Mickey mouse making his Thanksgiving day parade debut in 1934:

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Happy thanksgiving... it has been quite a year with Mother Nature’s “gifts” here in Ridgecrest, Ca... unusual amount of rain, massive earthquakes, and now snow??? It has been about 10 years from the last time it snowed in this town... finally able to make a snowman.

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Hope all has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving. A great family day.

Happy thanksgiving from a snowy San Jose

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Happy thanksgiving everyone.
I’m fat, happy, and have a good beer buzz going.

My mothers family arrived in Plymouth on Oct 29 1630. Learned this a few weeks ago. They were Loyalists, and moved to New Brunswick in 1770's. It was a wow moment for my sister and me, to find that such info existed.

It's cool finding out about family history. My better halfs cousin was big into it. He discovered that the Heath Ledger character in The Patriot movie is somehow connected with her ancestors. I remember when one of the hundred year old uncles passed shortly after the movie came out, it being a big deal.

Non-Charlie Brown version:

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.

Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.

While injndertand your premise and agree that I have lived in no other country, I did have the benefit of a Father who travelled the world for business for many years. He shared all that he saw and experienced with me and it was very enlightening. As for happiness, we are all responsible for our own happiness. No one else and certainly no country is responsible for making me happy. Happiness is also a choice. Country of residence has little to do with it in my book. I feel that I do live in the best country in the world and have no desire to live elsewhere where that country does so many things better than the USA.

Family letters regarding this were mind numbing. I had the perspective of a family member that was mortified at this activity. I dont think Ill ever forget his words of horror, and shame.
That people would do these things to others for money, and belief that it was Gods will.

Our French Side settled in Quebec, (if anyone here knows the Drapeau family). and the English side in New Hampshire, related to Samuel Morse. (Ashland Oil, Ruggles Mine)
I cant imagine the difficulties they faced in day to day living.

I am Thankful to be here, knowing what my wifes family did, and how mine suffered to arrive in 1924.

With that, Thanks to everyone here, and Pinball with Pinsiders! It is indeed a day of Thanks and Giving!

Ignoring the atrocities. The country was wild and mostly unsettled. Bears, wolves, mountain lions, etc. etc. so the Pilgrims took their muskets with where ever they went. Church, meetings, visiting other farms, etc.

It's hard to find a picture of the pilgrims without a musket.

LTG : )