It is the season for bright red pomegranates, orange pumpkins and an autumn palette of mums. Ever since the first Thanksgiving Day, pumpkin pie has been on the family dinner table. The orange pumpkin gourd of the squash family is a fruit native to America. Native American Indians used pumpkin as a staple in their diets centuries before the Pilgrims landed. Indians would roast long strips of pumpkin on the open fire and eat them. It was the Pilgrims that added sugar and milk to make a sweet pie.
The pumpkin pie is one of Lydia Marie Child’s childhood memories of visiting her Grandfather’s house. She includes this memory in the familiar Thanksgiving song, “Over the River and through the Woods.”
Write up your family story of “Thanksgiving Day 2012 with the _______ Family.” You can definitely modernize the 1844 song. The dapple grey could be Uncle Bob arrived in his dapple grey Ford Escapade. Knowing the way can be MapQuest or GPS. You are only limited by your imagination and observations. Writing stories with young children creates memories that last all lifelong.
At your public library, a children’s book, Over the River—A Turkey’s Tale, recasts the poem as a humorous tale of a family of turkeys on their way to a vegetarian Thanksgiving. The book was written by Derek Anderson, and published by Simon & Schuster in 2005. (ISBN 978-0-689-87635-6).
Ruby will be signing copies of her latest book, Growing Little Green Thumbs, during November. Grab your favorite little friend and come see her!
Thursday, November 1, 2012
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Chapin Christmas Open House
Palmetto Fine Arts, 107 Virginia Street, Chapin
Sunday, November 4, 2012
1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
ArtCan Studio & Gallery
108 Beaufort Street, Chapin
Thursday, November 15, 2012
5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Christmas Open House, Wingard’s Nursery
1403 North Lake Drive, Lexington
