Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Where You Spend Your Time of Thanksgiving—Day 20 of a Town Girl Touched by the Farming Life

Cousins eating snowflakes after
Thanksgiving lunch

            Where is home for the holidays for you?  The vast majority of families in America live in towns or cities and are not directly touched by having a farm homestead to visit for traditional family holidays.  Why is it then that many of us, including television and movie script writers, often envision a farm or country setting when picturing a home for the holidays that is not their own experience? 

            Maybe it goes back to the founding of our country when nearly every new settlement was essentially "a big farm."  Maybe it goes back to the expansion west that was accomplishment mainly by families risking everything to make a living on their own homesteads.  Maybe it goes back to creation, the very beginning when all was "right with the world."  Regardless of the reason why, a country setting can bring a sense of peace and comfort during the holidays, and there always seems to be room for "one more" so no one is left out. 

            Isn't that what most of us want at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter—to be somewhere we will be welcomed and be a part of the family?  Of course, I know that is not true of all holidays on every farm.  In some cases, it is quite the opposite.  Yet, I do not think families will ever give up hope of being touched by that kind of holiday "back on the farm."  As a result, many city people will do their best to try to duplicate that feeling in their apartments, condominiums, or houses amid rows of identical houses.  That is o.k., too, of course, because the best part is not where you spend your time of thanksgiving but with whom.

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