This past Tuesday, the calendar turned to November, and I put away the few Halloween decorations I have (a few greeting cards we got and a ceramic haunted house my aunt and uncle gave me).  As I was setting up the ancient paper turkey on my cellarette in the foyer, I gave a few thoughts about Thanksgiving.

In my thinking, thanksgiving should be/could be a daily celebration.  Sure, it is nice that we have a national holiday dedicated for it, and most people have the day off from work.  But does it have to be the fourth Thursday in November?

Maybe not.

Best Friend and I discussed this very idea last night.  Why couldn’t we have Thanksgiving on another day that we determine?  After all, we are not going to the little shindig that our neighborhood diner is setting up (Cheese Whiz on Ritz crackers, pressed turkey with canned cranberries and instant potatoes turned us off – and the cost person is unreasonable for warmed-up catered-in food).  So, we decided to forego the November 24^th date and pick another day to have our own private thanksgiving, with our homemade foods, music of our own choice, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

This will be a different Thanksgiving holiday, one that for the first time in our lives won’t be on the Federal holiday date.  It will be on our own terms.

And that brings me to a question that a friend asked me, paraphrased: “Does it take a recession and wild inflation to learn to be thankful for what they have?”

Perhaps.  Perhaps it does.  I wrote a few short stories about people living during The Depression and learning what is important and what it means to be appreciative.  I chose that time in history because I have an affection for those times.  Not that I was alive then, you see, but there is something about the music, the movies, the fashions, and the history that attracts me to no end.  I suppose The Depression slapped a little reality into some people when they did not have everything that they had previously, and those heady days before those rough years were thought to never, ever end.  Perhaps they thought prosperity and overabundance would remain forever; but who knows?  Yet hard times did materialize, and sometimes that’s what it takes for people to realize what is really important.

And that brings me back to Thanksgiving 2022.  Sure, we can make do with a lovely meal with enough turkey leftovers to make soup from the bones and Turkey Tetrazzini for the week, et al.  Yet, the most important feature of whatever day we pick to celebrate, is but one of 364 days of thanksgiving.

And I’m sure that all will inspire some more writing on my part—

©2022 Colcannon Metropolis, Aren’t They Just!, Holidays on the Edge, Thoughts from the Terrace on a Rainy Day, Life is Funny, Supreme Theater.

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