Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Posted on by November 22, 2023

As the holiday season kicks off today, take a moment and step back from the sales, hoopla, family dinners/arguments/loony Uncles etc. and think about how lucky we are to live where we do…

And have the freedoms that we have, both due to our country and our ability to EARN a good enough living to be able to feed the crowd, travel to family, and the other things that we take for granted…

Having spent a number of Thanksgivings and Christmases out of the country over the years, I truly count myself lucky to be able to enjoy these holidays with family and friends.  I know many scoff at the food in the military, but I will tell you that Thanksgiving and Christmas the mess halls/chow halls, the field kitchens, the mess decks on the ships and subs ALL go out of their way to fix a traditional meal, literally soup to nuts (and everything in between) for those servicemen and women (and on shore bases the families) of our military.

This is from the 646th ADC in New Jersey (in 1956).

This is from the 71st Transportation Battalion in Vietnam in 1967

What Was on the First Thanksgiving Menu?

Little is known about the first Thanksgiving dinner in the Plimoth Colony in October 1621, attended by some 50 English colonists and about 90 Wampanoag American Indian men in what is now Massachusetts.
We do know that the Wampanoag killed five deer for the feast, and that the colonists shot wild fowl—which may have been geese, ducks, or turkey. Some form, or forms, of Indian corn were also served.
But Jennifer Monac, spokesperson for the living-history museum Plimoth Plantation, said the feasters likely supplemented their venison and birds with fish, lobster, clams, nuts, and wheat flour, as well as vegetables such as pumpkin, squash, carrots, and peas.
“They ate seasonally,” Monac said in 2009, “and this was the time of the year when they were really feasting. There were lots of vegetables around, because the harvest had been brought in.”
Much of what we consider traditional Thanksgiving fare was unknown at the first Thanksgiving. Potatoes and sweet potatoes hadn’t yet become staples of the English diet, for example. And cranberry sauce requires sugar—an expensive delicacy in the 1600s. Likewise, pumpkin pie went missing due to a lack of crust ingredients.
And the whole food coma thing?  Well, that’s yet another myth…
It’s not the tryptophan in the turkey, it’s the booze, the amount of food (those second and third helpings of Granny’s sweet potato casserole and the pumpkin pie), and the sheer relaxation (other than the family fights/looney Uncle) and not having to work the next day…
And please, when you do sit down for your Thanksgiving, say a prayer for all our men and women serving in the military wherever they may be, and remember too our LEOs, Fire and EMS folks that are on the front lines here at home every day.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours…

Comments

Happy Thanksgiving!!! — 16 Comments

  1. Happy Thanksgiving NFO. From our clan to yours.

    We’ve tread a lot of the same halls and hangars. Next time you are in the Jax area I’d like to buy you a cup of coffee and say hi if you have the time (something that seems in short supply the older I get. Danged Navy supply system).

  2. Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends. If you’re traveling, safe travels to you. May your visits with family and friends bring you good memories and fine food to enjoy, for these are some of the best pleasures in life.

  4. Are there still front lines? America’s domestic enemies seem mixed among us, and the foreign ones welcomed across the border by the Biden* Regime.

  6. I am thankful not only for this blog, but also for all your many books, as well as your recommendations of other’s writings. I enjoy them greatly, and if not for you “pushing the signal” would most likely never have found many of them.
    Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

  7. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, sir. I reported to my first command, USS William M Wood DD715 on Thanksgiving Day, 1973. I didn’t know anyone, the mess deck was nearly deserted, and the Commissarymen decided for an unknown reason to die the turkey green. Left me wondering what I’d gotten myself into. But it tasted good, and things got better soon. Never had a bad meal on a holiday.

  8. Yep.
    “The Front Lines” used to actually delineate a place most could point to. No more. It’s now the Mall, a Concert Hall, a Major Sporting Event.
    This ain’t the future I thought we’d enjoy.

  9. Happy Thanksgiving Jim, and to all of you who read this blog, wherever you are!

  10. And to you, brother! And to all the NTT (you know who you are)!

  12. Do enjoy the holidays. If Soros, Schwab and their political minions achieve their goals those of us who survive will have very little to celebrate…or to celebrate with. The phrase “you will have nothing” uttered by those with the WEF is not fiction. Do enjoy the holidays, but be planning on how to thwart the criminal lefts agenda. Because if not stopped the left WILL destroy the America we know. They are already well down that road already