Calif Bill wrote:
May you have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

And a nice website for Thanksgiving.
http://www.sgtstrader.org/msg/2006tdm1.html

Same to you.

We like to think of the "Pilgrims" as this very reserved, prayerful
bunch of folks.
Did you know the first Thanksgiving Feast went on for *three days!*?
Heck, I thought that sitting down to a dinner that takes an hour to eat
was quite the deal.
Those pilgrims knew how to party.

There was a tremendous gap between the "first Thanksgiving" and the
modern celebrations.

When George Washington announced he was going to declare a national
holiday for thanksgiving, he was ridiculed by people who claimed the
holiday would "cause a loss of a day's production" (but he declared
Thanksgiving one year, anyway).

Thomas Jefferson refused to declare a day of Thanksgiving at all.

In the first half of the 19th Century, Thanksgiving was not regularly
celebrated. It was up to the POTUS to designate a day for giving
thanks, and some presidents proclaimed a Thanksgiving day (some years)
and others did not. Some states would have a state-wide Thanksgiving
Day, others would not, and the state Thanksgivings were not always on
the same days.

A woman newspaper editor campaigned for 30-40 years to get Thanksgiving
established as an annual, national holiday. She never really did
succeed, although Abraham Lincoln was finally persuaded to declare a
day of Thanksgiving in the 1860's, and every president thereafter
declared a Thanksgiving day until the 1940's. In the 40's Thanksgiving
was finally established as a National Holiday, just about 300 years
after the Pilgrims held their initial feast.

Even once established as a national holiday, poor old Thanksgiving was
still a political football. It was moved to its present place on the
calendar as a result of pressure from
major retailers hoping to "extend" the Christmas Shopping season.

There's more than you really wanted to know about Thanksgiving.
Everybody have a happy one. :-)