Traditionally, Thanksgiving is a day to spend with family or friends and be thankful for all we can and do overstuff ourselves with. This day comes once a year and while all the logistics are the same, each year can bring a new story to tell.
A few weeks ago I asked my friend Shelby Brown, 21, an Eastern Michigan University student who is studying abroad in Japan for the year, if she had any Thanksgiving plans. “Well, actually I already did two weeks ago,” Brown said.
Brown spent her Thanksgiving in Japan in the basement of a Japanese Christian Church with other college students studying abroad, the youth leader of the church and the people throwing the dinner.
“The food was completely different,” Brown said. “But it’s the thought that counts.”
The Japanese interpretation of the Thanksgiving spread included three smaller turkeys, since the ovens there aren’t big enough to cook one big one, and the mashed potatoes were on a bed of semi-cooked broccoli with shredded cabbage on top. There were roasted chestnuts, a traditional Japanese food, sweet bread and lots of salad. The hosts also had a different interpretation of the holiday.
“They tried to tell everyone there that Thanksgiving was a time that everyone should think of God’s love like gravy flowing over the sides of your mashed potatoes,” Brown said.
“They went on and said it was a religious holiday, when all of us Americans knew it was really about the food.”
Brown experienced a unique Thanksgiving because of her location in Japan.
My dad, Russell Scott, 60, told me about a Thanksgiving he and my mom experienced as teenagers. He was meeting my mom’s great big extended Italian family for the first time.
“I tried to stow away with your mom at her Uncle Babe’s. I was trying to be discreet about giving her a kiss away from everyone,” Scott said. “But when I did she fell over backwards, making a loud thud for everyone to hear, and came running to see what the noise was.”
That many relatives coming to see what happened seemed like a scary thought, so I asked him how they reacted.
“Oh we couldn’t tell them what really happened, it was a first impression,” Scott said. “We just told them she fell and I came to help her.”
While this story is from a different time, it could be similar to Thanksgiving events that still happen today, and many families have traditions. Every year, my family plays Trivia Pursuit in teams, boys against girls. It is always a really close game and it gets to be pretty intense.
This year a felt the game was similar to the Lions game. The girls were ahead in the first half, but the guys caught up and stole the game before it was over.
Throughout America, everyone collects their own memories on Thanksgiving. Many people will continue traditions, but some years something unique happens that will be remembered for years to come.
