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Cooking up the Thanksgiving story

So the Pilgrims ate Thanksgiving dinner and then they watched the Cowboys' game on TV By Donnie Johnson

Date published: 11/18/2006

LITTLE JOHNNY crawled into the warm bed and snuggled down under the covers. "Can't I play just one more video game before I go to sleep?" he pleaded with his father.

"No more video games!" said his father, as he gently pushed the covers up under Johnny's chin. "You need to get a good night's rest because tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving."

"Daddy, what is Thanksgiving?" Johnny asked with the inquisitiveness of a 5-year-old.

"Thanksgiving is the day when we eat turkey and watch the Dallas Cowboys on television!" his father answered.

"Oh, goody!" said Johnny with a big smile. "I like the Dallas Cowboys!" Then he frowned. "But I don't like turkey. I'd rather have a burrito from Taco Bell."

"OK! So go to sleep and maybe I'll run out at halftime and get you a burrito," his father said.

"OK!" the child replied.

The father got up and was about to cut off the light when Johnny asked the inevitable next question.

"Daddy, will you tell me a story?"

The father came back and sat down on the side of the bed.

"If I tell you one story will you go to sleep?" he asked.

"Yes, Daddy."

"Okay! One story! And that's it! Understand?"

"OK, Daddy. What story are you going to tell me? The one about those old giants?"

"No, Son," the father said. "Tiki Barber doesn't play tomorrow. It's the Cowboys, not the Giants, that play on Thanksgiving Day, remember?"

"What story are you going to tell me, then?"

The father smiled.

"I'm going to tell you about the first Thanksgiving," he said.

The father sat for a moment in silence, thinking about how he would begin, but Johnny became impatient.

"Come on, Daddy! Tell the story!"

"The first Thanksgiving happened a long, long time ago when America was very young," the father began. "It was the Pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving."

"Who were the Pilgrims?" Johnny asked.

"They were a group of people who came to America seeking religious freedom," the father explained.

"What kind of religious freedom?"

"Well, in England, where the Pilgrims were from, everybody had to go to the same church "

"You mean like when we go to Grandma's house we have to go to her church?" Johnny asked.

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Date published: 11/18/2006