Those Who Work on Thanksgiving

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I was just starting to visit this site when I heard a train whistle from a train on tracks about a half mile from my home and realized there are those who work on Thanksgiving. Some of them should and we should be thankful they are working today. There may be a skeleton crew for some of them. I may have forgotten a group or two:

Police
Firefighters
Nursing Home Employees
Hospital Workers
Military
Pharmacies

Airline Employees
Taxi Drivers
Railroad Employees
Bus Drivers
Car Rental Services
Gas Station Employees

Restaurants
& unfortunately, recently: Retail Store Employees

Comments

you forgot me

You forgot me and I'm hurt:

Intrepid Paper Girl (and that paper is a bitch on thanksgiving, enjoy shopping)

K.T. Leone

My fiction feels more real than reality

Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)

Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life

Also

Dairy Farmers (every day, 365/yr, 2-3 trips to barns daily)

Rose

Rose

Hotel workers and even

Hotel workers and even customer service reps for things like your cell phones and such are at work today.
Shannon Johnston

Samirah M. Johnstone

Ah yes...hospital staff...

Andrea Lena's picture

...very early on in our marriage, my wife worked in labor and delivery at a hospital in Rochester, New York. The wee ones arrived when it was their time, holiday or no, and we rarely spent Thanksgiving together for several years.

All of the folks are working today so that we can be safe and comfortable. Our lights stay lit and our neighborhood is safer and we can be assured of awesome care should we need a nurse or a doctor. If we're away from home, folks will make sure we have a nice room and maybe a nice meal. My heart goes out in gratitude to them all; another reason to be thankful on a day already filled with grace and peace! Thank You!


Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

Newspaper Girls & Boys

I delivered papers in NY and covered for a lady so she could have time off her route was 450 give or take and I covered Thanksgiving the papaers weighted in a 7 almost 8 pounds it never maxed out my van . I had my kid on a lawn chair in the back putting them together and bagging them for me don't forget what time they needed to be thier before people woke up.Go take a nap little girl HAPPY THANKSGIVING

A Thanksgiving Tale - The Boat that Didn't Get Lost

erin's picture

Oh, let's be thankful for the people who keep the internet functioning, every ISP and server farm has at least one engineer on duty today and probably another on call, with someone somewhere ready to answer phone calls is something should go wrong.

And there's me, though I don't intend to do much today. :)

And to everyone in Leiden, the Netherlands, Happy Thanksgiving to you , too.

Thanksgiving Day in the US is frequently associated with the celebrations the Pilgrims held the year after their arrival in thanks to God for their survival. But really, Thanksgiving Day had been celebrated in the Virginia colony for about fourteen years before that and in Spanish colonies even longer. But I have a family story that ties into the Pilgrims and the Virginia colony.

The Pilgrim brig Mayflower, left England in 1620 and spent two months at sea, blown off course due to bad weather. Originally, they planned to land in what is now New Jersey, near the mouth of the Hudson River, but because of running out of supplies and being more than a little lost, they decided to make landfall at Plymouth Rock. And there they stayed through a dreadful skimpy winter when about half of them died.

Meanwhile, the Mayflower's sister ship, the sloop Supply, did not leave England at the same time but lingered three more weeks because the captain feared the stormy North Atlantic in an overladen, slow and somewhat elderly vessel. He waited till some storms had passed and left England later, arriving at the planned site in January 1621. It was a much slower ship. Lo and behold, a few shipfuls of Swedish settlers were busy inventing log cabins and planting lingonberries in that place so he sailed his ship on down to Barclay, Virginia Colony. And there, Richard, the first Melton in the New World, stepped off the boat in February 1621.

So we Meltons have a special Thanksgiving for The Boat That Didn't Get Lost, the good old Supply, and her stubborn captain who would not leave harbor until it was safe to do so. Even though Richard got back on the Supply and went back to England, he came back two years later with his pregnant wife on the Supply's last voyage and so William was born in Virginia.

Hugs to all,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Well....

Andrea Lena's picture

...the trip to Plymouth Rock might have be a bit arduous, but at least they had the good sense NOT to stay in New Jersey! Happy Thanksgiving!


Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena

  

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

That started a trend

I guess they started the trend, because no one stays in New Jersey. Ed Koch had it right, the only thing good about Jersey is it's view of New York City

K.T. Leone

My fiction feels more real than reality

Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)

Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life

And one reason the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock was ...

The Pilgrims didn’t plan on landing at Plymouth Rock, but what many people don’t know is that the primary reason for choosing that spot was because they were running out of beer. That’s right, one of the most important events in American history transpired because of a beer shortage. However, the beer shortage wouldn’t have occurred had a few other factors not come into play.

... the Pilgrims set originally set sail from Southampton, England in August 1620 but ended up suffering several delays. The longest delay was due to one of their two ships, the Speedwell, developing a leak. After nearly one month, they had no luck repairing the leak and had to crowd everyone onto their other ship, the Mayflower.

As luck would have it, the Pilgrims experienced very harsh weather conditions that also delayed their arrival by two weeks. After 64 days on the open ocean, the new colonists found themselves at Cape Cod, quite some distance north of where they were supposed to be, which was land claimed by the Virginia Company of London.

After a fight and near separation, the colonists decided to remain together and attempt to sail south to where they were supposed to be. Provisions, most notably the beer, was running low, and the navigator gave them two choices. They chose the nearest site, which was known back then as Thievish Harbor. Today, that site is known as Plymouth.
*******************************************
The notation about the beer shortage is, according to my sister the family genealogist, in the diary of one of our ancestors. I've heard the story most of my life, though the text above is available on several site, some claiming it as fact, some as fancy. But my sister claims to have seen a photocopy of the diary, though the pages were in very bad condition. The site I used is

http://www.strangequestions.com/question/1057/Why-did-the-Pi...

Me? I have yet to taste a beer that isn't just sour water with a few other flaovrings.

Holly

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

Holly

Beer would keep, water didn't

erin's picture

Water would turn foul and unhealthy on long ocean voyages so beer and wine were used instead. Being frugal, the Pilgrims picked beer. This was indeed part of the reason beer was invented since it kept better than ale. The Supply, by the way was filled with supplies from Speedwell that would not fit into the Mayflower which was why it was overloaded and not safe to sail into the Irish Sea when the Mayflower left Bristol.

Another funny thing about the Supply: the ship log records sailing from Bristol in September 1620 and arriving in Barclay, Virginia colony in February 1620. It wasn't till the ship made it back to England in the summer that the later logs of the Supply had the correct date. :)

And if it hadn't been for those Swedes camped out in Hoboken, the recognized northern boundary of Virginia would have been the mouth of the Hudson.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

You've missed out

Unless you've had a good Belgian or German beer (the Dutch aren't too bad) IN Belgium or Germany you haven't had GOOD beer! Contrary to some beliefs held by a few deluded Limeys, the only virtue the beers in the UK have is the higher alcohol content. They then serve it at room temperature to try and mask the taste. English beer is the reason the Scots developed Scotch Whiskey, which is almost as good as Kentucky Bourbon, which was in turn developed as a response to American beer.

Note: this only applies to domestic beers. The stuff made for export isn't anywhere near the same quality. Most is intended for the U.S. so they figure we won't know the difference.

Karen J.

* * *
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. - Winston Churchill


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

I'm a Canadian so we have ours in October.

But I'm one of the ones who have to work the holidays and I really am Grateful for the wonderful thought it was very sweet:)
*Great Big Hugs*
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.
Bailey.

Bailey Summers

One of my siblings...

Is an RN. She's working thanksgiving this year, and off Christmas, she was off thanksgiving and working Christmas last year...

I think that many of those groups probably do similar.

One very notable exception being paper carriers... They work even HARDER on thanksgiving, period.

Abigail Drew.

Abigail Drew.

Also, utility workers:

Also, utility workers: electric, gas, water, telephone (both landline and mobile).

Kris

{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}

Kris

{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}

Squantum Leap

Casino employees also have to work. The Indians get their revenge on the Pilgrims by making their employees work on holidays.