Gristmill on the Plymouth River (still in operation)

While recapping Rush Limbaugh today I came across an article written in the LA Times that describes what the 1st Thanksgiving is was really about. I lived in Massachusetts for 3 yrs as a teenager/ semipro break dancer/ forest commando.I learned allot about the Pilgrims while in my early youth and I have a lot of esteem for them as one of my ancestors was John Howland and Elizabeth Tilly both who were on the Mayflower. John even fell over board during the crossing,luckily he was able to grab hold of a rope and climb back aboard. The Pilgrims had a harsh first year at Plymouth, their first experience in the New World was on the tip of Cape Cod which is nothing but sand dunes. John Howland and Edward Tilly (Elizabeth's 1st husband) and a few others sailed up the coast looking for a suitable place to settle.





The first winter there was spent in little more than crude huts and they scraped a meager living from the soil. In the years that followed the Pilgrims moved from communal living to a society based on hard work and self reliance.





Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them (Squanto had learned English as a slave in Europe and travels in England). The Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance; harvest festivals were existing parts of English and Wampanoag tradition alike. Several colonists have personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth, Massachusetts.





Needless to say I am quite proud of my heritage and thankful for all that I have today because they and others like them help build a country based on freedom, not tyranny or welfare. May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.