Enjoy Thanksgiving

All the ghouls, ghosts and goblins of Halloween have gone back to the haunted house for their long hibernation until October 2010. May they rest in peace. Thanksgiving is the next holiday to come. We should be getting excited about this.

"Over the meadow and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go," is the opening line of a well known Thanksgiving song we sang many, many times when we were youngsters. I don't think grandmother, however, lives over the meadow and through the woods today. She is more than likely in a nursing home. Many families opt to eat out and let someone else bake the turkey and slave over the trimmings they expect to have.

Thanksgiving comes on the same day each year, Thursday, which has never been given the added attraction of a three-day holiday. No, it is back to work the next day for most of us. Not fair is it? Thanksgiving has not been commercialized as Halloween or Christmas so is treated more like a seasonal tag-a-long. This is a prime holiday, however, for family get-togethers and sharing the things for which we are most thankful. Area churches hold special services. The needy are fed and offered warm havens by numerous charity organizations.

So, enjoy Thanksgiving with all the family that can be stuffed around the dinner table. Remember the fights over the wishbone, listening to Uncle Harry's hunting tales and being reprimanded for the English pea battles? Better still, savor the warmth of just being with the family this Thanksgiving day.

Nancy McIntyre

Florence