Thursday at 2308

There’s no pumpkin pie or turkey aroma in the house this morning, because two years ago we set our Thanksgiving Day as the First Saturday after the Fourth Thursday in November. Malinda is at work. Ray has gone to Tallahassee for Thanksgiving Day with Holly and her family. Joe is in Dayton with Lauren and Daniel visiting Patty’s family. Dinner today will be Nana’s Usual Meatloaf, with me, Linda, and Kristen.

Now the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving seems early because this year there’s a fifth Thursday. Having it down later in the month gives a little more time for there to be an autumn chill in the air, which seems right for Thanksgiving even here on the Florida Gulf Coast. And moves it closer to Christmas, the Holidays. Shopping Days Until.

My third-favorite holiday as a boy (#2 was the first day of Christmas Vacation and #1 the first day of Summer Vacation), my best memories are of this day starting with the spicy aroma of pumpkin pie coming into my bedroom, and the sound of my mother moving around busily in the kitchen downstairs. Life doesn’t get any more secure than that. My own Our Town.

Thanksgiving wasn’t always the Fourth Thursday. In November 1917, President Woodrow Wilson designated Thursday, November 29 as the national day of thanksgiving and prayer. The world was at war. My uncle Alfred had recently turned eighteen. On this day that year, Thursday, November 22, 1917, he was looking toward one more Thanksgiving Day. That’s in my mind this dawn.

Pumpkin pie aroma will waft Saturday morning.

Blessings and Peace.