The True Meaning of Thanksgiving 2012

Miscellaneous
Cranky Women

To all my American readers, Happy Thanksgiving! I’m certainly thankful for all of you who came out to do some Crankyspotting in Phoenix on Monday. I’d say we had 12 to 15 folks, including one who brought a big box of old timetables and inflight magazines. And yes, we had a couple of good sightings, including a Transavia-painted 737 operating for Sun Country. Maybe even more amazing was that we had three women show up as well, and I have proof.

Cranky Women

(Ok, so one was my wife, but it still counts.)

Of course, there are other things to be thankful for this year. As always, I turn the day over to Robert to remind us of the riches that can be had.

As the leaves flutter gently from the trees, the change of seasons reminds us that a most special time of year is soon upon us. The calendar tells us that this time is Thanksgiving. So let us reflect on the True Meaning of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is not a time to give thanks. Thanksgiving is a time to get bumped.

Perhaps the great challenges of the last many years are subsiding. The shocks of the prior decade, while remembered, have been given some time to pass. So now we hope that more people are ready to be on the move on these most important days of Black Wednesday and the following Sunday. With such demands, our fine aviation system must groan under the weight of so much travel. And from this, a flurry of freebies for the very patient must arrive. Perhaps we can hope for an avalanche of bumps, like the days of yore. An avalanche at Phoenix Sky Harbor, the Hub of Riches, is an unequaled sight of sheer beauty in its chaos. But nothing is guaranteed these days. Smart systems that make ever more carefully crafted decisions for us make it ever harder to score the bump.

Now it is time for me to play the age old tradition of “do as I say, not as I do”. For this year I stoop to a new low. I will spend my Thanksgiving on the other side of the world, where there is no Thanksgiving. There will little so bumping to be had this far away. Yes, I have become inexcusably lazy, by trading out the intoxicating rush of the bump for a quiet hide at a far off beach. Have mercy on my dwindling stash of freebies.

So may the rest of you carry the torch! Make your way forth, and be bountifully blessed with bumps!

With rewarding wishes,

..robert

Click for the True Meaning of Thanksgiving, years past

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18 comments on “The True Meaning of Thanksgiving 2012

  1. Sorry, I don’t find your definition as the true meaning of Thanksgiving in any way amusing. It is a sad state of affairs when the youth of today don’t realize what the true meaning of Thanksgiving is. I am sure you know what it is, but they refuse to give God the glory for the things they are thankful for. God blessed this nation because we were a Christian nation and He continues to bless those that are thankful . This is the least we can do is to set aside a day to thank our creator for our blessings; no matter how big or how small they may be. The only thing that matters is that we come to Him with a thankful heart. Thessalonians 3:16 Give thanks in all things

      1. No, it is not a “religious” holiday any more , unless you are a strong Christian, but it used to be.
        In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition is commonly, but not universally, traced to a poorly documented 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest.
        In later years, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623.[8][9][10] The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.[11]
        Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the “First Thanksgiving”, including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631.[12][13]
        Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations. Various proclamations were made by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress, each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes.[14] As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God”.[15]

  2. I want to give thanks to all the dedicated airline employees who get us safely to our friends, loved ones and business appointments all through the year. Nice meeting you, Brett. Happy holidays to you and your family.

    1. Bobber – Well yes, if non-American readers were celebrating for some strange reason, then sorry to have excluded you!

  3. I’m thankful for finally getting to fly a Q400. Quite a long story, but it ended up being a unique experience on a route that the Q400 doesn’t usually fly.

  4. Tried for bumping LAX-ORD-CMH on November 21 and on the November 26 return. No joy, but all United staff I dealt with on this trip were outstanding and I was effusively thanked (and saluted) by the ORD gate agent on the way to CMH for volunteering.

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