Thanksgiving

Record numbers of travelers - taking advantage of low airfares, better rail service, and improvements at Philadelphia International Airport - returned home from the Thanksgiving holiday yesterday, facing few major problems, thanks partly to a transportation facelift that's helped take the sting out of the trip. Headaches could still be found, especially on area highways. Police reported a 16-mile traffic jam caused by heavy volume on the New Jersey Turnpike. State police closed all southbound lanes at Mount Laurel for about an hour just before noon because traffic was backed up at the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

I always envisioned a family that sat around a homemade Thanksgiving feast, sharing conviviality. I have a sarcastic bunch of malcontents who hardly ever eat together, laugh too loud, and are acrimonious on a good day. In a calculated bid for normalcy, I, the Julia Child Antichrist, announced that I planned to make a gourmet Thanksgiving dinner. The response from my family was overwhelming. My husband said, "I don't need another terrorist in the kitchen. " My daughter, away at college, threatened to boycott the event in favor of cafeteria food.

No matter how cynical I become about the lack of concern that people show for others in need, I am overwhelmed each year at Thanksgiving time by the generosity of many people who do give and do care about those in need. Mean-spiritedness and almost anti-human behavior infused too much of the campaign rhetoric of both parties during the election. But most Americans do have a heart. This year, as in years past, individuals and groups - from Scout troops to corporate executives - are busy assembling the food baskets they hand out to the needy on Thanksgiving so that they can share the holiday cheer.

The whole family gathered around the festive, food-laden table; kindly Grandma carrying in a platter holding the huge, golden turkey; avuncular Granddad beaming as he prepares to carve that marvelous bird; love and warmth radiating from every face, young and old - that's the scene as Norman Rockwell painted it, and that remains the classic image of Thanksgiving. Every fall for decades, a transplanted Scot named J. Ernest Somerville (who died several years ago) would tell his flock at the First Presbyterian Church that Thanksgiving, not Christmas, was the great American holiday, because it was a time when families came together to give thanks for their blessings.

Is it right for retailers to begin Christmas sales before people finish celebrating Thanksgiving?

As in schools throughout the land, young Pilgrims at Rose Tree Elementary School celebrated Thanksgiving this week. Paper hats, finger utensils, and honored guests for the feast made the occasion complete.

The Frankford-Holmesburg Pre-Thanksgiving Day Parade yesterday drew a Christmas contingent. Jenese McKinley (right) and Justin Partridge were in Holmesburg United Methodist's Nativity scene.

What are you grateful for? Has that changed since Sept. 11? If so, how? Send essays of about 100 words by Tuesday, including a phone number for verification, to Voices/Thanksgiving, The Inquirer, Box 41705, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101. Send e-mail to inquirer.letters@phillynews.com or faxes to 215-854-4483. Essays chosen for publication will appear on Community Voices the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Do we really want to know this? The Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving in September or October, not November, says author Paul Dickson in his "The Book of Thanksgiving" (Perigee Books, $9). It was President Abraham Lincoln who, in 1863, declared the last Thursday of November as a national holiday. And that happened because a prominent 19th-century woman was appalled to discover that Philadelphians did not celebrate Thanksgiving the way folks in her native New England did. It was Sara Josepha Hale, literary editor of Godey's Lady's Book, the foremost women's magazine in America in the 19th century, who convinced Lincoln - and the nation - that we should have a national Thanksgiving holiday.