Thanksgiving: Image vs. Reality

Did your Thanksgiving look anything like this? I know that mine certainly did not! The funny thing is, some of my older family members tried very hard to have that "Norman Rockwell image" during the holidays when I was growing up. We would all gather at my grandmother's house--we were expected to wear our "Sunday best"--we sat around the formal dining room table(although there WAS a "kid's table" in the kitchen!)--all of our table manners were used and critiqued--and the older adults usually set the tone and conversation for the day. In some ways, this image was very similar to the way things went when I was younger. But time moves on--people change--older generations pass on and younger generations take their place. Now, in my family, there are no longer any "Norman Rockwell holidays." This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though. That particular image was created around the middle of the 20th century--a bit earlier than that, really. Now that we are deep into the 21st century, it seems a bit silly to try to make our holidays look ANYTHING like this severely outdated image! Sometimes advertisements try to hold on to those images, though--they try to tweak our sentimental side and get us to thinking that it "should" look like that--and if it doesn't, maybe WE did something wrong. But the truth is, the only thing "wrong" with not "living up to the image" is the image itself. America needs to move on. This can apply to many things that may fall into the categories of "the American dream" or "an American tradition." That was then, this is now. Life is not going to look the same, nor should it.

When I am the age of the grandmother in the portrait, my holidays aren't going to look anything like that--heck, I don't plan on looking anything like she does, either! I want to LOOK like a "modern grandmother"--not a "traditional" one. And I don't plan on having traditional holiday celebrations, either. I plan on living in a small apartment or condo, so I won't be inviting all of my relatives over to my place. If my grown children want to host the holidays in their homes, I would love to visit them and do things THEIR way--not mine!--and NOT my ancestors traditional ways. If they do come to visit me, I would love to take them out for a nice dinner at a nice restaurant--no cooking for me, thank you! There won't be any "family recipes" because they died with the people who created them--and no one in my generation wanted to keep the tradition. Either store-bought, ready-made, or catered for us! And that's ok! No--I don't think that I will EVER again be part of that scene--no more traditional "Norman Rockwell holidays"--and that's fine with me. And my teens are even more accepting of this than I am because they have never really done things that way. The whole idea of "1950s traditional" is beyond their comprehension--never lived it, why start now? We are starting our own new traditions in the new century--and the next generation will probably toss it all aside and create THEIR own way of doing things. That is how life should be--moving forward into the next generation. So happy Thanksgiving, however you celebrated it!