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Our American holiday of Thanksgiving · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:12
  I'm Stephanie Coxson.
• 0:13
  And I'm Kathy Anderson Martin.
• 0:15
  And we are two women influencing real life.
• 0:18
  So let's twirl.
• 0:22
  Stephanie, we have officially or are officially entering the holiday season.
• 0:27
  Thanksgiving will be here before you know it.
• 0:30
  And we have kind of this is our third Thanksgiving that we have been taping shows or you know, hosting these shows.
• 0:37
  And I feel like we finally have at least one tradition.
• 0:40
  Yes.
• 0:41
  So we have done, and we've done this with other holidays, kind of taking a break from all the political and uh current events and even health related things to bring up a little history lesson.
• 0:52
  And what better time than Thanksgiving that'll be here before you know it.
• 0:57
  And we have our a guest to uh who was a history teacher for many years, and to talk about Thanksgiving and the history of Thanksgiving.
• 1:07
  I'm really excited because I know there's gonna be a little bit of a spin today.
• 1:11
  I'm hoping he has some food information for us.
• 1:14
  And so with that, I am Stephanie Coxson.
• 1:16
  I'm Kathy Anderson Martin, and we are two women inspiring real life.
• 1:20
  So let's twirl.
• 1:22
  Thank you so much for coming back on our show again, third year in a row, Mark.
• 1:26
  So we can learn about Thanksgiving because what we're told in school is is never seems to be what is real.
• 1:34
  Yes, but we need to introduce him.
• 1:35
  It's state representative Mark Anderson.
• 1:38
  He's been in there before big head.
• 1:40
  I know, because he had so little in life.
• 1:42
  It's actually the honorable.
• 1:44
  Oh, yeah.
• 1:44
  Okay.
• 1:47
  It's my younger brother.
• 1:48
  We've had him on before, and he was a social studies teacher for what, 20 plus years?
• 1:53
  27 years.
• 1:54
  Yes.
• 1:55
  So he is here to talk to us about Thanksgiving.
• 1:59
  So what do you have for us?
• 2:01
  Wow, that was quite just let it all go, huh?
• 2:05
  And and just for disclaimer, I have proposed that we take honorable off of our nameplates at the Capitol, because it is probably the most deceptive description that we have.
• 2:14
  Did you put a bill forward?
• 2:17
  I don't think they're going to run my bills at the current moment.
• 2:20
  I wonder why.
• 2:21
  Remember, I'm trying to stay stay in my office.
• 2:24
  Um yes, my brother has made many enemies.
• 2:27
  Um pointing out the dishonesty and nuttiness, stupidity, uh, both sides.
• 2:34
  Corruption.
• 2:35
  Yes.
• 2:36
  So it'll be uh just a while uh until his office is in a tent across the street from the Capitol.
• 2:42
  Yes, I think I'm on my way.
• 2:44
  Okay.
• 2:44
  Um so well, yeah, last year we talked about uh specifically Plymouth.
• 2:50
  That's where we we focused all of our time, probably about 15 minutes of that time was consumed by Stephanie's uh how shall we say fixation with the feast.
• 3:01
  Okay, excuse me.
• 3:02
  I am sure at least 50 percent of people on here are also curious about what they were eating.
• 3:08
  Yes, you remember does anybody remember what we what they were eating?
• 3:12
  Fish, shellfish, yeah, fish I remember what Stephanie was fixated on, what they ate for dessert, yes, which was fresh fruit.
• 3:21
  Which we didn't have a whole lot of information, we did not have information.
• 3:23
  So bringing it up, yes, but you're throwing out fresh fruit and you don't even know.
• 3:28
  So I just not the season for fresh fruit, which is fine.
• 3:31
  They were baking pies and custards, yeah.
• 3:34
  I don't think they were picking oranges and someone pulled out the ice cream maker, and then someone else went down to the handy freeze and got uh whipped cream.
• 3:42
  How okay?
• 3:42
  So we learned about Plymouth, we learned about the beginnings.
• 3:45
  What are we learning about this year?
• 3:47
  Well, I thought a different spin would be on all of the beginnings that we've had.
• 3:54
  Uh a lot of people don't know that there's a lot of controversy over what actually was the first Thanksgiving, and how do you how are you going to judge what counted as the first Thanksgiving?
• 4:08
  Because we have reports all the way back to the explorers.
• 4:11
  Uh Florida makes a claim that the first Thanksgiving was in St.
• 4:15
  Augustine when we when Explorers uh discovered Florida.
• 4:20
  Uh, there's some people in Texas that celebrate or claim the first Thanksgiving with explorers.
• 4:26
  What we do know is a lot of times when explorers got here, either through their their charters or their instructions or just them representing the church, they did do a service of Thanksgiving for safe travels.
• 4:40
  So that's why some of these and that's what we've learned the very first year is that it was a common, like we had a lot of basically Thanksgiving'cause we wanted to be grateful, and I think we've forgotten that, right?
• 4:51
  Right, but that's really the premise.
• 4:52
  One thing a year.
• 4:53
  It wasn't one thing, right?
• 4:54
  It was all the time because you were thankful for whatever event had just finished or or whatever else.
• 4:59
  And so it it makes sense that they were having these, you know, because it matches up with our very first year with you about Thanksgiving.
• 5:06
  Right.
• 5:07
  So and and I did a curriculum one time, uh, just for the heck of it, going through all of the claims to Thanksgiving, not every single one of them, but some of the major ones.
• 5:17
  And then assigning, okay, what would that mean as American?
• 5:22
  How American is that?
• 5:23
  Attributes that Americans have uh specific attributes.
• 5:27
  And I've always taught uh celebrating America and celebrating the things that have made us.
• 5:32
  We spend so much time talking about the negative, talking about things that divide us.
• 5:38
  Uh, I think that teachers, professors, authors, they need to spend a lot more time talking about what is good about America and the blessings of America.
• 5:46
  And so when I put up I don't think they want to do that.
• 5:49
  Well, there's a lot that do not want to do it.
• 5:51
  That's why we have to scream louder than them.
• 5:53
  Okay, they get attention all the time because they're screaming and yelling.
• 5:56
  It's time that we we out shout them uh figuratively with some of these these things.
• 6:02
  I'm glad you corrected that because we do not need to start a riot from the conservative side.
• 6:06
  We'd be called out on that.
• 6:07
  Right.
• 6:08
  Unlucky.
• 6:08
  No, the people that are able to riot are the other side.
• 6:11
  Yes, the other time.
• 6:12
  Yes, we're otherwise you're being violent right now.
• 6:15
  That's good.
• 6:15
  Right.
• 6:16
  Well, yeah.
• 6:17
  Sometime, well, no, anyway, we're moving on.
• 6:19
  Uh with the uh with the explorers, you know.
• 6:24
  I told the kids, look, America is from its very beginnings uh a an event of discovery.
• 6:32
  It's people taking risks.
• 6:34
  And you you Americans have that in we have it in our blood because everybody else around the world was playing it safe for settlers or explorers, whoever to come to the United States, you had to take a risk.
• 6:47
  I mean, that goes forward then in Western expansion with rugged individualism, rugged individualism is what we are, it's who we we have become.
• 6:57
  Uh so could I mention that I actually just thought of that today.
• 7:01
  I was driving to work and I was um thinking about, you know, I can talk to my kids all the time, you know, because I have my cell phone, they can text me, I can text them every 30 seconds if I want.
• 7:14
  I'm sure they love that.
• 7:15
  Yes.
• 7:16
  Well, they respond um when they have selective responding, and I don't text them that long, but what I was thinking about is just that that when people left, I mean, it wasn't too long ago when they left their country to come to America.
• 7:30
  That was it.
• 7:31
  You weren't seeing your family and your friends ever.
• 7:35
  And you but you weren't even, it wasn't seeing him.
• 7:37
  You weren't communicating with them.
• 7:39
  They don't know what happened what was ever gonna happen to you.
• 7:42
  It might be years before they deter what happened to you.
• 7:45
  So it was a certain kind of individual who said, I'm gonna go do that.
• 7:49
  Yep.
• 7:49
  And you have no idea what's awaiting you.
• 7:51
  Uh especially these first, these these explorers, they have no idea what they're what they're walking into or or where they're gonna land.
• 7:59
  Um and you know, I think that's true all the way up through uh at least settlement, uh, whether it be Plymouth or Jamestown.
• 8:08
  And today we're gonna talk about one that you didn't.
• 8:10
  How many of you did not know?
• 8:11
  Well, there's only two of you here, so did you know that Plymouth was not the first settlement in New England?
• 8:17
  Kathy, did you know that?
• 8:19
  I'm going to say I did, but I didn't, maybe.
• 8:22
  Okay, Stephanie.
• 8:23
  I guess Jamestown's not too England.
• 8:26
  No.
• 8:27
  Oh my gosh.
• 8:28
  Okay, we are demonstrating the failure of the public school system.
• 8:32
  It's a PHG.
• 8:34
  She has a know where Jamestown is.
• 8:39
  No, is a place called Pop'em.
• 8:41
  Papa, Maine was the actually the first yes, in Maine.
• 8:46
  Not declare this from the rooftop.
• 8:48
  Well, I'm gonna tell you that in just a minute.
• 8:49
  Okay, okay, because it's probably embarrassing Plymouth.
• 8:52
  It will kind of okay.
• 8:54
  It kind of is.
• 8:55
  It's because they gave up.
• 8:56
  Okay, the winners were harsh.
• 8:58
  Okay, it's the opposite ex opposite of Plymouth.
• 9:01
  The winner was too cold.
• 9:03
  People dying, mean Indians, the whole thing.
• 9:06
  I think just gave up and went home.
• 9:07
  Well, was it they've literally huh?
• 9:08
  What was it called?
• 9:09
  Popum.
• 9:10
  Pop up.
• 9:10
  E-O-P-H-A-M named after them.
• 9:13
  This thing in Maine right now.
• 9:14
  This has no, we're not, we're not judging you at all at all.
• 9:18
  Well, these are not these aren't any ancestors of those that live in Maine because it went home.
• 9:22
  Okay.
• 9:22
  Okay.
• 9:23
  So Mainers, you're good.
• 9:25
  They didn't leave anybody behind.
• 9:26
  There's still A in our book.
• 9:28
  Yeah.
• 9:28
  So they basically disbanded and uh they went back.
• 9:32
  They went back to England.
• 9:34
  Uh and it's only a few months apart was Pompum and Jamestown and the settlers in Jamestown, even though it was a mess and they had all kinds of problems, and it took some some harsh treatment by their leaders to get them back where they should.
• 9:51
  Jamestown is the first permanent settlement.
• 9:54
  And that's why Pop'um is not known as the first because they weren't, they weren't permanent.
• 9:58
  They they left.
• 10:00
  They hauled rear and and went home.
• 10:02
  So Jamestown is our first permanent settlement.
• 10:06
  And people in Jamestown and both Popham and Jamestown, they both had uh Thanksgiving services again for uh God getting them here.
• 10:15
  Uh the difference was some of one said we're gonna stick it out no matter what, and the other one said, you know what, we're gonna pack it in.
• 10:23
  We tried.
• 10:24
  Yes, and and isn't effort.
• 10:26
  Yes, and then isn't that another thing that at least in America we used to value is perseverance, right?
• 10:31
  Um, you know, teaching people and being those people who will not give up that will just keep trying uh no matter what.
• 10:38
  Now I don't know what it was like to live in Popham, it probably did kind of suck.
• 10:42
  Uh so you know, we're not gonna be able to do it.
• 10:45
  I don't know where this is.
• 10:46
  It says it's Maine.
• 10:47
  No, I know which part of Maine does it matter.
• 10:50
  I'm not sure if it wouldn't matter.
• 10:52
  Okay, I feel like it does.
• 10:54
  I mean, we have different Jamestown was where Jamestown is.
• 10:59
  Okay.
• 11:00
  It's Virginia.
• 11:01
  All right, I was just saying this.
• 11:03
  So uh anyway, so it again, you have this other you have uh recording.
• 11:09
  Can't believe you just called me out on that.
• 11:13
  Well, you said was it in New England?
• 11:16
  So I thought wasn't that appropriate to ask her to answer the question.
• 11:20
  Yeah, I guess it's not James.
• 11:22
  I just I just want to clarify something.
• 11:24
  Popham Beach, Maine is well, there's a beach in Phippsburg, Maine.
• 11:29
  So it was it's now Phippsburg, yeah.
• 11:31
  Yeah, so it must have been right along the the coast there.
• 11:35
  Boats land, yes.
• 11:38
  Oh we need more than just one teacher in a room right now.
• 11:44
  Yeah, we didn't expect it to be in Iowa, just for the record, Iowa has no claim to Thanksgiving whatsoever.
• 11:50
  Somebody from Iowa is gonna call us and say, Yes, there was someone's gonna do it.
• 11:56
  Sorry, I want okay.
• 11:58
  Um so again, another another claim.
• 12:02
  Uh, and then our next claim is also in Virginia, it was in Berkeley, it's called the Berkeley Hundred.
• 12:09
  Uh, they came to the same place around Jamestown in Virginia, made their way up the James River when they went up the James River, they had their their settlement.
• 12:19
  Uh, their biggest problem was really what I'm experiencing every day now.
• 12:24
  Personal ambition, uh, kind of took over for their collective goals and building the society that meaning the people you're working with, their personal ambition.
• 12:35
  There's just a little personal ambition in politics, just the tad, uh, which by the way is probably my most frustrating thing whatsoever, because especially people that agree with things that we uh present and we promote, once they get consumed by their own upward mobility, that's when they most likely compromise principles because of what's in it, what's in it for me.
• 12:57
  And that's really the story of the Berkeley hundred.
• 13:00
  Uh, they had internal disputes, uh, they lost their way as to what they were trying to create and what they were trying to become.
• 13:09
  And so they were in they were inwardly divisive, but then that made them vulnerable to outside uh attacks, and they were actually attacked by local natives, and that was the end of the Berkeley Berkeley hundred.
• 13:24
  How but um much before were these people, the Popham and Berkeley people versus the pilgrims.
• 13:31
  Uh Pomp'um and uh Jamestown were in 1607, and then the uh Berkeley 100 were 1919, and then we have Plymouth in 1915.
• 13:45
  1919, not 1619 was 16, 16.
• 13:49
  Okay, 1607, 1650.
• 13:52
  For Jamestown.
• 13:52
  Oh my gosh.
• 13:53
  Within 20 years, yes, correct.
• 13:55
  Correct.
• 13:56
  And then Plymouth is going to be established in 1620, their first feast being 1621.
• 14:01
  You know, I guess when you talk about these other groups, that does make the pilgrims and their story that much more special because others came, tried, and either left or came, tried and got wiped out because of their own inadequacies.
• 14:16
  So the pilgrims doing what they did to band together and doing it for a higher power, yes, you know, for religious freedom and so forth, and to um live as they would that and maybe that says something about when you live at a higher plane or are doing things at a higher level, your stick to itiveness is a little different.
• 14:32
  And and you gotta remember the the Plymouth is like you said, Kathy, it's a very good uh pointing that out that it was different, it was successful, but it was different than any of the other ones in that they came here for a higher purpose, as you said.
• 14:50
  Jamestown was a that was a financial venture.
• 14:54
  Yes, they wanted to establish it permanently, but Jamestown, it was mainly uh men and boys.
• 15:00
  There weren't any families that came to Jamestown because they were in search of profit, whereas the pilgrims also wanting to profit, but they were they were family centered.
• 15:12
  They came uh and they wanted to go to Virginia, they just got blown off course into Massachusetts.
• 15:19
  Uh, but they were really establishing a society.
• 15:23
  It wasn't just a hey, we're gonna get as many natural resources as we can, we're going to, you know, uh plunder, however you want to say it, and profit off of this.
• 15:34
  They were uh entrepreneurial, but this was a God thing for them.
• 15:39
  This this uh the city on the hill that Regan often referred to, they wanted to be an example for the entire world of what a society based on their faith, on personal responsibility, on uh love for and taking care of each other, all of that they were gonna create this this perfect society, so they thought.
• 16:02
  Um, and only 102 of them.
• 16:04
  Uh they also write our first constitution as well.
• 16:08
  Uh, the Mayflower Compact is just a page long, it's not even a full page.
• 16:12
  How many survived that first year?
• 16:15
  Uh 50.
• 16:16
  I have to look it up about half of 552, I think.
• 16:19
  It was half.
• 16:20
  Yeah, it was half of the and when they got here.
• 16:22
  Uh, one of the interesting things, I think I said this last year is 102 left, but the same 102 did not land.
• 16:30
  Why would that be?
• 16:32
  102 left.
• 16:34
  One or two left, one or two showed up, but it wasn't the same 102.
• 16:39
  Somebody died, and there was a birth on the Mayflower.
• 16:42
  Okay.
• 16:42
  So anyway, you know why I wouldn't have gotten back on the Mayflower.
• 16:46
  I visited that, and I'm very claustrophobic and the thought of getting back in that boat and going over across the ocean.
• 16:51
  I probably would have said, I'll just stay.
• 16:53
  Yeah.
• 16:54
  And and I don't know exactly how long.
• 16:55
  I think if I remember it, it's like six to eight weeks or something.
• 16:58
  And that's no virtue on my part.
• 17:00
  That's just because I wouldn't want to get back on a disgusting boat.
• 17:04
  So it's a six to eight week.
• 17:05
  I think that's about what it is.
• 17:06
  Yeah.
• 17:07
  And it was not good condition.
• 17:09
  No, I mean, then you have no idea you can't control the weather.
• 17:12
  I mean, if you've ever been on an actual boat that you have faith that will float and stay uh stay upward, I mean, a little storm, a little wind can make you sick to your stomach.
• 17:24
  We're talking the middle of the Atlantic with massive uh storms.
• 17:29
  I mean, and it's a wooden boat.
• 17:31
  Yeah, it was gross.
• 17:32
  I mean, people were probably puking all over the place on the you know, on the Mayflower.
• 17:36
  So it was not a comfortable uh trip.
• 17:40
  And they were down in the hole.
• 17:41
  I mean, if you've never been in there, there it's not it, it's a small area for 100 two people to be hanging out in for six weeks.
• 17:47
  Yeah, the Mayflower replica, if you've ever been there, it's very small.
• 17:50
  Most of these ships were it was closed down the day I was there.
• 17:54
  Of course it was.
• 17:55
  Yeah, it was so when you did you go to Plymouth Plantation.
• 18:00
  No, I went to some rock.
• 18:02
  That's called Plumber.
• 18:03
  Plymouth Rock.
• 18:04
  Yes.
• 18:05
  Oh my gosh.
• 18:06
  No, I will say that is the most disappointing.
• 18:09
  It is, it is one of the most disappointing.
• 18:11
  I went to a rock.
• 18:11
  Do you know what though people say that?
• 18:13
  Like I went and saw Mount Rushmore and I heard people say it's like four faces on a mountain.
• 18:17
  It's amazing.
• 18:18
  It is amazing.
• 18:19
  Symbol is a symbol.
• 18:21
  That's that is amazing.
• 18:22
  Yeah, Plymouth Rock is one rock in a hole, not something that a guy carved out of a mountain.
• 18:28
  Is that what you were comparing to?
• 18:30
  No, but when I stand there, I think all these things, and then you know, I'm like, so when we went to the the uh Grand Canyon, I did like after a while.
• 18:40
  I gotta admit, and it's I'm maybe I'm ashamed of myself for saying this, but when you look at the big hole, you're like an hour later, and you start going to different you know, edges.
• 18:50
  I'm like, it is it's still a great big giant hole.
• 18:53
  Amazing, overwhelming, but it's a whole, but it's a whole it's a hole.
• 18:57
  I don't know.
• 18:57
  I've never felt that way at my Grand Canyon visits, but there again.
• 19:01
  But I never went down.
• 19:03
  Now I'm trying to be morally superior to what?
• 19:08
  I the two of you.
• 19:12
  Yeah, good luck with that.
• 19:13
  Okay, but uh, but yeah, so the Plymouth one, you're right.
• 19:16
  The Plymouth experiment is special, and that's gonna be the the one that we celebrate most.
• 19:22
  And it's really more of the the tradition of of the pilgrims.
• 19:28
  The young ones before that, all the ones I name, yes, they had food, they had some feasting.
• 19:33
  Uh they had church services, which by the way was a big part of this.
• 19:37
  The original Thanksgiving was was a religious um, or at least part of it, uh was Christian in in nature, but also the pilgrims then in Plymouth, we know that they started routinely celebrating having days of Thanksgiving.
• 19:52
  So they had the first one, but it wasn't like they did it yearly, they would have days of Thanksgiving for different things.
• 19:58
  But the first one we have a three-day.
• 20:00
  Feast with all of the food and all of the okay.
• 20:02
  Now I just feel ripped off.
• 20:04
  Three days when we get one.
• 20:05
  I think you said this.
• 20:07
  She got upset.
• 20:07
  Yeah, she got it about been upset again.
• 20:09
  Well, how are the PSD continue?
• 20:11
  Well, how are you?
• 20:12
  How upset are you that they did it like every couple of months or every couple?
• 20:16
  They got three days.
• 20:18
  Feel like we don't celebrate enough.
• 20:19
  We don't celebrate.
• 20:20
  We need things, Kathy.
• 20:21
  You're gonna take one month, Mark.
• 20:22
  You're gonna take another month.
• 20:23
  We're gonna do this.
• 20:24
  I agree with that.
• 20:25
  Back, you know, that's always been a like a hallmark of society is that they have several days of events and feasting and parties, and we don't mean you can bear you people can barely get off for the day that and then that's it, and then they're back to work the next day.
• 20:40
  Yeah, a lot of people I'll skip ahead a little bit.
• 20:43
  One of the things I I threw in this curriculum just for fun, uh, was you know, what are two things when you think of Thanksgiving?
• 20:50
  You think of eating, right?
• 20:51
  What other American things you think of?
• 20:53
  Football, football.
• 20:55
  Well, guess what?
• 20:56
  That comes from an actual football game in I want to say it's late 1800s, I think it's 1886 or 83, something like that, where Yale and Princeton played the very first football game on Thanksgiving Day, and so that tradition actually has basis in you know what?
• 21:17
  Let's hey, let's go to the game for Thanksgiving.
• 21:19
  So there is a little bit of joy.
• 21:20
  And what else do we sell?
• 21:22
  Do we think of when we think entertainment-wise?
• 21:25
  Parades, parades.
• 21:26
  The first parade is in 1920 in Philadelphia.
• 21:30
  Uh, and so we had Thanksgivings are not this fun, but go ahead.
• 21:33
  Yeah, so so now Thanksgiving has become a little more fun because of Americans throughout the time saying, hey, let's let's make some more out of this day, uh, than just I want to say just, but to just a spiritual endeavor that we're gonna enjoy the celebration.
• 21:49
  I would like to do a side note here.
• 21:51
  Our family did go to the Macy's parade in New York City a couple of Thanksgivings.
• 21:55
  The last time we went, it is not the same as television at all.
• 21:59
  It stinks.
• 22:00
  Yes, we actually stood there for hours to be.
• 22:04
  We already insulted Maine and Iowa.
• 22:06
  We're throwing you in too.
• 22:07
  We got there several hours.
• 22:09
  We had waited because you have to get there hours before.
• 22:11
  And um, as the parade started, we took a vote and we all decided to leave because we're so miserable.
• 22:17
  We could go back and catch it on TV.
• 22:20
  That's fine.
• 22:20
  So yeah, so it's definitely a different experience in person.
• 22:24
  Yeah.
• 22:25
  They they film it all for TV.
• 22:26
  So sometimes people just run by you because they have to get to their place.
• 22:30
  Or you just stand there looking at the same thing for 15 minutes.
• 22:32
  Yes, and then they run away.
• 22:33
  Then they run away.
• 22:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 22:35
  So that is actually very interesting, and something I never heard the parades in football.
• 22:39
  Did you know that, Stephanie?
• 22:40
  I did not.
• 22:41
  Yeah.
• 22:41
  No, and I don't think I've ever been to a parade on Thanksgiving, nor have I ever watched a football game.
• 22:46
  Ever.
• 22:47
  Well, I don't watch football.
• 22:48
  No, you've never watched it, or never watched it on Facebook.
• 22:50
  Well, I've never watched on Thanksgiving.
• 22:52
  Not that I'm aware of.
• 22:53
  So I like to do other activities.
• 22:56
  So in your home, are we coming back to this?
• 22:58
  Yeah.
• 22:59
  Because I'm not done.
• 23:00
  I would like to, I would like to get some more answers for this.
• 23:03
  We can what she's doing, and that's about how she's okay.
• 23:06
  We could come back to it.
• 23:08
  Let's go to break, come back.
• 23:09
  You can ask me what I'm an open book.
• 23:11
  You can ask me whatever you want to ask things.
• 23:14
  Okay.
• 23:14
  Right.
• 23:15
  Here we go.
• 23:17
  You can catch all of our shows on America Outloud.
• 23:20
  News.
• 23:22
  And if you want to see past shows, you can go to my shows on America Outloud.news or any of the um posts on America Out Loud and watch their shows as well.
• 23:33
  And you'll be in the know.
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• 26:54
  Okay, Mark.
• 26:55
  All right, let's play 20 questions.
• 26:57
  Okay, so throughout your life, Stephanie, the households that you were part of.
• 27:02
  Was TV on during Thanksgiving?
• 27:06
  And if it was, what was on other than I've never been a TV watcher, so I cannot answer that.
• 27:11
  I mean, yes, I think people go watch watch football.
• 27:15
  I am usually doing like an art to like we have competitive games.
• 27:19
  So I'm in charge of the game.
• 27:20
  So I do games or other things, or I'm cooking, or I just I don't know.
• 27:25
  You do games, yes.
• 27:26
  But what would happen if football wasn't on the TV inerson's not?
• 27:30
  I don't that would be a cry if you talk about un-American.
• 27:34
  I'm sure I just I don't know because I don't pay attention, even now, like my TV may go on like once every couple of weeks.
• 27:40
  I'm just not a TV person.
• 27:42
  My um husband, when he married into our family, we would have little spats during the holidays because I would say to him, You're not participating, you're sitting over there, and he would say, I what is the point of participating?
• 27:55
  Because everybody is talking at once, the television is on, it's just bedlam.
• 28:00
  He goes, So why no one listens to anybody?
• 28:02
  And um, I said, Oh, you're you're crazy, and then I sat back and I'm like, that is very true.
• 28:09
  There are like eight people talking at once, and nobody's listening to what they're being asked.
• 28:13
  You meanwhile are having organized games, correct?
• 28:16
  Okay, competitions.
• 28:18
  Well, it's competition.
• 28:19
  Yeah, it's like who can call you know, who can put together a gingerbread house that matches the box the quickest?
• 28:26
  Oh, that sounds fun.
• 28:27
  That's nice.
• 28:28
  Yeah, but I'm sure the pilgrims did something similar.
• 28:33
  We're just all yelling at each other.
• 28:35
  It's like a big giant game of chicken when our family's having conversation because you just keep going and you keep getting louder until the other person gives up.
• 28:43
  And stuff love the tradition.
• 28:45
  Okay, so okay, so when like at what point does Thanksgiving become like official, like a thing because so football, so when did football start Harvard versus that?
• 28:56
  That's late 1800s, parade 1920.
• 28:58
  You have to go back.
• 28:59
  So people's consistently celebrating Thanksgiving at this point.
• 29:04
  And how are they watching football since there's no TV?
• 29:07
  Well, there is no TV yet, but the first acts of government as far as Thanksgiving, the second Continental Congress, uh, when Philadelphia got overtaken by the British um in uh the revolutionary war in 1777, they escaped to York.
• 29:24
  So, right down the road from where Kathy and I were, the hospital where Kathy and I were born, second Continental Congress was there.
• 29:31
  They wrote the articles of Confederation, and while they're there were there, the Americans won the Battle of Saratoga, which is was the first major win for the Continental Army, and it was kind of the turning point, it's secured support from France so that France would come in as an ally.
• 29:49
  It is regarded by many historians as the battle that launched uh our success in the American Revolution.
• 29:57
  So when that happened, the second Continental Congress.
• 30:00
  Our founding fathers declared an official national day of Thanksgiving.
• 30:06
  And then George Washington did the same thing in 1789 when he was president of the United States.
• 30:13
  That he declared, he gave it a day and said, we are going to have a national day of Thanksgiving.
• 30:19
  So that was the first government really recognizing it as a country where all the ones before that were all regionalized.
• 30:28
  Okay.
• 30:28
  Um, so they would not have said there's a Thanksgiving holiday, or that the nation united, whereas the founders in the second continental congress in Washington made it a national day of unified Thanksgiving.
• 30:45
  And then Lincoln is going to make it that's what I thought.
• 30:48
  I thought Lincoln was the rigidity.
• 30:50
  Lincoln's going to put out the proclamation that says we will celebrate a yearly.
• 30:57
  So up until Second Continental Congress and Washington was a day of Thanksgiving.
• 31:01
  And was the day of Thanksgiving always a third Thursday?
• 31:04
  Like, how did that come about?
• 31:05
  Lincoln made it.
• 31:06
  Lincoln made it the fourth Thursday.
• 31:08
  So he Lincoln declared did a proclamation.
• 31:10
  He was the first one to say we're going to celebrate the fourth Thursday of November as our national day of Thanksgiving this year, next year.
• 31:20
  Every other act to that point had been an isolated.
• 31:23
  Here's a day of Thanksgiving right now for this purpose.
• 31:27
  Lincoln said we're going to do it every every year.
• 31:30
  And he did it in 1863.
• 31:32
  So right in the midst of the civil war.
• 31:35
  So he was he was saying, look, we're gonna we're gonna pray.
• 31:39
  And one of his big promotions was that we need to pray for unity.
• 31:43
  We need to thank God for our country, and we need to pray for it to be unified uh again.
• 31:50
  So right in SmackDab in the biggest crisis in American history, Abraham Lincoln declares a yearly day of Thanksgiving, which is pretty amazing.
• 32:00
  Didn't they change the Thursday because of commerce?
• 32:03
  Yes.
• 32:03
  Well, well, in 38 and 1938 and 39, uh FDR, Franklin Roosevelt uh decided to go from the fourth Thursday to the third Thursday, so that we could have an extra shopping week during the Great Depression uh as a way to to help uh retailers uh get the economy started.
• 32:26
  And I personally, that's a whole nother story, but I'm not an FDR fan, at least the Depression FDR fan.
• 32:32
  Uh he didn't solve the Great Depression, his New Deal certainly didn't.
• 32:37
  It just made the economy and the government bigger than then we've ever had it before.
• 32:42
  Uh, but it does lend itself to the fact that he was trying to implement something to have us recover.
• 32:51
  Uh the the greatest generation is greatest generation for a reason.
• 32:55
  Their childhood and teenage years, they were trying to look for something to eat, and then when they finally got to young adulthood, they were fighting in a world war.
• 33:04
  So uh it is a testament to that generation, FDR being the president then of look, they're doing everything in their in the UK in the 30s to survive.
• 33:13
  Anything you could, even the president saying, hey, let's give another week of of shopping to recover.
• 33:19
  Uh and it really speaks again of that of that American.
• 33:24
  And he set a precedent.
• 33:24
  We now start shopping in October.
• 33:26
  Pretty much Halloween now because we can't just help ourselves.
• 33:30
  As a matter of fact, we're leaving into Christmas music at Starbucks right now.
• 33:33
  I'm listening.
• 33:34
  I start, I start listening to Christmas music on November 1st.
• 33:38
  Yeah, that's when I start.
• 33:39
  My daughter-in-law and my daughter and son-in-law have their house decorated November 1st, decked out.
• 33:45
  And see, I don't feel there's anything wrong with that because it makes me happy, it brings joy to my life.
• 33:51
  The Lord likes a joyful life.
• 33:53
  I'm saying this because Stephanie has a problem with it, and I enjoy it.
• 33:57
  So I am going to play my Christmas music.
• 34:00
  When are we supposed to start Christmas music, Stephanie Cooks?
• 34:04
  The day after Thanksgiving.
• 34:06
  She accused me of being ungrateful.
• 34:08
  I accused you of not enjoying turkey.
• 34:10
  Wait, which you don't like turkey?
• 34:12
  I love turkey.
• 34:13
  She just makes stuff up.
• 34:15
  Now, people that have ham on Thanksgiving, that irritates me.
• 34:18
  Yes.
• 34:18
  Okay, that just even worse.
• 34:20
  Toferkin, like the I don't even know what that is.
• 34:23
  Like the tofu, they clean meat.
• 34:25
  That's not even a thing.
• 34:26
  That's very troubling.
• 34:29
  Yeah.
• 34:30
  Yes, no.
• 34:30
  Yeah, it's very troubling.
• 34:32
  Um, but yeah, I didn't know when she said that you didn't like turkey.
• 34:37
  I started getting a little nervous.
• 34:38
  No, of course I like turkey.
• 34:40
  That's your favorite food on Thanksgiving, Stephanie.
• 34:44
  Because you talk about food all the time.
• 34:45
  Oh no, I don't actually know if I have a favorite.
• 34:47
  All of this, and you don't have a favorite thing.
• 34:51
  Last year for Thanksgiving, literally half the show was about food coming from you.
• 34:56
  I know, but I don't think like there's not, I don't like what do you eat traditionally for?
• 35:00
  Do you have a turkey?
• 35:01
  Yeah, you have turkey, cranberry, salt, say ham.
• 35:03
  Mash, no, no ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, stuffing, yes.
• 35:10
  Okay, but none of it excites me.
• 35:12
  I'm there for the party.
• 35:14
  You know, I can understand that because it's the whole thing when you put it all on some big platter.
• 35:19
  I do kind of get that.
• 35:20
  I understand.
• 35:21
  I also understand to give you a little latitude.
• 35:24
  I also understand the Christmas music after Thanksgiving because sometimes I feel like Thanksgiving gets ripped off.
• 35:29
  They do.
• 35:30
  They, you know, Thanksgiving feels all bad about itself.
• 35:33
  You know, sacrificed a turkey for what?
• 35:36
  To listen to Christmas music.
• 35:38
  I you're not gonna make me feel bad about my Christmas music thing starting November 1st because then I like it and it brings me joy.
• 35:45
  And we're Thanksgiving celebration, we listen to Christmas music all week.
• 35:49
  We do, yeah, the whole Wednesday to Friday.
• 35:52
  Well, I'm gonna call your mom and I find you both ridiculous.
• 35:54
  No, my mom, our mom will totally agree with us.
• 35:57
  My mom's a Christmas.
• 35:58
  I'll listen to Christmas.
• 35:59
  I've been saying all the way to Virginia.
• 36:01
  Yes, we go near, we go to Williamsburg.
• 36:03
  So we we're headed towards Jamestown.
• 36:05
  Yeah, and then we have to listen to my own, and then we have to listen to my uncle recite the recite the Jamestown Thanksgiving thing because he's adamant that it was not in Plumit.
• 36:15
  So that's just another side story.
• 36:18
  You know, can I I have a question?
• 36:19
  I don't know what made me think well, uh, two things I thought of.
• 36:22
  You said so George Washington was involved, correct?
• 36:25
  And I was thinking when you were talking about him about today, your biggest frustration is the personal egos and ambitions that come in.
• 36:33
  There was a guy who that he was not about that because didn't they want to make him king?
• 36:38
  And he said, No, I won't accept that.
• 36:41
  Uh well, you know, yes, I think there's a level of humility about all of them.
• 36:47
  Now they're men, so human beings have a propensity for pride.
• 36:52
  So we don't want to overstate it and say, hey, well, you know what?
• 36:55
  These guys were so humble.
• 36:56
  No, they weren't humble, they were the they were the best of the best.
• 37:00
  Uh but yes, Washington, all he really wanted to do was be a gentleman farmer.
• 37:05
  Every every bit of his life is service, service, service.
• 37:10
  Um, now I'm not in any way comparing myself to George Washington, but I understood that's a good thing.
• 37:16
  I'm only five eight.
• 37:17
  He's a big guy.
• 37:18
  Um, but there's a lot more among many other things.
• 37:21
  Yeah.
• 37:21
  So um, but I understand in in the last year doing something you really don't want to do, but you're doing it because as Churchill said, sometimes we have to do what is required.
• 37:34
  It's not always good enough to try your best.
• 37:37
  Sometimes you have to do what is required of you.
• 37:39
  And George Washington did what was required of him.
• 37:43
  Uh, he was a general, uh, then he got called back in for the constitutional uh convention.
• 37:49
  He really didn't want to do that.
• 37:50
  And the only reason he came back is because both sides were arguing and they needed somebody, the only person in the room that could bring people together was Washington.
• 37:58
  Uh, and then he didn't want to be president, and so uh he was always serving, and then the fact that, like you said, they wanted him to be king.
• 38:06
  There were no term limits on president until FDR, ironically, because he would have been the president forever.
• 38:12
  He died in office after four elections.
• 38:14
  Uh, but Washington said we're gonna do two terms, and the reason is if you were in politics, if you're in charge, a leader for too long, your human nature of being prideful and being self-serving will come to the surface.
• 38:32
  That nobody is immune.
• 38:34
  So that's why he quit after those two years.
• 38:37
  I mean, I see this every single day.
• 38:41
  Uh, or these people that they are obsessed with their own self-promotion, they violate the very thing that Washington warned us about.
• 38:49
  And you know, this is you're in a state legislature.
• 38:52
  Yeah, I think it just gets worse as you go.
• 38:54
  Oh, sure.
• 38:55
  Even people I've heard that have gone from the House of Representatives to the Senate in the state, and then in the federal, it gets worse.
• 39:02
  It it's it's just it's the swamp is real, uh, and the swamp is there because it's a bunch of humans and it's flawed and they feel entitled.
• 39:13
  Um, I got things, I want to say I got four letters this week for gifts.
• 39:18
  I got invited to a Christmas concert at uh the forum in Harrisburg, that's our kind of local theater.
• 39:26
  Uh, I got invited to a sporting event.
• 39:29
  These things come in all the time.
• 39:30
  People just give you.
• 39:31
  I earlier I got a uh invitation to a box at Penn State.
• 39:36
  I mean, you get this stuff all the time, and these people just get used to people serving them.
• 39:41
  I don't take any gifts.
• 39:42
  I've I've I don't take any tickets, free tickets or anything like that.
• 39:46
  But heck, a few weeks ago, we had people going to uh Israel.
• 39:50
  They went on a week long trip to Israel paid for by lobbyists.
• 39:55
  So well, you hear that going to the Super Bowl and doing all of the things.
• 39:59
  Yep, Governor Shapiro.
• 40:00
  Goes to the Penn State all the time and flies the state plane uh for a day at the game and tailgating.
• 40:05
  That would be nice that would be a better way.
• 40:07
  You don't think we could together that yes, be a better way to get there.
• 40:10
  It is a lot of traffic.
• 40:11
  So yes, national, those that are listening nationally, Governor Shapiro Shapiro of Pennsylvania is not what he seems to be.
• 40:20
  Stay away when he runs for president, make sure that you are working for whoever the other candidate is.
• 40:26
  Is that was I allowed to give that blurb?
• 40:28
  No, that is very important.
• 40:30
  Unless he's the New York guy, what's his what's his name?
• 40:33
  Mondami, don't want him.
• 40:38
  I'll vote three times for Shapiro over here.
• 40:41
  Right.
• 40:41
  That's what I knew we had gone to a different low in America when I was like in my head going, I hope Cuomo wins.
• 40:48
  I hope Cuomo wins.
• 40:50
  And I'm like, what am I even saying to myself?
• 40:54
  What kind of person you have to be that conservatives are rooting for Andrew Cuomo?
• 41:00
  Right.
• 41:00
  Right.
• 41:01
  That pretty much says, speaking of Christmas and that we had family, the ones that we go see in Williamsburg.
• 41:07
  We used to live right outside New York City.
• 41:09
  So we went up there, which is why we went to the Macy's parade.
• 41:12
  And then we switched that to go watch the balloons being bowled.
• 41:15
  That's cool.
• 41:15
  That was neat.
• 41:16
  That's cooler than the parade.
• 41:17
  But I have to say, some of my favorite Christmas holiday memories are going to New York City to the Radio City Music Hall and watching the tree and looking at the tree at Rockefeller Center and all those things.
• 41:28
  And now I feel like I just can't do it.
• 41:30
  And that makes me a little sad.
• 41:32
  I have to say.
• 41:33
  Yeah, I mean, and it's you know, remember when it was just it was horrible.
• 41:37
  Rudy Giuliani comes in and just revives the entire city.
• 41:41
  It was prize.
• 41:43
  And things now you you now they warn you against going into Times Square.
• 41:46
  We're not even talking on the the back streets, you know, right in the middle of Times Square, people were being mugged, and yeah, it's just, but that's poor leadership.
• 41:54
  It's all in all poor leadership.
• 41:57
  So let's go back to Thanksgiving.
• 41:59
  Okay, sorry.
• 42:00
  We really only have one more event.
• 42:02
  Redirected.
• 42:02
  Okay.
• 42:02
  Okay, when it becomes official.
• 42:04
  Okay.
• 42:05
  It becomes official in 1941, an act of Congress.
• 42:10
  So uh, you know, legislatively they pass a resolution to make the fourth Thursday in November the official national day of Thanksgiving.
• 42:22
  So the actual official holiday, as declared by Congress, uh yearly holiday is in 1941.
• 42:30
  Uh so and this 1941, right before what big event.
• 42:35
  See how good we are now.
• 42:37
  It's very Pearl Harbor.
• 42:43
  I said this in the middle of the war.
• 42:44
  Yeah, Pearl Harbor is gonna be in December of 1941.
• 42:48
  Uh, just after wait December 16th.
• 42:53
  No, no, okay.
• 42:54
  December, December 7th.
• 42:56
  Yes.
• 42:56
  Oh, that's that's my parents' wedding anniversary.
• 42:59
  I know why I know because that's when I got engaged to my husband on Pearl Harbor, yes.
• 43:04
  Really?
• 43:05
  He said, Um, we got her our first Christmas tree, and he said, There is something there.
• 43:09
  Look, and I was like, What?
• 43:10
  What?
• 43:10
  Well, we cut it down the field.
• 43:12
  I was looking, and he kept saying, 'There I thought it was dumb.' I thought it was bird poop.
• 43:17
  That's that's what he was trying to get my attention to.
• 43:19
  It was ring.
• 43:20
  Good plan, John.
• 43:21
  Good plan.
• 43:23
  So that's how I and that on that day, he realized, oh, but it was too late.
• 43:28
  No give back.
• 43:29
  Too late.
• 43:29
  Well, I was begging him today.
• 43:31
  Yeah, you're begging.
• 43:32
  That's very true.
• 43:33
  Yeah, I was.
• 43:33
  I was like, John.
• 43:35
  You're the last book.
• 43:36
  So Pearl Harbor happened.
• 43:37
  Okay, so Pearl Harbor Lee after December 7th.
• 43:40
  Right.
• 43:40
  Weeks after this, the Congress says this is a national holiday.
• 43:44
  Yes.
• 43:44
  And now we're all ready to share Thanksgiving on the same day every single year.
• 43:49
  Which I find it very ironic.
• 43:50
  The fact that we are, you know, put into you could argue the world's, I think it's not even an argument, the world's biggest event in the history of mankind.
• 44:01
  Uh, and you just said, look, we're gonna be a nation of thanks.
• 44:06
  We're gonna be, we're officially gonna be a country who who gives thanks for all we have, all of our situations, and you are then uh cast into just what's going to be years of dark, gloomy tragedy loss right uh for the American public and for the for the world uh in general.
• 44:27
  Uh so I find that very interesting that then you're involved in the war.
• 44:31
  Now you now you've declared a Thanksgiving, you still gotta have a Thanksgiving in 1942 and 1943 and 1944.
• 44:39
  You've still got you know, you've committed to this, and you know, it makes you think, you know, how many it's easy to give thanks when things are going well, when something really good happens, but what does it take to truly in your heart be thankful when the bad comes, when the wicked comes because the evil comes.
• 45:00
  Some of the history you shared there.
• 45:01
  I mean, it's interesting.
• 45:02
  Um Lincoln in the middle of the civil war, yeah.
• 45:05
  Yeah, um, and then you know, half of their population died.
• 45:09
  Yep, and they're still giving thanks.
• 45:11
  And I think um, I I do some speaking things, and we've done some things about health and wellness, and something that keeps coming up on some of these presentations I do is gratitude when you talk about mental health.
• 45:24
  One of the biggest benefits of mental health, and Stephanie, you probably have this too, is to have if you can live in a state of gratitude, yes, like being thankful for what you have, being thankful for whatever your position in life and that perspective of focusing on the positive versus maybe things that haven't turned out the way you want it or aren't going the way you want.
• 45:45
  And I think it's always you know, in our home, we always talked about perspective.
• 45:48
  That's my favorite word, you know, a lot.
• 45:50
  And and we kind of grew up that way that as bad as it is, somebody else has it worse, and we as Americans do not understand that as a whole.
• 46:01
  We have no idea.
• 46:03
  That's why I wish we could send every single kid on a missions trip or a humanitarian trip when they're a teenager, and I don't mean just a week.
• 46:12
  I mean, have them experience a country for for three months and live there.
• 46:17
  In fact, I'd like to send most of our adults.
• 46:20
  I do need to know what's actually happening.
• 46:22
  You know, when I worked at the Salvation Army, we had a young man, he was not a young man, he was an adult, but he had come from uh, I believe Nepal or Bhutan or something like that, and he was going to a community college, and he part of his internship, he worked.
• 46:35
  We had a breakfast feeding program at the Salvation Army where I worked, and he was helping there, and the people we had like a hundred people would be there for breakfast, and sometimes they would complain like, oh no, we had oatmeal yesterday, and I remember one time he lived in a refugee camp for I want to say half of his life, decade over a decade.
• 46:54
  And he said one time, he goes, I don't understand these people complaining.
• 46:59
  It was for it, I couldn't believe it.
• 47:01
  He said, I ate the same thing for like three meals a day for 10 years, yeah.
• 47:06
  You know, and he so it was the different now.
• 47:08
  These people in the in the breakfast programs of Salvation Army, obviously, were people in poverty, right?
• 47:13
  But poverty in America versus the poverty he experienced were completely different.
• 47:18
  Yeah, I mean, I think this the election in in New York uh a couple weeks ago.
• 47:23
  And I spent 11 days in Cuba, and it was just 11 days on a missions trip.
• 47:28
  And if you went to Cuba and experienced Cuba as Cuban's experience during uh Fidel Castro's Cuba and even afterwards, you wouldn't be talking about socialism.
• 47:39
  You would understand that it's a really bad idea.
• 47:42
  Yeah, uh, but if even if you go there now, these are people that have had their faces stomped in the dirt for 60, 70 years, and their spirit, they just had the spirit stomped out of them.
• 47:55
  The government promised all the things.
• 47:56
  One of the ladies, I'll never forget one of the old ladies said two things to me that were really important.
• 48:01
  She said, you know, we were complacent.
• 48:06
  She said it through an interpreter.
• 48:08
  We were complacent when Castro came in because he promised we're gonna do this, we're gonna make things better.
• 48:13
  Your old government is oppressive, we're gonna give you everything.
• 48:16
  She said they came to her farm, took their property, took their Bibles, and took their guns.
• 48:23
  And she said, from that day on every single day has been worse in Cuba.
• 48:30
  And I will never forget her saying that.
• 48:32
  And this is a lady that was just saddened, saddened about her country, sad.
• 48:37
  One of the older people who knew what it was like before, yeah, and then what it and and all the rest of her stories, and it's just story after story after story, and this is the system that Mundami and these other people are promoting is such a great idea that this is gonna cure.
• 48:54
  We know it doesn't work.
• 48:55
  Uh so Americans have absolutely no perspective uh about what oppression is, about what poverty is.
• 49:03
  It would be great if we could just send everybody off and come back and say, now appreciate what you have because this is the greatest country that the world has ever known.
• 49:13
  It's done more good for the planet than any country in the history of the world, and I don't think it's debatable, it's provable.
• 49:22
  You can absolutely 100% prove it in 6,000 years of world history, nothing has affected the world for good more than America.
• 49:31
  I think that, and I'm not I'm not ending this on a negative because it's all positive, but I think that's what disheartens me more than anything when you see some of these the Mondami and his supporters and so forth, and these people like how much they hate America, yeah.
• 49:44
  And they have no idea, and most of them have grown up in upper middle class white families, you know, and the perfect and our education system is not giving great history, they don't know where we come from, they don't know what the purpose is, and it just
• 50:00
  feels like these kids today are lost um i agree and when you were talking about the pilgrims and stuff and i think this every year i mean i remember as a kid and you know you learned about pilgrims you made the little paper hats and you made the little Indian feathers and you had the little things um and i just wonder what percentage of american public government schools as you say are they teaching that story the pilgrims and if they teach it at all are they teaching it in the positive way as opposed to teaching it like they're oppressors right and it's hard to do that with because the truth of the story was that the natives and the Europeans white Europeans had a positive good relationship it's really hard to flip that one on edge because the truth is it was relational I don't I don't think they care what the truth is no well that's one thing I I I expressed to somebody in leadership today uh he was asking me what do you struggle with most I said the absence of truth so nobody values the truth you say what you want to say and and it doesn't matter so uh it is it is sad but but there was there's always hope in every one of these groups that we talked about from explorers on through all of them suffered uh adverse conditions all of them had their own problems but they always believed that America was worth fighting for and that the good of America was still ahead I know it's hard to see it in today's world and trust me I get more depressed than anybody coming out of the filth that I come out of every single day but the there's never a reason for us to give up hope of fighting for this country.
• 51:38
  The pendulum has swung back and forth over time.
• 51:42
  I always say remember 1970s those of us that are old enough remember how crappy the war was in 1978.
• 51:48
  We didn't think that we were ever coming back we were disrespected we lost Vietnam Carter was president was president oil embargo so we had energy issues the hostages could get gas depending on that's right hot or even that's correct and and Ronald Reagan came in and said here's the facts of the crappy world that we live in but at the end of the day there's hope and what did he say we're always going to be the city on the hill goes all the way back to the pilgrims the Puritans saying look there's always he always connected history which is one of the many reasons that I love Ronald Reagan but there's always hope no matter how bad it is and I still believe that for America and I won't stop believing that you know and there is um the macro is the country but you have to have positive mental health um to be able to go about your day and while you absolutely you can't be complacent what happens you cannot let it consume you so that it destroys your relationships and your family and so forth.
• 52:43
  And the best way to that is Thanksgiving.
• 52:45
  I mean a lot of us I think a lot of Americans the overwhelming percentage will have a celebrate together and have some form of gratitude we of course are people of faith so we're thanking God but I think even people that aren't religious on Thanksgiving will be grateful for things and think that turkey who sacrificed his life.
• 53:04
  Yes but the other thing is the other thing is to have that spirit of gratitude every day to focus on what you have not on what you don't have.
• 53:13
  I think there's been some recent studies that actually show that certain parts of your brain shrink whenever you focus on the negativity.
• 53:20
  Yes versus but versus being grateful and thankful and everything else like it literally is brain power to be positive.
• 53:27
  I mean past time once my brain is shrinking at a rat I was thinking you know we talk about we've done now numerous shows on health Stephanie and I've shared my health journey I went I I worked at nonprofits past 20 years or whatever.
• 53:42
  I used to think oh I have to eat fruits and vegetables because I'm on a diet I have to I've learned and I kind of switched my perspective if I have the opportunity to choose my own food that is a great blessing that a lot of people in the world don't have 100% so it but I love that that mind shift that was actually yeah that was very for that moment.
• 54:01
  Yes but it is because you think those little things you don't you know I used to tell the kids if you have we in you eat breakfast you can have any number probably have 20 or 30 things in our house for breakfast that's an incredible choice that isn't a lot of people don't have that no my kids get two choices sometimes one but continue on I'm just I don't think did we ever get two choices you ate pop no you ate cereal cereal every day you used to ask mom to get breakfast this is why we have problems and that meant like tasty cakes and little that I asked that you were some sort of health nuts I think I was saying mom can we have whole grain yeah okay fresh fruit of course you are of course no we the breakfast food what we're brownies and um pop tart or whatever was for dinner the night before oh we love left we do love a good thing to have yeah leftovers are good yeah boy has this the show just gone in a completely different direction about food when you have more leftovers than any other time of the year any after things that's true and you can make turkeys there's all sorts of stuff you can make sandwiches you get turkey down around like I don't either I only like um white beet turkey I do not like the leg and thighs I I'll eat any turkey me too yeah I think greasy I used to not I used to only like white but I've grown as a person and I now like the uh the white and dark meat the dark meat's juicier it's moist no I consider it greasy how do you make your turkey Stephanie in the oven how do you make yours exactly no how do we make our turkey it's not in the oven oh it's on the grill it's on the outside grill but it's still it's the same it's the same concept we put it in the panel there are people that deep the fry it turkeys yes that now see I've got a million different ways I I like the traditional way that they used back in the 1600s in the oven clearly in the album electric range I'm gonna stick with that I would love to have a deep fried turkey I've never had but so anyway listening in the South I know I'd love to have a deep fried turkey okay I love that she said I want to go back to the traditional way like they did in the tech yeah are you out on a fire in the backyard hanging on a turning a spit I'm open so it's been a good discussion good history yes and it's good to remember these things it is good to remember these things and be thankful for them and perhaps remember to be more thankful as we continue on.
• 56:37
  So as we say every show wherever you are to the extent that you are able stand up step forward and speak out of