Ya’ll I had a conversation with my 6 year old (Henry) last night that made me realize I’ve had this whole Pilgrim & Thanksgiving thing all wrong!  According to this 6 yr. old 1st grader the story goes something like this….and he must be right because he watched a video about it in school…….

Well, first of all the Pilgrims came over on the “Mainflower” not the Mayflower!  After asking why they came here in the first place I was told “it was just too boring in England”!  Now here’s a tidbit I KNOW you’ve never heard before…They knew they had arrived at their destination because the rock they stepped on had a sign that said “Plymouth Rock”! (Remember the video?) I’m still chuckling over that one!

Ok, so when asked what happened when they got here the response was “Well, basically they all died…..from Sea Sickness”!  When asked what happened to the rest of them he replied “Some of them got killed by animals when they were trying to get their fur”.  What kind of animals?  “Well, like foxes and stuff”!   Do you know how hard it is to keep a straight face when getting info. like this?  

I learned a couple of new tidbits about the pilgrims daily life too, such as they lived in stick houses and had to mop after it rained, and because they didn’t have bathrooms they had to pee in cups like little Gatorade bottles!  Again with the straight face…….so hard!

I bet you never knew the first indian the pilgrims met was actually Quanto…not Squanto as previously thought!

I asked several more questions that went something like this….

Q- “Would you have sailed on the ‘Mainflower’? A- “No, it would be too boring & you’d get seasick”!

Q- “If you were a pilgrim would you have been scared of the indians”?  A- “Yes, because of their feathers and bow & arrows..duh”!

Q- “If you were an indian would you have been scared of the pilgrims?  A- “No because they don’t look scary…..they look old”!

Q- “What do you think is the best part of Thanksgiving”? A- “Eating sweet potatoes and fighting for the ‘turkey bone’.  You get wished on if you get the longest piece”!

And last but not least…

Henry’s idea of the meaning of Thanksgiving….  “Something you’re Thankful for and you do it by celebrating”!

And that my friends is how the pilgrims really got here and how Thanksgiving came to be.  After all…..he watched a video!