Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday widely celebrated in the United States of America. The holiday began in 1621 when The Wampanoag, a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands and the English Plymouth settlers held what is considered the first Thanksgiving. George Washington made it an official holiday in 1789 and this year it falls on Nov. 28. 

Thanksgiving  means  different  things  to  different  people.  Whether  it’s  getting  the  family  together  and  cooking  a  gigantic,  delicious  turkey,  heading  over  to  grandma’s  to  stuff  your  stomachs  to  your  heart’s  content,  or  running  to  the  nearest  store  with  a  full  wallet  ready  to  obtain  some  new  swag,  it’s  clear  it  has  a  great cultural  impact.

Because it is something that Americans have always celebrated, families have some  unexpected  or  funny  moments  that  happened  during  the  Thanksgiving  celebration. Karen  McManus,  a McDowell Food Service employee,  had  some  of  the  most  memorable  experiences.  She  shared  that  when  she  was  a  child,  there  would  be  mountainous groups of family members. “When I was little, we would have maybe 60, 70 people at Thanksgiving,” she said. The  most  memorable  of  her  experiences  was  when  a  dog  unexpectedly  bolted  onto  the  table  during  dinner  and  ate  half  a  turkey.

Chief  Master  Sergeant  David  Holmes, a McDowell AFJROTC instructor,  had  an  even  more  interesting  story.  He recalled  a time   he  was  in  Idaho  at  his  daughter’s  house, and  her  stove  broke  before  they  had  a  chance  to  cook  the  turkey.  It  would  be  very  difficult  to  go  out  and  fix  the  stove  on  such  short  notice,  so  they  went  to  stay  with  relatives  in  a  billeting.  A  billeting  is  like  a  hotel,  except  that  it  has  a  kitchen.  After  cooking  the  turkey,  they  took  it  back  to  his  daughter’s  house,  where  his  wife’s  niece  brought  his  grandchildren  miniature  violins  to  play. “It was really just kind of a fun, relaxing, chaotic Thanksgiving,” he said.

Another  unexpected  but  rather  sweet  story  would  be  when  Maya  Zulz,  a  McDowell freshman,  shared  how  her  newborn  baby  sister  was  brought  to  her  Thanksgiving  dinner  in  2018. Her  sister  was  so  tiny  that  her  family  gave the moment perspective by showing that she could fit onto a dinner  plate.  

Thanksgiving  would not be the same without family and many families have built in traditions around the day. McManus  has  the  very  fun  traditions  of  teddy  bear  tossing  and  going  to  the  Otters  hockey games  on  this  special  day.  She  and  her  family  also  have  some  family  recipes that always make it on the Thanksgiving spread.  Her  family  eats  “grape  salad,”  which  she  finds  “disgusting.”  It  contains  grapes,  mayonnaise,  and  coconut.  Her  family  also  likes  to  serve  “pineapple  circles,”  which  are pineapple  slices  with caramel  on  top. “They’re both disgusting, but yes, they’re passed down.”