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!
11/23/2006 9:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on the 'Connecticut 6'

For some weeks, I have had several friends (mostly non-Episcopalians surprisingly) wanting me to voice an opinion on this Connecticut 6 (sounds like a fleabag motel) business. If you are unfamiliar with this fiasco, for lack of a better term, let me describe it as best as I understand it. There is so much spin going on (from both sides I might add) that I have been having trouble discerning fact from fiction. As I understand the situation, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Smith is the Bishop of Connecticut. Well, at least he has a pointy hat, I do not think he is particularly acting like one. Likewise, as I understand, there are Six rectors of churches (at least they have collars, but likewise are not acting like it) that have applied for DEPO oversight (i.e. another Bishop to oversee them.) The best way I know how to describe the hoohah is as follows: The Feloniously Rev. Smith is trying to defrock the Superciliously Reverend Rectors. Darth Smith claims they have abandoned communion and has shadil...
Read more

My board gaming journey, pt. I

Image
     Something a bit different today than my normal reflections. I thought I would delve a little bit more into a topic that is not necessarily theological in nature. I am a real person, and not some ethereal doctor in an ivory tower who gets to smoke a pipe and contemplate the infinite mysteries all day. So, today, I thought I would delve into one of my personal hobbies: board gaming.      Now, do not tune me out because you hear "board gaming" and immediately default in your brain to your brother overturning a table with Monopoly money flying everywhere because the game has gone on for hours and overturning the table was the only option left other than murder. Most people, including myself at one time, thought of board games as those boring or frustrating games that seem stuck in 1952. You know the usual suspects: Clue!, Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess, maybe even more saccharine games like Life or Candy Land, i.e. those games that everyone owned at some p...
Read more

The History of the Football helmet

Image
NCAA.com put out an interesting editorial about the evolution of the football helmet that can be found here . This is in part due in my estimation to the current buzz (one might go so far as to describe it as hysteria) about concussions in contact sports, particularly football. I have always found this an interesting evolution. Long gone are the days of strapping on your leather helmet: In the 50's and 60's, the helmet evolved into, basically becoming a metal then hard plastic version of the leather helmet with the addition of a rudimentary face mask (which was really just a bar at first): Gradually, the helmet's face mask itself began to evolve: Combines with new space age style lightweight plastics and foams, the helmet mask ultimately became a type of full, goalie style face mask (This little number costs just under $1000 to purchase new): Ironically, being a military history major, the football helmet evolution followed the pattern of design that helmets worn...
Read more