Vintage Holiday Crafting - The First Thanksgiving (1918)

 

"Let us play that we are really celebrating America's first Thanksgiving!

You can see one of our long, rude puncheon tables spread out in the mild, sweet air of Indian summer, laden with delectable dishes of clam chowder, oysters, fish, turkey, duck, goose, venison pasties, turnips, dumplings of barley flour, corn bread, wheat cakes, pumpkin pies, grapes, plums, great flagons of cider and 'all manner of tasty eats.'

William Bradford, our good governor, with his old flintlock in hand, is just returning from a successful hunt for additional wild turkey.  We shall need these, as ninety friendly Indians are to be our guests for three days and nights.  Later they, too, will hunt and bring us wild deer.

Elder Brewster, in his festive doublet and hose, has stopped a moment to speak to Master Bradford.  Sitting at table, you can see Captain Miles Standish with arms outstretched in glad welcome as he calls more Indians to join the feast, while Massasoit, the mighty chief, stands at the table signaling with his arrow for the braves to approach.

Already Quadquina and Hobomok are at the festive board, seated between Captain Miles Standish and John Alden.  Squanto, who tells the boys how to trap game and teaches settlers how to plant corn, is resting on the ground with his feather-bedecked shield in one hand, and the calumet, or pipe of peace, in the other."

Instructions on how to re-create this mythic scene are found in the Beard Sisters' book Mother Nature's Toy Shop, a free download from Project Gutenberg.