if this is Thursday it must be postcards, 687

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving, ca early 1900s

 

This card is a reproduction by the small local printing company, Laughing Elephant.  They specialize in printing vintage cards, books, and posters.  It may not be the traditional cornucopia usually seen on Thanksgiving Day cards but it contains most of the ingredients from cornstalks with ears of corn, pumpkins, apples, grapes, and fall leaves. 

 

My wishes to all of you, Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you all can spend time with loved ones, enjoy good food and conversation, lots of laughter, love, and share thanks for times past as well as look forward to things to come.

 

If you want to see other items printed by Laughing Elephant, here is a link:

 

https://laughingelephant.com/

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 634

 

 

 

 

 

Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935)

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

These two cards shared today are cards but not postcards.  Both are reproductions by Laughing Elephant, the small local print shop that specializes in preserving and printing vintage illustrations and cards, as both note cards and postcards. 

 

The illustrator named on the top card is Jessie Willcox Smith.  She was an American illustrator during what is called “The Golden Age of American Illustration.”  Her work appeared in books and magazines during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.   Her illustrations appeared in Collier’s, Ladies’ Home Journal, Good House Keeping, Harper’s, and Scribner’s.  She had a long-running Mother Goose series and covers for Good House Keeping from 1917 to 1933.  She also illustrated more than 60 books including Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

 

 

 

Illustration by S. Garre, 1905

 

This second card has “Painting only copyrighted S. Garre 1905” at the lower right corner.   Although I could not find anything about an S. Garre illustrator in 1905, the message is certainly appropriate for today as it is Thanksgiving Day.

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Willcox_Smith

https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/jessie-willcox-smith

https://laughingelephant.com/

 

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 583

 

 

 

 

 

Originally a children's magazine cover, illustration by Fernande Cowles, ca 1920s

Happy Thanksgiving!  The two cards shared this week are vintage reproductions printed by the local small print shop, Laughing Elephant.  The illustration on the card above is signed Fernande Cowles.  It was originally a cover from a 1920s children’s magazine.  The second card, shown below, was a postcard issued most likely in the 1930s.  The Illustrator did not sign the card.  Note the button-up leggings, warm clothing and the morning glory border.

 

 

 

Originally a holiday themed postcard, ca 1930s

 

Although not all held on the same date, today Thanksgiving is a holiday that is celebrated in some form in several countries including the United States and Canada.  It can be a cultural, secular or even a religious holiday depending on where it is celebrated.  In the United States Thanksgiving is held on the fourth Thursday of November and in Canada it is held on the second Monday.  In North America it began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest.  The English Puritans carried a tradition of thanksgiving with them that had started during the time of Henry VIII, nearly 100 years earlier, when multiple religious holidays were condensed into special days called Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving.

 

Families sometimes add meaning to this holiday by starting traditions of their own.  For example, my son Q and his family started Pie Week several years ago.  Each day during the week of Thanksgiving a variety of pies are baked and eaten.  It is an extended family event with many hands baking and enjoying the results.  In addition to the expected pumpkin, pecan, mincemeat, apple or other sweet pies there might also be savory pies such as chicken pot pies or perhaps a quiche.  Along with pie week they also suggested that each person express a gratitude before devouring the yummy pies. Since this tradition was started when all 8 cousins were very young, this may have kept some small hands out of the pies before it was time for everyone to enjoy them. 

 

The most familiar first Thanksgiving story has a feast held in 1621 by the Pilgrims after the first successful corn harvest, in the village named Plymouth, Massachusetts, by the surviving colonists who had arrived on the Mayflower.  A lesser known, earlier, Thanksgiving was held in 4 December 1619 in Virginia by 38 English settlers who arrived on the ship Margaret by way of the James River.  That landing was celebrated by a religious celebration of thanksgiving with the charter of Virginia stating “that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantation shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving…”  The annual commemoration has been held at the present-day Berkeley Plantation since the mid 20^th century. 

 

Thanksgiving has not been celebrated continuously since the 1600s in the United States, nor has it always been on the same day.  In 1789 President George Washington proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving but it was celebrated intermittently.  President Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe Thanksgiving.  During the Civil War, in 1863  President Abraham Lincoln declared a national day of thanksgiving and asked for prayers to heal the wounds of the nation.  In 1870 President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Holidays Act making Thanksgiving a federal holiday in Washington D.C. for federal workers.  Congress made Thanksgiving and other federal holidays paid holidays for all federal workers in 1885.  It was under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, and amid controversy the date was moved one week earlier during the years 1939 to 1941.  In 1942 an act of Congress changed the date and since then Thanksgiving has been held on the 4th Thursday of November.   

 

Although the Pilgrims of 1621 may have had turkey and venison, together with crops that they had grown, and food shared by their indigenous neighbors, the meal would have been much simpler than the Thanksgiving meals we have today.  They did not have sugar but may have used honey as sweetener.  No fancy pies though. 

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)

 

 

Thanksgiving

Pumpkin & Apple pies

My older son and his family started a tradition called “Pie Week” that precedes Thanksgiving Day. Each day for a week they bake different pies and when they eat these delicious concoctions they go around the table telling each other what they are thankful for – “gratitudes“ I think the 3 year old calls them. By the end of the week when it is Thanksgiving Day they have had many different pies and shared many, many gratitudes.

Thanksgiving 2004

This year has been difficult and sad. It may seem hard to find things to be thankful for but I did find things and I am very thankful.

I am so extremely thankful for the 44 wonderful years I was able to share with my husband. It is true that I miss him and want to talk with him every day. But then I remember all the things we did do and it makes me smile. I am also very grateful that if he had to die that he died so quickly. It would have been unbearably difficult to see him anything less than the way we all love and remember him as being. He may have thought he was losing his marbles but I think he still had a full set.

Watching my mother die by degrees and feeling like I could not comfort or help her in any way has been heartbreaking. But on the positive side this slow death is giving all of us opportunities to sit with her and to be with each other as an extended family. I am so thankful for the hospice nurses and their kind compassion, care and concern for her and for us.

I’m so sorry we had no choice but to move Mom’s things, sell items, and go through things before she passed away. But once again the silver lining was finding the two love letters my Dad had written to her the summer before they were married. So sweet to read them and recognize the love they had for each other.

I am thankful for my children, their spouses, and all those cute, smart and handsome grandchildren. And to think that there will be another new baby in the family next year is something to anticipate with love and delight.

I am thankful for Bee and the Gimlet tackling my plumbing problems. The kitchen sink drains and the water pressure is amazing (and more so when compared with the other sinks in the house). I am thankful they are going to redo the entire house and the parts are sitting in boxes in my living room even now. Ahhh, to take a shower with lots of hot water and not warm mist! I am thankful just to be able to think of it.

I am so thankful to Mrs. Gimlet for going to church with me. Keeping me company, not just once or twice but for months. I am grateful for Q & Lou who check in weekly from across the country and Curly & Bee who bring take-out treats often. The Gimlet has driven us to Olympia to visit my mother so many times while she has been in hospice care. My brother and his wife and daughter have done much more than I can to make Mom’s last days comfortable and easier. I am grateful for all you have done and are doing. I love all of you.



I’m also thankful that my cat nicknamed “The Bride of Satan” is going into the cat carrier to eat, even with the door on the carrier. Hoooray! She is going to be declawed in December and up until now would never willingly go into the carrier since she knows where that takes her (shhhhh, to the vet). I may have to change her nickname to Mrs. Clawsless or something like that. We will all be thankful when her 13 front claws are gone! “Don’t touch my feet,” she says as she clicks and clacks on the wood floors.

I am thankful that there is no water in my basement (yet) even though we have had over 3” of rain in the past couple of days.

These are just a few of the things I am thankful for--it is true my cup runneth over and I am grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!