Tell me what company you keep, and I'll tell you who you are."
Miguel de Cervantes 1547-1616 (Author of Don Quixote)
Norm's Daily Ramblins
THANKING GOD FOR HIS PROVISION, LOVE, AND MERCY
What a great time we all look forward to with family and friends! Some will spend the day alone again but will do their best to be on the phone with loved ones or will hope for a visit from someone. Those who have no one to call or be visited by may find enjoyment watching familiar faces of those who have become their television friends.
Thanksgiving is a time of fellowship, food, gratitude, acknowledging God's provision in all ways and helping someone else in service and genuine love
Thanksgiving Day and this weekend seems to always be an enjoyable experience even if we are in pain, away from family, serving in Iraq, or have lost most of our hope with outward forces or inward depression. Such a great time of seeing each other and recalling previous celebrations that carry us back -- even to childhood. How many times will our conversation revert to memories and to talking about incidents we had with loved ones who are no longer with us?
Mary and I plan to have a gathering that includes my son Jonathan, Norm Jr., my 101 year-old Mom and sister Judy who cares for her, two grand nephews, two nieces-in-law from Flagstaff, Arizona and the parents and grandparents of one of our new nieces-in-law. Son Chris, who is the hydrologist for the Unita Basin in Vernal, Utah will be traveling in New Mexico. What's going to be happening in your family this week?
Some time ago when I spent some time researching information about Thanksgiving, I was reminded that every culture has had a time of gratitiude for having a successful harvest and the gift of blessings from their creator. Our American Thanksgiving and the October Day of Thanksgiving in Canada are not religious observances but certainly involve our faith and love for our Creator.
Many cultures in history have seen their food harvest and the direct intervention of the supreme being or beings in whom they believe. Special events were used to signify this relationship that expressed a time of feasting and fellowship.
In the Old Testament, one of the religious events Jewish families celebrated was a harvest festival called Succoth -- the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of the Ingathering.
It had been estblished in the early years of the people (during the years of wandering) who became Israel and the Jewish nation. Taking place each autumn, Succoth has been celebrated for over 3000 years. Succoth begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri, 5 days after Yom Kippur the most solemn day of the Jewish year.
Succoth was named for the tents (succots) that Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. These huts were made of branches and were easy to assemble, take apart, and carry as the Israelites wandered through the desert.
During this 8 day festival, the Jewish people would build small huts or tents of branches which recall the tabernacles of their ancestors. The huts were constructed as temporary shelters, and the roof is covered with foliage which is spaced to let the light in. Inside the huts are hung fruits and vegetables, including apples, grapes, corn, and pomegranates. On the first 2 nights of Sukkoth the families eat their meals in the huts under the evening sky. The purpose of the celebration is to recognize God as provider and express gratitude for that blessing.
Here in the New World In 1621, after a hard and devastating first year, the Pilgrim's fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.
The Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of gratitude and praise that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.
The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770's) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.
In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of Thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.
It's going to be a wonderful time with family!!! Watch out for A Black Friday, a day that starts the Christmas buying frenzy when merchants will determine whether they will have a profitable year or not. I hear some stores are offering free breakfasts to get the crowds in early. Why Black Friday? Because it's such a terrible day of exhaustion, too many people, or no parking space? No. It's Black Friday because it tells the retailer if they will have a profitable year and end up in the black. Most stores depend on the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to give them a profitable operation for the year. That's why we have to experience all the hype and promotion of consumerism. -n. plunkett
I DISPISE any rewriting of history. That's what is rapidly destroying the truth of our heritage so I'm careful not to repeat such trash. I'm confident this essay is on target regarding the truth about Thanksgiving - and the reality that the Pilgrims did not observe it quite like we might think.
The tradition of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving is steeped in myth and legend. Few people realize that the Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving in 1622, or any year thereafter, though some of their descendants later made a "Forefather's Day" that usually occurred on December 21 or 22.
Several Presidents, including George Washington, made one-time Thanksgiving holidays. In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying several Presidents for the instatement of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but her lobbying was unsuccessful until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Today, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November. This was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941), who changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (which could occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday and hence too close to Christmas for businesses).
But the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving began at some unknown date between September 21 and November 9, most likely in very early October. The date of Thanksgiving was probably set by Lincoln to somewhat correlate with the anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, which occurred on November 21, 1620 (by our modern Gregorian calendar--it was November 11 to the Pilgrims who used the Julian calendar).
There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving: First is Edward Winslow's account, which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621. The complete letter was first published in 1622, and is chapter 6 of Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. Four, in one day, killed as much fowl as served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
The second description was written about twenty years after the fact by William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford's History was rediscovered in 1854 after having been taken by British looters during the Revolutionary War. Its discovery prompted a greater American interest in the history of the Pilgrims, which eventually led to Lincoln's decision to make Thanksgiving a holiday. It is also in this account that the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is founded.
They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.
All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.
The following is a fairly complete list of the foods available to the Pilgrims during the three-day Thanksgiving harvest celebration. As can be seen in the above two quotations, the only foods specifically mentioned by the Pilgrims are: "corn" (wheat, by the Pilgrims usage of the word), Indian corn, barley, peas (if any where spared), "fowl" (Bradford says "waterfowl"), five deer, fish (namely bass and cod), and wild turkey.
The Plimoth Plantation Museum has a nice recipe page that includes a number of modernized recipes to closely simulate the actual foods likely eaten by the Pilgrims during this harvest festival.
Foods Available to the Pilgrims for their 1621 Thanksgiving
FISH: cod, bass, herring, shad, bluefish, and lots of eel.
SEAFOOD: clams, lobsters, mussels, and very small quantities of oysters
BIRDS: wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge, and other miscellaneous waterfowl; they were also known to have occasionally eaten eagles (which "tasted like mutton" according to Winslow in 1623.)
OTHER MEAT: venison (deer), possibly some salt pork or chicken.
GRAIN: wheat flour, Indian corn and corn meal; barley (mainly for beer-making).
FRUITS: raspberries, strawberries, grapes, plums, cherries, blueberries, gooseberries (these would have been dried, as none would have been in season).
VEGETABLES: small quantity of peas, squashes (including pumpkins), beans
HERBS and SEASONINGS: onions, leeks, strawberry leaves, currants, sorrel, yarrow, carvel, brooklime, liverwort, watercress, and flax; from England they brought seeds and probably planted radishes, lettuce, carrots, onions, and cabbage. Olive oil in small quantities may have been brought over, though the Pilgrims had to sell most of their oil and butter before sailing, in order to stay on budget.
OTHER: maple syrup, honey; small quantities of butter, Holland cheese; and eggs.
It is felt that tha following items were NOT part of the authentic Thanksgiving menu
HAM: The Pilgrims most likely did not have pigs with them.
SWEET POTATOES-POTATOES-YAMS: These had not yet been introduced to New England.
CORN on the COB: Indian corn was only good for making cornmeal, not eating on the cob.
POPCORN: Contrary to popular folklore, popcorn was not introduced at the 1621 Thanksgiving. Indian corn could only be half-popped, and this wouldn't have tasted very good.
CRANBERRY SAUCE: Cranberries were available, but sugar was not.
PUMPKIN PIE: They probably made a pumpkin pudding of sorts, sweetened by honey or syrup, which would be like the filling of a pumpkin pie, but there would be no crust or whipped topping.
Guy Lombardo ~ One of the Major Sweet Bands of the Past!
Poster from a Cleveland, Ohio appearance in 1927
The band's first recording in Indianapolis 1924. Guy holding violin.
The band's first recording in Indianapolis 1924. Guy holding violin.
Years ago, as I looked ahead to my mature age with curiosity and trepidation, I never really thought I'd be here to see 2000. The Lord has been gracious. If it were not for the miracle treatment for prostate cancer in 1999, I wouldn't be here anticipating a new and exciting 2008 -- there, I wrote it for the first time! Feels just as funny as I thought it would.
(By the way, men, if you're over 55 MAKE SURE that your annual blood test includes a PSA. It you ever have need, check out the implant of irradiated pellets and external beam radiation. My extremely serious case was cured seven years ago and I didnt' miss a day of work during the eight weeks of treatment..)
Wow, "time" in our present dimension really does vaporize and is gone as quickly as a passing cloud. Isn't it great that events, experiences, thoughts and ideas stay in our mind so we can mull them over in our heart? God's gift of memory is something we must never take for granted. It's essential to coping with the rapid passing of time and such a gift it is.
Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians, "Big Band" long associated with New York’s Roosevelt and Waldorf Astoria Hotels, and the tune Auld Lang Syne; remote broadcasts frequently heard over various radio networks from 1927 – 1956.
There’s no more fitting time than New Year’s Eve to feature tunes from Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians, but I want to present him now at we anticipate Thanksgiving Day. To this day Guy’s band and Auld Lang Syne, the Scottish tune they popularized, are now synonymous with the tolling in of each New Year. If you haven't done so already, click the Sounds of the Past button on the left and hear a seven minute sample of Lombardo's band as you read about him.
But the sum of the Royal Canadian's influence wasn’t merely restricted to New Year’s celebrations, for in their day They were one of the most popular bands at large. Between 1929 and 1952 a year did not pass without at least one Lombardo disc charting on the hit parade. The band produced an astounding number of hit tunes, 21 of which would peak at number one, and with an estimated sales somewhere between 100 and 300 million albums, they’re still the top-selling dance band of all time.
Guy was born Gaetano Albert Lombardo, the son of Italian immigrants in London, Ontario June 19, 1902. The eldest of five sons and two daughters, Guy and his siblings were encouraged from an early age to take music lessons, with five of the seven Lombardo children pursuing musical careers. Guy’s instrument of choice was the violin. An incident occurred in these early years involving his first violin; Guy’s father, a stickler for having music played just as it was written, flew into a rage when he caught his son “jazzing up” a classical melody. The elder Lombardo seized the violin and smashed it over his son’s head! Years later Papa Lombardo would comment, “Of course it was a small violin.”
The Lombardo parents, eager to have their children assimilate accent-free into Canadian culture, forbade the speaking of Italian in their home. Guy would later view his parents’ policy as a mixed blessing, and once wrote, “I often regret…as I travel around and meet so many people with the same ethnic background, who will greet me with an Italian phrase or expression, and find to their dismay that I don’t understand what they're talking about.”
The “Guy Lombardo Orchestra” had its humble beginnings in 1914, as a childhood duet with Guy on violin and his brother Carmen on flute. The group included a third brother, Lebert, and Freddie Kreitzer, the band’s long-serving pianist, by the time they played their first professional engagement in June of 1919. Performing before audiences so greatly appealed to the three brothers that within months they dropped out of school to pursue full-time careers in music. The Lombardo band grew to ten members by the time they left Ontario in 1923, to test their fortunes in the United States. The band moved to Cleveland and within a couple years had developed their patent sound, which was founded on simple arrangements of easily sung melodies and brother Carmen’s unique tones on the saxophone.
It was in Cleveland that the band, on the recommendation of their manager, reluctantly dressed in red uniforms and took the moniker of “the Royal Canadians.” In 1927 the band moved to Chicago to work out of the Granada Playhouse. It was this year that the band began attracting national attention with radio broadcasts and hit recordings. By 1930 the band moved to New York to begin a 33-year-long association with the Roosevelt Hotel.
The postal card, shown to the right of this article, is a valued part of my dad's large radio memoribilia collection. It's a card announcing the opening of Guy Lombardo's band at the Roosevelt Hotel. Quite an amazing piece of history and a valuable artefact.
Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s “The Royal Canadians” toured extensively, by this time a fourth brother, Vincent, and sister Rose Marie had joined the band as well. From 1928 up into the 1950’s Guy and the band also held various weekly radio broadcasts. It was on the Robert Burns Cigar sponsored Guy Lombardo Hour in 1932 that comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen began their first regular radio appearances. Guy Lombardo and his band also expanded into Hollywood at this time, with appearances in such films as Many Happy Returns (1934), Stage Door Canteen(1943), and No Leave, No Love (1946).
Due to the simplicity of their arrangements and lack of improvisation, Lombardo’s band generally drew poor reviews with critics. Sousa and his band had bad reviews and the critics hated his work but the American populus loved him and make him what he became. In the same way, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians were immensely popular with the public at large, and known for playing “the sweetest music this side of heaven.”
Much to the chagrin of critics and those who didn't like the music, jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were among Lombardo’s biggest fans. Guy and “the Royal Canadians” would produce over 250 hit tunes in their long career together, including such titles as: Boo-Hoo, Charmaine, By the River Saint-Marie, Red Sails In The Sunset, The Band Played On, and Young at Heart.
It was while making an appearance before a largely Scottish crowd in Glencoe, Ontario that the band first arranged and performed the tune Auld Lang Syne. Lombardo’s rendition gained appeal with wider audiences, and this Scottish tradition was adapted into their New Year’s Eve performances in New York.
"In 1953 the Royal Canadians failed to chart a song for the first time since 1929. They continued to enjoy steady bookings and immense popularity. In 1954 Guy took over the operation of the Marine Theater at Jones Beach in New York, and continued to host and produce seasonal musical performances there with “The Royal Canadians”
They were featured in their own television program in 1954, and Guy even made several appearances on Laugh-In in the late 1960s. During the 1970s, though, the orchestra began to go into decline. Carmen died in 1971 and the band's heart seemed to go with it. Guy appeared tired of performing but never admitted it. He continued to press on, playing to a increasingly gray-haired audience.
In November of 1977 Guy suffered a massive coronary and passed away. Victor took over the band briefly but couldn't maintain it. When Lebert severed his ties in 1979 the group finally dissolved. The orchestra was later revived in 1989 by Al Pierson, playing a mix of nostalgic tunes and modern arrangements."
Aside from his show business career, Lombardo was also a champion speedboat racer. He won numerous titles during the 1940s and 1950s and once set a world record.
Lombardo once joked with friends that he would take New Year’s Eve with him when he died -and in some respects he’s probably right! On the day of his death the CBS switchboard received more phone inquiries than during the recent passings of Bing Crosby and Elvis Presley.
To this day no New Year’s Eve could be complete without a round of Auld Lang Syne, Lombardo’s gift and legacy to the non-Scots world. –Chris Plunkett
God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling -- and the warm, personal counsel we find in Scripture to come to characterize us. These two things will keep us alert for whatever God will do next in our life. (As we allow him to control and guide us.)
Then our lives will be a choir -- not just our voices only, but our LIVES singing in harmony! It will be a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
Romans 15:4-6 The Message Bible, Nav Press
This is such a significant passage. It's one of my favorites. Read it a couple of times. It just "sings." (Sorry about that but had to say it.) We need to understand afresh that using Scripture daily in our lives is essential to good spiritual health.
How many read God's word once a week, let alone get into it for a few moments every day. But the morning newspaper and our receipe book or our current reading project seem to get all our "reading time." Scripture, written so long ago, was intended to show us the mind of God and to teach us patience and encourage us to look forward expectantly to the time God conquers sin and death. You know -- helping us get the "Big Picture" and realize that this life is only the beginning. But maybe you have a different view of Scripture and don't see it as speaking to your life today. If that's the case, I wish it were otherwise... you would see such joy and have such peace in the "middle of it all.
Exposing ourselves to Scripture influences our attitude toward our present life and the future. Singing (living) in harmony with God means we are sharing his perspective and values. Just as we take Jesus' view of the authority of Scripture, the nature of heaven and his resurrection, we also have his attitude of love toward others and grow in our faith and knowledge of him. Only by reading Scripture and spending time with God in prayer will we deepen our intimacy with our Lord. Philippians chapter 2 has some wonderful thoughts about Christ's attitude. NP
Here's an old favorite article I always post near Thanksgiving.. Enjoy! if you've never seen it before it will be a fun read. If you've read it before -- read it again! It's likely your memory is not that great. I put a great "Sweet Potato Souffle" receipe at the end. Holidays would not be the same for the Plunkett's without it!
The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a tuberous plant in the same genus as the morning glory. It is a long tapered tuber with a smooth skin. The flesh of the tuber ranges from white to yellow, orange and purple. It is often confused with the potato, which is in the same order but not the same family. The soft, sweet, orange variety is called a "yam" in most of the United States but should not be confused with the true yam.
I'll tell you one thing, the best sweet potato I ever ate in my 70 years on this planet was grown in South Carolina. We were on our way home from Myrtle Beach in the middle of September and saw all these huge wooden containers at the side of the road with a farmer sitting in a lawn chair. We stopped and bought a bushel of the greatest sweets I ever tasted. The texture was also superb. I understand that North Carolina sweet taters is (I know it's "are") just as good.
Sweet potatos are rich in dietary fiber, vitamin C and vitamin B6. In tropical areas they are a staple food crop. The tubers, leaves and shoots are all edible. The tubers are most frequently boiled, fried or baked. Tubers can also be processed to make starch and a partial flour substitute. The plants and tubers are frequently used for animal feed. Industrial uses include the production of starch and industrial alcohol.
The plant is a tropical annual vine that does not tolerate frost. Depending on the variety and conditions tubers mature in 3-9 months. Sweet potatoes rarely flower outside of the tropics and are primarily propagated by cuttings and tubers. Some variants are sold as house plants.
Sweet potatoes are believed to have originated in South America and spread throughout the tropical Americas into the Caribbean and across the South Pacific to Easter Island. Very likely the tuber drifted across the sea in a manner coconuts still do today.
Because the general Polynesian word for the sweet potato is kumara, and the South American word is kumar, it was originally thought that this was evidence of cross-Pacific contact between South America and Polynesia. However, linguists have determined that kumara and kumar are totally unrelated and have nothing to do with each other. This therefore cannot be considered as evidence of pre-Magellan trans-Pacific crossings.
Farmers in the Southern United States started using the term "yam" to distinguish between the softer orange variety and the drier white varitey. The true yam is rarely found in the United States except as an import and the orange variety must be labeled "yam sweetpotato". Taken from the Wikepedia Free Encylopedia.
Sweet Potato is also a nickname for the Ocarina which all us old people played when we were kids along with the Jew's Harp or "Juice Harp."
Old-fashioned Sweet Potato Souffle
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups sweet potatoes, cooked, mashed
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped pecans (Yankees may use walnuts)
A lot of folks use marshmellows. Don't. It's sweet enough.
PREPARATION:
In large mixing bowl, beat together hot mashed sweet potatoes, butter, sugar, eggs, and salt until fluffy. Turn into a 1 1/2-quart baking dish and sprinkle with pecans (or walnuts).
Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Serves 6 (or fewer very hungry people).
We're always honored by visitors. We do our best to provide new information on this "Ramblin" page ... and leave some of the stuff we think is extra good a little longer than the others. Please visit again.
We'd enjoy hearing from you. Drop us a note. We'd enjoy knowing you're visitin.' "Drop Us A Note" at: norman@peachmm.com
We extend to you an old Southern salutation you don't hear much... any more down here in Atlanta. "Ya'll come back now, ya'hear?"
Norman Plunkett
God is good -- ALWAYS!
And especially as He floods you with all the grace you need no matter what the situation. As you trust Him, God's grace is always just enough and always on time.
