Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I wish each and everyone of you a special day. May God bless you and everyone you come in contact with.
I always think back to what something might have been like first, long before what we see today as the way it was, and so with Thanksgiving. What was the first Thanksgiving like? With the world wide web available to us all, it was not hard to find some historical information about it.
http://www.pilgrimhall.org/1stthnks.htm
So, it seems there were but a small band of white people among the Indians of the area. It was Fall and it was also time to prepare for the upcoming winter and it’s cold and snow. All summer long they had taken care of their crops and gone fishing and put up lots of food in their storage places. I picture huge amounts of dried fish hanging in a shed. Each family having an equal portion of it.
I also picture dried game meats like deer, bear and whatever other kind of big game there was around there. It too cut into strips and dried and hanging inside the same shed with the fish.
Game birds were plentiful, at least Wild Turkey, and those too had been properly harvested and taken care of and dried and hanging among the fish and the game.
And with Fall season the migration of the waterfowl was upon the people in full force. They would have harvested many of the birds and done likewise as with the turkey and had them hanging in the shed as well.
Their crops of corn were stripped and dried and some of it made into flour and placed in cribs in the same shed. Lord have mercy should something happen to that shed. All of their food was in there and without it, they probably would not make it long. Of course they had the others around them who would no doubt share their bounty with them should they need it.
53 people all huddled within a small area, each one caring very much about the other as they all worked together to make their survival possible.
And so they joined in a celebration to thank God for all that they had. They invited the local Indians to join them. Fresh game was acquired and cooked and shared with everyone. A bounty of plenty. And it says the Indians came forth with deer to share with the white people. And they celebrated for up to three days. The children played games, the adult men shot rifles and the women cooked the meals. The Indians also joined in the fun and work involved and everyone had a great time.
The local Ogden Standard Examiner featured a story this week and in it the author said that for drink at their festivity they drank beer. Sort of a necessity they thought, because the water just might not be that fit to drink and so to ferment it was the proper way to drink it. I like that idea. I imagine that the party lasted three days because that is how much beer they had on hand that was ready to drink. More, of course would have been in the making but not quite finished to the drinking point (that is my take on things).
In that same article, it reads that forks had not been invented as yet and so they used large cloth napkins to hold onto the meat that they ate. That sounds rather savage right now, but I have eaten in such a way and it is not such a bad way to get the nourishment you need. A huge leg of turkey in one hand and a mug of beer in the other. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough!
I have to differ some with the fact that forks had not been invented yet. As there is much evidence that people used sharpened sticks way back when to hold meat over a fire to cook it. I’ve done that as well. And so, as time goes on a single pointed stick, would be better if it had two points to help hold the meat. I’ve used things like that and sure enough, the meat can be turned to properly cook, without the meat spinning around. And as we progress, suddenly there is a stick with three pointed ends and then four.
As Wapiti says, it is not a “fork” until it has four points on which to poke your food. A three point one is a “trike”, a two point one is a “bike” and a one pointed on is an “eyenk” (if my memory serves me correctly).
I have learned many things in my life and one of them is to not send Edjukateer out to gather hot dog cooking sticks, which by the way usually have two points, because you get back eyenks of the smallest proportion.
Well, enjoy your holiday and may God bless you.
Bears Butt
Nov. 21, 2012
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