by Willard Scott
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to visit nearly every state in the Union, and I never cease to be amazed by our country's variety of people and places. I can step out of a subway into New York City, go around a Michigan blueberry farm, or dig for clams along a deserted beach in Maine. These places are very different but they represent the land I love.
One of the strongest similarities I have found in all of us Americans is the way we treat holidays. We all love holidays. They give us a reason to forget routine, to celebrate, and to make memories. What holiday gives us a better chance to do all of these things than Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving weekend is for most of us the longest, least interrupted weekend of the year. It is the ideal time for family and friends to come together again. It is also the most purely American of all holidays, because it celebrates the settling of our country by the Pilgrims over 350 years ago.
For me, Thanksgiving recalls all the things in life that I respond to most strongly and for which I am truly thankful. There is the simple beauty of the earth and the harvest time. There is the satisfaction that comes from the working of the crops. And there is the tradition of the day itself: the return to my family homes in the green hills of Maryland and Virginia, the delicious food, and the sharing of holiday rituals.
For as long as I can remember, my grandparents had a farm near Freeland, Maryland. Although I don't visit it often now, it was once the center of my life. I was five years old when I spent my first Thanksgiving at the farm. I remember the meal: the huge roast turkey, the red cranberry sauce, the wonderful mounds of just-whipped potatoes, and our family favorite pies ---- pumpkin and apple, fragrant with spices. That evening we gathered in the parlor and sang. "Singing for our supper," we called it. To this day we sing for our supper in the Scott household on Thanksgiving. We always sing our favorite, "We Gather Together."
In the Scott household, the Thanksgiving traditions have never waned; they've just changed a bit. Although I now live in New York City, I never spend Thanksgiving away from the farm. Instead of at my grandparents' farm, it is now at my own farm in Virginia. Both my wife and I love to cook and we try to do extra special things on the holidays. In addition to our old traditional family favorites, we've added a molded tomato salad, an extremely rich sweet potato casserole, and a heavenly coconut and mandarin orange salad. But no matter how much the menu changes, no matter if we are serving roast goose instead of roast turkey or Southern pecan pie instead of apple, the sentiment remains the same. The spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday promotes life, friendship, closeness and family unity. Everyone who shares a Thanksgiving meal with us becomes a friend, and every friend becomes an honorary member of the family.
I like to believe that I can remember clearly every taste, every smell, every slightly off-key note of our happy singing ---- everything except where all the Thanksgivings went. As I grow older, the celebrations seem to merge into one set of the best memories. I'll always remember Thanksgivings as the times we ate good food, sang old-fashioned songs, and shared a lot of love with family and friends. May you all have the same kind of joy.
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Freeland
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Scott
Thanksgiving
the Pilgrims(also Pilgrim Fathers)
the Union
Virginia
addition
amaze
blueberry
casserole
cease
clam
closeness
coconut
cranberry
fashion
fragrant
heavenly
honorary
household
ideal
mandarin(also mandarin orange)
merge
mold
mound
off-key
old-fashioned
parlor
pecan
pilgrim
promote
pumpkin
purely
ritual
roast
salad
sauce
sentiment
spice
strongly
subway
thankful
tradition
truly
turkey
unity
wane
whip
in addition to