Yesterday a band of modern day pilgrims celebrated their first thanksgiving in this new land along with a number of friendly Uruguayos. We totaled 20 in number and ranged in age from 5 to 70-something. We spoke English, Spanish and Spanglish. We were Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, Mormon, Existentialist and agnostic. Our family names indicated Hispanic, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Arabic and Italian backgrounds—and who knows what else.
We were not exactly a replica of the stern pilgrims who signed the Mayflower Compact—being much more diverse; and yet, our pioneer spirit and affinity for Uruguay bound us together almost seamlessly.
I think that we perhaps laid a milestone—without really intending such, yesterday may have been the first real event for the Sociedad Southron. And I expect to do better next year.
One thing we have to do is organize the turkey a bit ahead of time. I have it on my calendar to order turkeys at the end of August and to pay the farmers to fatten them up for us. We also need to arrange to find cranberry sauce—it seems like 50 carat flawless diamonds might be easier to find here. Maybe we need to tell everyone that the price of admission is a big can or cranberry sauce brought in their luggage? (Can we grow cranberries in this climate?)
But it was a great start, and when we have our 10th and 20th annual Sociedad Southron Thanksgiving Dinners, we will have grafted one very worthwhile US tradition onto our new homeland.
I hope you all had a great thanksgiving—we surely did. Thank you for all the kind emails with Thanksgiving Day greetings.
Southron, Copperhead, and Santiago,
Thank you for your hospitality and opening your home to a truly diverse group of pilgrims! It was a Thanksgiving that I will never forget — truly wonderful. I enjoyed meeting and conversing with people from such varied backgrounds and with such different views and experiences. One thing that really stood out is that though we were all very different what really mattered was the things that we had in common and our mutual respect for our our differences.
Left by IBMike on November 25th, 2006