Over the river and through the woods

When our kids were growing up, we always lived away from Pea Ridge, but nearly every year we would make the trip back home to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. In fact, there were two Grandmas' houses for us to go to, so we often had two Thanksgiving dinners. The tradition of spending Thanksgiving at Grandpa's and Grandma's house seems to be a really old one. I'm thinking of a poem from a long time ago, by Lydia Marie Childs, called "Over the River and Through the Woods," published in 1844.

"Over the river and through the woods, to Grandfather's house we go

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river and through the woods, to Grandfather's house away!

We would not stop for doll or top, for 'tis Thanksgiving Day."

Those are two of the original six verses of the poem. Since the publishing of the original, several people have "tinkered" with it. For instance, it has been adapted for Christmas, and that seems fitting, since snow is even more common at Christmastime than at Thanksgiving. The words have also been set to music. Originally the poem was written to celebrate memories of a New England Thanksgiving, including a November snow big enough to support the horse-drawn sleigh. Snow before December in Arkansas is unusual, but this year we have accomplished that with our smattering of snow on Nov. 16.

The poem concludes with the exclamation "Hurray for the Pumpkin Pie!" I like that. I have always loved pumpkin pie, and to me pumpkin pie is even more a part of the Thanksgiving tradition than turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce. During my days as a boy, we didn't have turkey at all. Special occasion dinners meant fried chicken for us. That's what we had, because that's what we raised. We didn't usually have ham for Thanksgiving either, since pork of all kinds was a mainstay of our "every-day" menu. On special days we had fried chicken. Usually our pumpkin pie was served with nothing on top, but I recall sometimes having whipped cream, and once or twice even having pumpkin pie with ice cream for Thanksgiving. Once, my Grandma Nichols switched to sweet potato pie rather than pumpkin. That was a downer. She always made delicious pumpkin pies, but at that point she hadn't perfected her sweet potato pie. Grandma and others eventually made good sweet potato pie, as well as pumpkin, but I still can't understand why one would want to make a pie out of something that is better when it is not a pie, whereas pumpkin is such a natural as a pie. Hurray for the pumpkin pie!

Thanksgiving has been celebrated as a national holiday ever since it's proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 during the Civil War. But the observance of thanksgiving times is much, much older than President Lincoln's proclamation. It is often been noted that a time of thanksgiving was called for by President Washington when our nation was brand new; and, we especially associate the several days of thanksgiving observance by the Pilgrim Puritans at Plymouth Rock, an observance that pulled together dozens of families of surviving settlers as well as a large contingent of natives in the area. Christians have always observed seasons of thanksgiving, even when not officially proclaimed or sanctioned. And, the festivals called for by Moses in the Old Testament included times of thanksgiving.

It is remarkable and notable to me that often thanksgivings have been lifted up, not when life seemed abundant and all was going well, but at times when people had endured great stresses and trials. President Lincoln's proclamation came at such a time. The Pilgrims' thanksgiving followed a time of great difficulty, after they had endured and survived a trying first year in the new world. So it seems to me that the "grateful" sentiment is a crucially important component of life. I'm glad that we can experience together the "home" sentiment and the "family gathered" sentiment in combination with the sense of gratitude and appreciation. The sense of home and family gatherings change over time. We used to go to Grandma's and Grandpa's house, which was "my" grandparents' house; later Grandma and Grandpa's house was our parents' house; now Grandma's and Grandpa's house is our house.

Although the passage of time changes the settings for Thanksgiving, nothing changes the essential quality of gratitude and appreciation to inspire a happy and wholesome life. Not how much we have, but how well we appreciate and deeply experience our blessings, is the truer measurement of happiness. Without appreciation and gratitude, our sensibilites become numb, our relationships shallow, and we don't feel blessed even when we are blessed.

Thanksgiving is such a great and important time!

•••

Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.