The Ghost Holiday

Where did Thanksgiving go?  It's being drowned in a sea of red and green.  There is nary a turkey or pilgrim hat to be found.   I was actually wished a "Happy Thanksgiving" today, and I almost fell over.  Inside my head I was thinking, "Don't you mean 'Have a Safe and Lucky Black Friday'?"

Thanksgiving was linked with 'super shopping for Christmas' less than 40 years ago.  The term 'Black Friday' originated in Philadelphia and denoted the extreme traffic snarls caused by an influx of shoppers to the city on the day after Thanksgiving.  Gradually, it evolved to refer to merchants making enough money on the weekend after Thanksgiving to put their businesses into the 'black' for the year.  Beginning in the early 2000's, stores began opening up around 6:00 or 7:00 am.  Since then, opening times have been inching earlier and earlier.  The K-Mart flyer I just read is opening for 'Black Friday' at 8 pm Thanksgiving night.  Isn't it ironic that Thanksgiving is being eaten?

Thanksgiving in America exists inside the bubbles of our homes.  Most people still eat too much, gather with family, and watch football.  The Dallas Cowboys linked themselves with Thanksgiving in the mid 1960's.  NFL popularity soared beginning in the 1960's, and the league wanted a Thanksgiving day game.  Every team with the exception of the Cowboys turned the league down flat.  Tex Schram, long time original owner of the Cowboys, realized this game could showcase his team nationally.  In this era there were perhaps five channels of TV, and you only had that many in the cities.  Getting the Cowboys beamed into every living room in America on Thanksgiving Day  is a pivotal base of the claim that the Cowboys are America's Team.  

Generally, the Cowboys have been charmed on Thanksgiving Day.  Other teams were stunned by the popularity of the Thanksgiving Day games.  Jerry Jones understands how important this game is.  He hosts a major Thanksgiving meal for all the Cowboy employees who are expected to work on the fourth Thursday in November, no excuses accepted.  Other NFL teams have lobbied to join the party.  This Thanksgiving there will be three pro games.  I hope all their employees get a free turkey dinner paid for by the owners.  

Thanksgiving is really linked with college football.  Some of the most intense state rivalries are played out over Thanksgiving.  For Drake and I that means the Oklahoma/Oklahoma State game.  For Texans, Thanksgiving has meant Texas vs. Texas A&M since the 1990s.  This 100 year rivalry crumbled when A&M deserted their long time football conference.  Texas will make do with Kansas State this year.  It just doesn't have the same excitement.  I'm hoping Texas Tech will pick up the rivalry banner.  Flipping through the channels, you can find a panoply of college rivalries still being played out on Thanksgiving Day and throughout the weekend.

Thanksgiving drifting into ghost holiday status is hateful.  First, Thanksgiving is an American holiday.  It goes all the way back to 1621 and the Colonial era of American history - the kernel of the Pilgrim/Indian legend.  It became a formal holiday in 1863 - proclaimed by Abraham Lincoln as a day of Thanksgiving.  It was a morale booster during the height of the Civil War.  Americans seized the holiday with both hands.  While its formal origins may have been overtly political, it has evolved into the least political, least polarizing holiday in the United States.  It is not a Christian, Jewish, or Muslim holiday.  Each nationality prepares its favored foods for the Thanksgiving meal.  In the Southwest, Mexican-Americans use the gathering time to make tamales, a many hands needed, time consuming holiday ritual among the women.  I've been the lucky recipient of some of these home made tamales.    

Today I made cranberry jelly from my grandmother's recipe.  As I stirred down the bubbling sauce, I could visualize her doing the same thing at her stove 50 years ago.  I also usually make her pecan pie.  I make my own special version of pumpkin pie.  These are the Thanksgiving treats in our household and may make a short encore appearance at Christmas, but I rarely make them at any other time of the year.  They belong to Thanksgiving first and foremost.  The jelly which lasts until the springtime remains a lingering taste of Thanksgiving until it's gone.

Outside of our homes, Thanksgiving is fading.  Every major store has begun hanging Christmas Decorations the day after Halloween.  Soon, they will take down the red, white and blue 4th of July bunting and replace it with Christmas trees and tinsel.  I wonder if kids still trace their hands on brown construction paper, cut out the outline and glue construction paper feathers to the fingertips?  Where is Squanto?  Pilgrim hats are in short supply.  The only thing that will deter Walmart, Kmart, and all the other 'marts' from eating up Thanksgiving Day is to refuse to shop that day.  I'm planning on another piece of pie, with whipped cream of course, on Thanksgiving evening rather than rushing down to the stores to shop.  Hope you plan to join me in the "Have Another Piece of Pie" shopping boycott movement this coming Thursday.  I want to keep my Thanksgiving Day.