Happy Thanksgiving Day
Our buddy, Aunty Brat, sends her Thanksgiving Day wishes to us from the frozen North;
The first Canadian thanksgiving was celebrated on 15th April 1872 to thank the recovery of King Edward VII from serious illness. The next thanksgiving was celebrated after a few years in 1879 on a Thursday.
The rest of the history of the day is at the link.
This year, as for the last few, this day holds special poignancy for me. Yes, I absolutely give thanks for all the blessings I have, but my thoughts always stray to Afghanistan where members of our Canadian ‘family’ are right now (and yes, we DO still have Canadian troops far from home in Afghanistan.) I think about the Canadians who have given their lives so that I and my family might be together, safely celebrating this day. As I hug my now grown child, I give a silent thanks to those families who this year will have an empty chair at their family table.
So stop by and give her our best wishes.
Category: Who knows
Happy Thanksgiving to all our Kanucklehead friends!!!
Here’s what I remember about Canada, from a few years ago:
http://youtu.be/8YIpKlxQdF8
Here’s two (02) more:
http://youtu.be/ckfXr1EHO9U
http://youtu.be/5pKzAZc3So8?t=1s
Some jokingly call it L.A. – Lower Alaska.
Comrades in Arms: This ain’t got nothing to do with Canada, but it’s about Thanksgiving. In November of 1971, I was a Specialist Four stationed at Camp Eagle, Republic of Viet Nam, assigned to 501st Signal Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division, as a Field Radio Relay and Carrier Equipment Repairman (MOS 31 L 20). I took an R&R to Sydney, Australia, thinking I’d enjoy a Thanksgiving Day dinner there. When I was on the plane, the guy in the seat next to me reminded me that Thanksgiving Day was not celebrated in Australia, for it was an AMERICAN holiday, celebrated ONLY in the United States of America. When we got to Sydney, I telephoned local representatives of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints (i.e., the “Mormon” church), for our church leaders in Viet Nam had advised us Mormon G.I.s to not stay in hotels when on R&R, but to stay in the home of a Mormon family. So, I spent my R&R as the guest of a Mormon family in Manly, across the bay from Sydney, who had immigrated from England, and whose son was away serving on a submarine in the Royal Australian Navy. The father taught high school English, and the mother was the proprietress of a boutique. They arranged for me to have Thanksgiving Day dinner at the home of an American Mormon family that lived in Sydney. Here are a couple of photographs: http://www.flickr.com//photos/writesong/sets/72157600591041916/show/with/687088906/ I’m the guy sitting next to the mother, at the far end of the table. Anyway, that experience reminded me of how particularly patriotic our United States of America is, and of how wonderful it is that we have an official national holiday for expressing our gratitude to our Father in Heaven for all the blessings He has bestowed upon us. As a result, ever since then, and from now on, precisely because it is a patriotic occasion, when I’m invited to someone’s home for Thanksgiving Dinner, I wear my full sized military decorations on the coat of my best Sunday-go-to-meetin’ suit. Thank you. John Robert Mallernee Armed Forces… Read more »