Happy Thanksgiving

Here, snow is predicted, perhaps lots of it, beginning tonight.  People are planning for either trips, or being snowed in.  If a theatre near you has “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”, take it in.  Probably good to reserve your seat in advance.

Nov. 22, 1909. A postcard to the ND farm

In 1909, Thanksgiving was on November 25.  Out at the farm, my mother was four months old; her older sister, Lucina, was two.  Seven more kids would be born later.  My grandparents Busch, 28 and 25, had been on the farm since they were newlyweds in 1905.  Next farm over were the Berning’s, their brother and sister, 29 and 23 respectively, who’d come west from Wisconsin in 1906.  Their daughter Irene was one; a brother Irwin, born in 1907, had died at 6 months.  I’ve been family historian for many years.  No one has ever said where Irwin was buried.  Possibly at the farm?

Later came 11 more children.  That’s 22 children in all from two couples on three quarter sections (480 acres) of North Dakota sod.

No specific record remains of those early Thanksgivings.  In 1909 in rural North Dakota, there was not yet a local church, no cars, no phone, some cows that needed to be milked….

Memories of others precede our own.  What are some recollections elders passed along to you?  Or which can you pass along to the next generations?

POSTNOTE 2: Another View, which I agree with: No Thanks.

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Plans at this screen:

Dec. 4 – A year after my heart surgery, some thoughts.

After Dec. 8 – The World is my Country on TPT Channel 2.  This film is free on-line through Sunday Dec. 1.  Details here  (See #3).

About Dec. 12 – My personal thoughts about Impeachment and the current state of America.

On the latter two, I solicit your comments, which I will simply hold until the posts are actually published.

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POSTNOTE; An Interpretation of an Interpretation

November 17, our visiting pastor, a retired Priest who is a gifted homilist, told a story.

Recently he had seen an award winning international ad, whose star was a mother cat and her three kittens.

They were out on a stroll down a sidewalk, and Mom cat saw a large dog walking towards them.  She quickly led the kittens underneath a porch, and went back to attend to duty with the dog, who she bravely approached, and when in confrontation distance rose up, and in her finest and loudest voice went “RUFF RUFF”.

The dog turned tail.

Confrontation over, the Mom went back to her kittens and gave them some advice: “learn a second language”.

It was ‘roll in the aisles’ moment.

The Priest finished his message: it’s a bit like the relationship between temporal and spiritual language.  They are different, perhaps, but they complement each other, rather than compete.