Pass the stuffing, hold the Brussels sprouts

As the song from Oliver goes, “Food, glorious food!” I’m thinking roast turkey, cornbread stuffing with chorizo, sweet potato tamales, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, and squash (in the form of pumpkin pie). “Please, sir, may I have some more?”

OK, how about empanadas made with leftover turkey? Am I alone on this?

Needless to say, Turkey Day traditions are as varied as there are families. Growing up, we’d all get dressed up Sunday school-style, and all eight of us would cram around the dinner table, which was festooned with tall skinny candles and some sort of garland in the middle. Our dad made a big production out of carving the turkey and made us all laugh, and I know this because of the home movies my mother took back in the 1950s.

The television was turned off. The hi-fi was playing some kind of classical music. I guess today it would be tablets or cell phones making videos along with dozens of pictures of food posted to Facebook or Instagram.

Anyway, those childhood days are long gone, and although I have to admit life is just fine nowadays, there are some things I kind of miss. But that’s OK. Psychologists say conjuring nostalgia during stressful times is a healthy coping mechanism.

This brings to mind some of the table manners and courtesies we were expected to follow as kids:

Elbows off the table.

Please and thank you.

“May I?” instead of “Can I?”

Do not interrupt when adults are speaking.

Ask permission to be excused.

Yes ma’am, yes sir.

Never argue with an adult.

Stand up when an adult enters the room.

Hats off in the house.

In grade school, Thanksgiving meant getting dressed up in those big-collar pilgrim costumes for a school pageant and learning all about the pilgrims and Plymouth Rock and how the local Indians – later I learned they were Wampanoag – all sat down in 1621 for the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts. That first big celebration included singing, dancing, ball games and a feast of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat. In other words, party time!

It wasn’t until 1863 that President Lincoln issued a pronouncement asking that citizens “in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise.”

But wasn’t it that in 1598, the Europeans from Spain had a meal together with the people already living here? I’m thinking about the first meal Don Juan Oñate and his “pilgrims” had at Pilabo pueblo. When Oñate and his caravan arrived here after their journey up the Jornada del Muerto, they were met by the Piro people, who brought out food and water. That could qualify for a Thanksgiving of sorts, couldn’t it?

But wait, a few weeks before that – south of Las Cruces – was a Thanksgiving meal of sorts that could not be beat. It was with the Mansos Indians.

The story goes that after crossing the Rio Grande, Oñate and his caravan presented the Mansos with clothing. In return, the Mansos gave them freshly caught fish from the Rio Grande. In an act of giving thanks, Oñate arranged for a feast to be held in honor of the company’s miraculous survival and asked the Mansos to be their guests.

The banquet included fish, duck, and geese as well as food the Oñate party brought with them, and this act of “thanksgiving” may have been the very first to be celebrated.

I can imagine that the risk they and their families took entering an unknown land was no less than the Pilgrims took when crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower. There was no guarantee either group would survive.

One thing is true: nothing is guaranteed in this life. Money can come and go, jobs can change, and friends will come in and out of our lives.

But family remains family. Families go on and on.

Online, that is.

Although we are told our modern world is fraught with hidden dangers and uncertainties, there is much more for which to be thankful.

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said. “And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”

On the other hand, if you are not thankful for anything, well, take comfort in the words of Ed Howe, “Nothing tires a man more than to be grateful all the time.”

Me? My glass is neither half full nor half empty; it holds exactly the right amount.

My pants, though, the day after Thanksgiving, that’s another story…