What are Your Favorite Thanksgiving “Sides”?

Of the estimated 200 Million turkeys consumed every year in the US, approximately one-quarter of them adorn our (collective) tables on every fourth Thursday of November. Or as the Bard of Avon might have said: “So fowl and fair a day I have not seen” (Sorry Bill…). Ham comes in at a distant second place for 20% of our homes. How did this tradition begin, and perhaps more importantly, when did the tradition of “sides” come to compete for our attention as the most desirable foods on that table?

We can credit Sarah Josepha Hale for this tradition. She began what was to become a campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday with her novel “Northwood” in 1827. She wrote of recipes using turkey in publications, and by the time Lincoln declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, the idea of eating it on the day was well-established in the American collective consciousness. Her advocacy of the “bird”, and the publication of William Bradford’s journal which detailed the hunting of wild turkeys, linked the bird as the centerpiece of the meal. Bradford was one of the attendees at the first Thanksgiving in 1621, as well as its organizer and governor of the colony. He wrote of “the great store of wild turkies (sic)”.

Now…what of the first “sides”? Likely attendees would have been carrots, leeks, lettuce and spinach. Check. Boring. But then there may well have been some “sobaheg”- a fav stew from the Wampanoag tribe made with beans, corn, squash, and chestnuts and walnuts…Sounds yummy, “Seconds, please”. There are no reports of pumpkin or apple pie, so let’s move on.

Over the next 400 years, (certainly over the last 162 years), as turkeys became domesticated, so did the sophistication of our “sides”. A non-scientific “random sampling” suggests dressing/stuffings as the number one item, followed by yams/sweet potatoes (please do look up the difference before you cook them). Then, in no particular order: cranberry fixings (too many variations to enumerate), roasted vegetables, green bean casseroles (a mid-West favorite), and (God help us) Mac & Cheese (Gen Z’s contribution). What I love most about this is “Choice”. Everyone can ask for what they like, everyone can ask for “More”.

Take a moment as you read on to consider what makes you salivate.

Now in all of this, do we judge someone for their Thanksgiving proclivities. Do we raise our eyebrows when Uncle Bob asks for “thirds” on the sausage dressing? We may smile, and we may even feel pangs of pridefulness if one of our contributions “make the cut”. But a person’s choices will not automatically remove them from next year’s groaning board.

Wouldn’t that be great if we could do the same thing with our political choices? Or our lifestyle choices? Or in our choices of whom we spend time with in our relationships? Why do we feel compelled to exclude people whose philosophies/religions/politics differ from our own? Wouldn’t it be truly “Thankful” if we recognize we need to sit down with all people at the “table”, in part because we are just guests- like the original Pilgrims being nourished by their indigenous brothers and sisters? Or we can take the road of our forebears and repay those kindnesses with war and exclusion.
Consider, as you sit down for the Feast of Thanksgiving, that we are all “guests”, we have so much to be thankful for, and we are dependent upon others in our daily life. This approach might well serve us when we do turn our attentions to politics, religion, and lifestyles. I doubt those early Pilgrims asked their hosts about such matters. They were just glad to be fed.

When I go to my 4th Thursday event I am sure I may not agree with everyone at the table on all things. That is precisely the point of “getting together”. No one goes to Thanksgiving for “getting more separate”. Consider taking some of this attitude home with you, even as we all look for “leftovers”. Take home a side of “kindness”. Double up on your portions for “inclusiveness”. Try an extra helping of “forgiveness”. Consider the idea of not “taking sides” but learning to be on the “side of”. This does not mean we have to agree…just to recognize that essentially we are all part of one “family”, one “community”. If we were to eliminate those who disagree with us from the workplace, from the farms, factories and offices etc. we soon starve. So the next time you are confronted with an opposing position, or have an uncomfortable encounter, try imagining them sitting next to you as they ask for “another side”.