No.. this is not a turkey!

*there was a nice picture of a rooster here but I accidentally deleted it- Kristen *

This blog is for the young ones amongst us!

I am going to take the decay of Thanksgiving all on my shoulders. It has gone from being a day to give thanks for all of the gifts that have been bestowed on us, to a day off of work (for some) or school, so that we can recover from Thanksgiving eve parties and then go out and shop your butts off. Now let’s go back to origins of Thanks Giving. Your first reaction is the pilgrims and Plymouth rock, well you all know that story, so I am going to go back a few years before that! I am going to start with Judaism, where each year they celebrate their Psalm cycle known as Hallel. Psalm 118 is the basis behind  “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever”  the cycle continues “who is rich? He who is happy with his lot” or  “When thou eatest the labor of thy hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.”  All this really means is ha-sameach be-chelko, or in english one who is happy with his portion.  So that is how it all started, one was supposed to give thanks for what was given. “Labor of thy hands, and be happy with the portion” or lot. Now lets us fast forward to 1959. There was no talk of buying things, other than what was going to be eaten on thanksgiving. It was a day when families sat down, and enjoyed a fancy meal, made by their hands and spent time giving thanks for all of their abundance. Lets us move to 1989 that was about the time where I saw a big change in our culture. We went from a thankful, giving country to a society where we only were thinking of ourselves, and how we could get over on the other guy. Tradition was a memory, we only had faith in ourselves, we hoped for the new gaming system (ATARI) and the family role model was Archie Bunker and Al Bundy. So let’s move to the year 2013, Al Bundy, is still a role model, but is constantly being criticized because of his old values, we hope for a new Smartphone so we no longer have to communicate with anyone, and faith is a word that we have dropped from our vocabulary. Our values are being shaped by celebrities, talking heads (not the band), and quite honestly what do they know. I think you get my point, my message is simple! Honor what has been given to you, yes strive to be your best, because that is what was given to you, make you own decisions based on your values, not what you hear in the media. This all means that we have to work hard, value and respect hard work, and your needs not necessary your wants will be fulfilled. This Thursday take the time and spend it with you family, put away the social media, no texting, no face book, no blogs, just good old conversation with those who you love. For their values, and your hard work, does pay-off in the end!

That is enough of the words of wisdom, so here is a story. I was at WAWA and saw the strangest thing. In front of WAWA there must be 20 gas pumps, but on the back side is a parking lot. So I pulled in and there was a big green SUV stopped in front of the back door, taking up 3-4 parking spaces with their flashers on. So I parked out in the back 40, and as I was approaching he store, I saw a little old lady with a one gallon gas can putting gas in to that monster. I felt really bad, because it was pouring down rain ant it was really cold. As I approached her to see if I could be of any assistance, some guy told me what she was doing. She was almost out of gas, so she did not think she could make it around to the other side of the store to the pumps, so she parked the car in the middle of 3-4 parking spaces went in and got a gas can from the store, went out to the pumps put one gallon of gas in the can, went back thru the store and back out to her truck and put the gallon of gas in her truck. Now all that make perfect sense, but what the guy was laughing about was she never turned her car off, and then drove away!   Takes all kinds..