PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

November 24, 2021

AN UNFORGETTABLE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

Thanksgiving 1950 the Boyd side of my family came to celebrate Thanksgiving at our home in Cortland, Ohio.  My material grandmother lived with us and this gave her two sons and their families a good opportunity to see her.  As my uncles and their families were leaving in late afternoon, it started to snow.  It did not completely stop snowing until Monday.  The worst was on Saturday when the temperatures also dropped to near zero and there were winds of 40 mph.  When all was said and done we had at least three feet of snow on the ground before drifts.

Cortland was completely isolated.  It was impossible for any traffic to move.  When my brother who was four would go outside he would disappear from view since the snow was deeper than he was tall.  After several days a path about three feet wide was dug out in the middle of the street in front of our house.  You could take it to downtown Cortland where several stores were open.  Fortunately, we never lost power.  I am not sure how anyone could have even gotten into town to fix an outage.

After the snow finally stopped and everyone realized that no one was going anywhere for some time, a festive atmosphere broke out around the town.  People visited, children had great fun playing outside in the snow, and there were many ad hock get-togethers.  However, by Thursday people began to worry.  Even though the downtown grocery store had stocked up for Thanksgiving, they were beginning to run out of food.  There was no sign of help to dig out the town.  Fortunately, the main road into town was opened late Friday.  However, it was well into the next week before the whole town was dug out and students could return to school after a very long Thanksgiving vacation.

A Jewish festival that has some similarities to Thanksgiving is the Festival of Weeks also known as the Festival of the First Fruits.  The Festival of Weeks is one of the Biblical mandated pilgrimage festivals that on the one hand commemorates the anniversary of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and on the other it marks the annual wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22).  Jews came from all over the known world to Jerusalem to celebrate the holiday.

The most unforgettable Festival of Weeks for Christians is the one following Jesus’ ascension (Acts 2:1-13).  The disciples have gathered in a room to observe the holiday.  While they are there the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire came upon the group.  They are inspired to speak in a variety of languages so that everyone in town for the Festival of Weeks understood in their own language.  Today this event is remembered by Christians by the holiday’s Greek name, “Pentecost.”

Thanksgiving is a time for families to gather.  It is also a time to remember past Thanksgivings.  When I remember past Thanksgiving the first one to come to mind is the one of 1950.  During that Thanksgiving weekend Ohio had its biggest storm in history.  Most of the state got at least ten inches of snow.  The eastern part of the state where I lived was especially hard hit.  There were snow drifts twenty-five feet deep.  Winds guested to 60 mph.  In the end the roads had to be cleared by bulldozers.  It was an unforgettable Thanksgiving weekend.