Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving Heretic

There is quite a cadre of American exchange students at Westcott term.We schemed to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for the Westcott students who have never really had an American Thanksgiving and were curious about the tradition. The kitchen staff were quite helpful, and prepared a nice formal dinner for all the students with Turkey, etc. We the American students pitched in and cooked several pumpkin pies, biscuits (that was all me), cranberry sauce, etc.

We had the dessert and the mulled cider in the common area/Westcott Bar. And we called it a dessert because the Brits call every dessert a "pudding" which in American lingo is a specific dish in itself. (FYI-unless that's John, I have no idea where the wig on the wall came from in this picture.)
Being by far the most conservative American in the bunch who has no problem being respectful to the American flag as a community symbol, I had absolutely nothing to do with the decorations believe it or not (other than being asked to hang the vertical flag because I was tall.) We also set up a British disco after we had introduced what Thanksgiving was all about and after everyone said what they were thankful for, etc. An American-Thanksgiving British-Disco has to be worth a few pages in someone's book.
Despite the stereotypical American flag love fest which I think everyone was cool with actually, I think everyone really enjoyed the Thanksgiving goings-on. I did find out that I am apparently a Thanksgiving heretic because I suggested we not have pumpkin pie due to canned pumpkin shortages in jolly old England. My family doesn't really do pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, as we do pecans or occasionally a peanut pie. I also nearly revolted about having a formal Thanksgiving dinner but I relented in the end and did not in fact wear jeans in protest. I wore a suit even. (Yes, I do own one). I also had to explain more than once that "Yank" or "Yankee" is not a synonym for "American" in American terminology. I guess Southerners are just contrary by metaphysical essence.

The scandal of the evening came when I had to admit that I had never actually seen Charlie Brown's Thankgiving that I recall. My Thanksgiving Heresy aside, I thought it went fabulously and everyone was really appreciative. And the mulled cider was delicious.

Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown.

Comments

Raisin said…
Happy Thanksgiving, Archer! You wore a suit...very impressive!

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