not "news" -- heh -- you clearly already follow this program (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif))

We're hosting the family gathering this year -- we'll eat too much and be generally disorderly as long as we have the enegy. Most of my group is wildly busy with their lives -- the main holidays push us together and we take advantage of that. Sometimes it does take a hydralic press to get us all together -- but it's always been well worth it.

Happy turkey day, mein freund (hopefully spelled somewhat correctly -- can we get a german spell check program installed???? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif))

kim.

[edit: can't spell mueba either!]

[SpecialK]

What Thanksgiving means to me.......

My wife's side of the family can't be in the same room together, so it's "smokin' a turkey on the grill (fantastic! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chowtime.gif) ), beer, recently single friend, more beer, Detroit Lions, more beer, Dallas Cowboys, more beer, ping pong, more beer, darts, more beer, some stupid word game to satisify the girls, and more beer............in fact, next year I'm think I'm going to save my self some charcoal and just by a keg! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer.gif)


Unknown comedian: "Everyone's got one 'weirdo'
in there family.....If your's doesn't, you're it!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)


Seriously, have a happy/safe holiday weekend everyone!

[swood]

I like Thanksgiving. Besides the big smoked turkey I just picked up for tomorrow, I relish the following statement made by Pres. Lincoln upon the declaration of this national holiday. This is what it's all about. The stinking commercialism of the day makes me ill. Just like what's done to Christmas.

Happy T-day and God bless all you fellow enthusiasts!
It's nice to feel like I have friends all over the country with similar interests that someday I might meet up in travels abroad.


Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Address

October 3, 1863

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the over-ruling power of God." "To confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that with genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon. And to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations like individuals are subject to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justify fear that the awful calamity of Civil War, which now desolates the land, may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace--too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our benevolent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

- Abraham Lincoln
Signed, October 3, 1863
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[redshift]

Thanksgiving is another day I can't afford to spend away from my diabolical plan.



Miles

[GWN7]

From the History of Thanksgiving.....

"Another modern staple at almost every Thanksgiving table is pumpkin pie. But it is unlikely that the first feast included that treat. The supply of flour had been long diminished, so there was no bread or pastries of any kind. However, they did eat boiled pumpkin, and they produced a type of fried bread from their corn crop. There was also no milk, cider, potatoes, or butter. There was no domestic cattle for dairy products, and the newly-discovered potato was still considered by many Europeans to be poisonous. But the feast did include fish, berries, watercress, lobster, dried fruit, clams, venison, and plums."


I'm having Venison....

Interesting note that the first time all 13 colonies celibrated thanksgiving was in October 1777 same month we celibrate it here

[Gint]

It's the one time a year I get home made stuffing.

Turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and gravy. And leftovers for a week.