Days of Thanks Begin Early on Turkey Day

Thanksgiving, the Day of Thanks, is upon us. Well, it’s not until tomorrow but you know how everyone in America gets a jump start on the holiday by making Wednesday a basically irrelevant work day. I spent some time at the computer but I simultaneously stuffed and cooked and basted a turkey and now it’s almost time to give it up…it’s only 12:45!

I often think about holidays of years gone past, and Thanksgiving has a special place because it’s so well situated in the week. It’s always Thursday. You know it will be Thursday and so it’s not like the way Christmas keeps jumping around, and when it’s on a Wednesday it’s the worst. No, you know that we’ll all have a four-day holiday and for many of us, it’s more like 4 1/2 because of this throwaway Wednesday travel/get ready day.

When I worked at the Daily Hampshire Gazette, every year someone would make a fuss and insist we all should be coming in on Friday after Thanksgiving. If you did manage to put on your salesman suit, jacket, and tie, and go in, there would be little or nothing to do.

So we’d go in for a while, and then we’d file our old ads, which would always be piling up. But no customers were around, it was a silly exercise and I always let them know that I hated having to work.

Nowadays it seems like everyone takes Friday off.  Maybe some people like me might pop down into the office for a while, but in general, no way…it’s time to enjoy the visitors who linger a little bit, or in days gone by, it would be time for a marathon visit.   My sister Brown and her family use to come up for Thanksgiving when we lived in Greenfield. It would be a nice long visit, and a big feast, and walks up Mount Sugarloaf, or Sachem’s Head in Greenfield.

I do remember when I stopped traveling to New Jersey on Thanksgiving. We just looked at each other, some time during the 1990s and said, enough. We’re making our own holiday here, and after that, we began having my sister’s family visit and then….well, we’d just have to call my mom and dad’s house (same phone number since 1960) and say hello and catch up.

Life moves on…for me Thanksgiving has become the Cunningham holiday because we spend a lot of time with Mary’s family, many of whom come from far afield to join the feast. Every season remains special….and traditions continue. I enjoy being a real member of that family, after five years I’m now really at home and comfortable.

We are all glad that no one at this year’s holiday table will be spouting off any pro-Trump rhetoric. None of us can stand anymore, and it’s nice to know we all agree!