Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Plymouth Rocks!




Ah, yes, another Thanksgiving is almost upon us. I suppose we all know the origins of the holiday by now. I mean, we Americans know the origins. However, as this is the Internet, I know citizens of other countries occasionally takes a gander at this blog, and they may need an explanation. To recap, in 1620 a group of Puritans at odds with the Church of England in their home country set sail on a ship called The Mayflower to North America, or as it was sometimes referred to at the time, the New World. After an arduous two-month journey, they landed in what is now Massachusetts and established a modest little colony named Plymouth, after the town back home from which the Mayflower had set sail. Dry land notwithstanding, things got even more arduous for the people who would come to be known as Pilgrims.  Disease, food shortages, and a harsh winter took its toll. Of the 102 Puritans who had set sail on the Mayflower, only about half were still alive a year later. Gradually, things did improve for the survivors. They met a group of indigenous North Americans, or Indians, who lived nearby and agreed to help them out by showing them how best to farm the soil. After a successful fall harvest, the Plymouth colonists decided to hold a celebratory feast, inviting the Indians to join them. The more, the merrier, as they say.

Then there was the day after the First Thanksgiving. That's when a phalanx of musket-toting paleface Pilgrims marched into the Indian village, knocked loudly on the first wigwam they came to, and barked, "OK, Tonto, it's Manifest Destiny time! We got a nice reservation all decked out for you. If you don't like the accommodations, take your complaints to the 7th Cavalry!"

Well, I might be telescoping events a wee bit.

Here's some Thanksgiving imagery, along with some history here and there, to mull over as you chow down on your stuffing and mashed potatoes.


 Let's start with Norman Rockwell's Freedom from Want. Though the painting (or illustration) debuted in the pages of The Saturday Evening Post in March of 1942, it's come to be associated with Thanksgiving. This is Rockwell at his most photographic. At his most detailed. For instance, in the middle-right of the picture, note how what looks to be a gelatin of some sort in magnified through a glass of water. Rockwell may have made things even more challenging for himself by having white dinnerware placed on a white tablecloth, along with white curtains in the background. So much white that in the hands of a lesser artist the picture could have become so much spilled milk. However, Rockwell was not a lesser but a greater artist (or illustrator), and so each and every object is clearly delineated. And there are some non-white objects to offer a bit of contrast, too, such as that fellow looking at us in the lower-right hand corner (hey, pal, didn't anybody ever tell you it's not nice to stare?) OK, so the artwork is technically kick-ass, but how about the message it conveys? Is perhaps Rockwell idealizing the holiday a bit too much? Well, that's something for each and every one of you to decide on your own, depending on your own experiences on Turkey Day. I mean, I've been to Thanksgiving dinners where something like the above scene more or less played out. And remember, it's a single moment in time, not the entire day. Anything that might have occurred afterwards, from a family argument, to some drunken behavior,  to people showing impatience as they wait to get into the bathroom, to a whipped cream-covered pumpkin pie becoming embedded in the carpet, to the dog snapping at a kid who yanked too hard on the his left ear, well, you can paint those pictures yourself if you want. I only have one quibble with what's arguably Rockwell's most famous work of art. I don't know what the availability of steroids were in the 1940s, but, given the size of that turkey, you'd think that woman would be straining a bit more than she is with that platter. Furthermore, she's holding it at kind of an awkward angle. Wouldn't it be much easier if she held it right in front of her as she placed it on the table? But I guess she can't because that idiot to the left of her won't get out of the way.



There's no evidence Pilgrims actually dressed this way, but someone dreamed up the look in the late 19th-early 20th century, and it's been with us ever since.


There's even less evidence that pilgrims dressed like this (TCM fans, that's Jean Arthur on the left.)



Man, look at the size of that ship! It sure takes up a good swath of the ocean. Those pilgrims should have made it to the New World in no time at all!



Ready-to-serve Thanksgiving.


As Thanksgiving made its way into the 20th century, the iconic Pilgrim began to realize he had to compete for the public's attention  (art by the once-popular illustrator J.C. Leyendecker. Don't know if he played the game or not.)


That should feed a lot of munchkins.


The Pilgrims furniture arrives.


Nothing goes with turkey like oatmeal (or whatever the heck it is.)



I hope for that woman on the left's sake that this is Plymouth and not Salem.


This Puritan descendant turned out not to be very puritanical at all.


Fowl play: a Partridge on a turkey shoot.


Plymouth Rock. The Pilgrims in their diaries, journals, and correspondence say nothing about coming across a big rock upon arriving in the New World. That's not to say it wasn't there, but just that the Pilgrims didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until 121 years later that a Plymouth civic leader decided that the rock was of great historical significance (i.e., a tourist attraction.)


More fowl play. Is Woodstock a cannibal?


Take a moment to give thanks the next time you walk into a movie theater.


 "Still crazy after all these years..."

(As much as I would like it to be, that's not my joke. Paul Simon actually sang that while hosting Saturday Night Live back in November, 1976.)


 Leftovers.


 I can't look either.


Another Thanksgiving tradition.


You always know the parade is winding down when this fellow shows up. Which brings up another point. Whatever the holiday's historical origins, these days Thanksgiving is basically the Christmas season's opening act.

Historical fact: in the final years of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving from the last Thursday in November to the second-to-last, thinking an early start to the Christmas shopping season might improve retail sales. A hue and cry went up from holiday traditionalists, college athletic directors who now had to rearrange the football schedule, and Republicans hoping to exploit the votes of the first two groups. After about three years, and by joint resolution of Congress which the now-chastened President signed into law, Thanksgiving was returned to the last Thursday of November. Thus the sanctity of the holiday was preserved. For a while, anyway. In the past ten years, I've worked at both Macy's and Target, and in each store Christmas decorations started going up the day after Halloween. FDR was just a bit before his time, that's all.

Well, that's all I got, and so, in parting, I'd just like to say...


 ...Happy Thanksgiving, and hats off to all of you!

15 comments:

  1. Hi, Kirk!

    You covered Thanksgiving from every possible angle, good buddy, and it was big fun and very interesting.

    I appreciate the work of great illustrators (especially Gil Elvgren :). You have a good eye to notice all those details of that Norman Rockwell illustration. You're right, unless that old woman has been secretly pumping iron, it doesn't seem realistic that she could be bearing the weight of that jumbo turkey as she leans over the table at an odd angle. (Judy Garland probably wrenched her back trying to lift the loaded platter in the pic farther down the page.) I like to study the faces of the family members gathered around the table in Rockwell's Freedom from Want. As might be expected, the two younger women are gabbing with each other across the table. The older man left center seems to be telling an off color joke and using his hand to block the sound in an effort to prevent the little girl on the end from hearing it. The guy lower right appears to be looking at the person taking the imaginary picture.

    I don't know who came up with the idea for sexy Pilgrim costumes for women (but I'd like to shake his hand :).

    I would like to take this opportunity to shout from the rooftops that Dick York was the REAL Darrin Stephens, just like Adam West was the REAL Batman. Dick Sargent broke the spell and the sitcom just wasn't the same thereafter. I remember watching that SNL episode with Paul Simon dressed as a turkey.

    When it comes to rushing the Christmas season, the TV home shopping networks are even worse than the other retailers. On HSN and QVC they roll out their Christmas decorations, collectibles and gifts for him and her around July 5th.

    You nailed it, Kirk. This was wonderful. I want to wish you and yours a happy Thanksgiving, a merry Christmas, happy new Year, happy Valentines day, Easter and Independence Day!

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    1. Glad you liked it, Shady. I'll try to address each of your points.

      I'm glad you pointed out the different expressions on the faces (which I should have done, actually, but the paragraph was running kind of long.) Unlike a lot of his critics, I find Norman Rockwell the most realistic of painters. And I don't mean as a precursor to photorealism (though he was that, too) He peoples his paintings (or "illustrations", he was a commercial artist, after all) with so many common-uncommon-looking people, unlike most illustrators of his time, who tended to make everyone look like movie stars. And he was interested in the chaos and irregularity of real life. Hench, the people are chatting with each other rather than giving solemn thanks for the bounty they're about to receive. In his own way, Rockwell was kind of subversive. In my view, anyway.

      You like Elvgren, but what about Vargas?

      About the sexy pilgrim girls. A couple of years ago I did a post of Christmas pictures from the 1920s, and one of them had Clara Bow on a snowy roof waiting for Santa Clause in a skimpy negligee!

      I agree with you about Dick York. He could have come from a Rockwell painting. He had those hilarious eyes that expressed everything from exasperation to fear at the supernatural doings going on around him. I read that one reason they chose York to play Darren rather than an actor with leading man looks is that, as a witch, Samantha could have conjured up the most handsome man in the world. So instead she fell in love with someone whose physical appearance was beyond her imagination.

      HSN and QVS should stop and give thanks to FDR.

      Happy Thanksgiving, Shady!

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    2. Hi again, Kirk!

      I went to Google images and looked up that Clara Bow Christmas pinup series. She is one of my favorite actresses and glamour girls of the Roaring Twenties, a stunning beauty.

      I agree it was inspired casting to put the rather homely Dick York in the role of the jittery, flummoxed husband Darrin on Bewitched. His facial expressions were indeed priceless. Come to think of it, a very successful and widely used sitcom strategy is to pair an ordinary guy (usually an overweight clod) with a beautiful, out of his league trophy wife. The practice goes all the way back to Jackie Gleason's series The Honeymooners and the animated series The Flintstones.

      Thanks for a great time over here and at my place, good buddy Kirk!

      Delete
  2. I had a turkey called boris.. he was a lovely gentle sexually frustrated soul

    Loved the post...Norman Rockwell is my hero

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    1. John,

      "gentle sexually frustrated soul"

      Interesting. Sexual frustration doesn't often lend itself to gentleness. At least not in cats and dogs who haven't been fixed. Maybe turkeys are different.

      So you like Rockwell, too? For the same reasons I do, or for something totally different?

      Happy Thanksgiving, John...oops, wait, you're in Wales, where I don't believe the Pilgrims ever landed. So, instead, Happy Whatever-kicks-off-the-Christmas-shopping-season-over-there!

      Delete
  3. Well Kirk, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday as for the reason you saw from my Monday post. But it truly is my favorite, and it seems people are letting it too slide by anymore, so more and more companies and stores are staying open, adding a temptation to be away from out families. We need to pull back like it was years ago. I feel the only holiday people get behind anymore is Christmas. November for me is a very relaxing month with exception to work.

    Meanwhile my aunt cook's one of those huge Rockwell turkeys. She send me home with enough leftover for three more meals.

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    1. I'll be honest with you, Maddie. As soon as I came across the pilgrims-in-miniskirts picture, I remembered you like to show those old Hollywood cheesecake photos on your blog, so, to make sure I wouldn't be repeating something you did, I looked over your posts for the past few days. Had that shot been there, I would have replaced it with something else before I clicked on PUBLISH.

      I now see you have a NEW Thanksgiving post up. I'll go check it out.

      Happy Thanksgiving, Maddie!

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    2. And a Happy Thanksgiving to you too! I am very happy to have "met" you this year.

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  4. Well, wasn't THAT an entertaining post! I like your sly reference to Salem under the "Bewitched" photo, lol! Have a happy Thanksgiving on Thursday. Wear stretchy pants!

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    1. I may have to wear overalls, Debra.

      Now, you're from Canada and celebrate Thanksgiving in October (I remember reading your post) Don't tell me the Christmas shopping season starts then, too?

      Delete
  5. I so enjoyed this post today. Very clever.
    I wish Thanksgiving was in October when it should be. Harvest, pumpkins, apples just the best. It is one of the nicest holidays. Big or small family and friends come together to share a meal. No over the top decorations (sorry Martha) no gifts to buy and wrap. Just a nice day.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. Read my response to Debra, parsnip. October is when they celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada.

      Think maybe we should change the name of the American version to Black Friday's Eve?

      Anyway, have a happy holiday, parsnip!

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  6. Ha! Lots of memories here and fractured history. I love it.

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  7. I know the Mayflower never landed in Spain, but since from you're originally from this side of the pond, Happy Thanksgiving, Mitchell, and I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

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  8. Morbid coincidence: News of David Cassidy's death reached me only after I put up a post that had a picture of TV costar Susan Dey.

    Well, I'm going to leave her there. I think David would have wanted it that way.

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In order to keep the hucksters, humbugs, scoundrels, psychos, morons, and last but not least, artificial intelligentsia at bay, I have decided to turn on comment moderation. On the plus side, I've gotten rid of the word verification.