When you reflect back on past Thanksgivings, it’s most likely with both a sense of gratitude and one of loss.
There’s no better example in our collective memories than Thanksgiving of 2022. Two months prior, Hurricane Ian had devasted the area. There was so much loss: life, property and communal landmarks.
Yet for those who survived, there was a sense of gratitude simply to be alive. A feeling of community, as friends and neighbors helped each other recover and move forward.
Personally, I think back to a cold Thanksgiving morning in 1987. My aunt Glenda died unexpectedly in a vehicle accident. Why, of all days, today, I thought? But you know what, if you have to go (and I personally plan to live forever, even if I have to be a head in a jar on someone’s shelf with electrodes attached), it’s rather a good time, if there is such a thing). Let me explain. On that day, and every Thanksgiving season thereafter, I was surrounded by my friends and family. Yes, our thoughts always returned to Glenda. But we always had each other to share fond memories, a laugh, a tear or two, and the love we all shared. Just the way Glenda would have wanted it.
Thanksgiving comes with many different traditions. Moving to Florida and missing the snow and cold (albeit briefly), it is hard to feel the holiday spirit at first. Then new traditions come along.
The first few years in Miami, for example, I was as likely to have roast pork, rice and beans as turkey and dressing (aka stuffing) for Thanksgiving.
Florida’s first Thanksgiving
Speaking of tradition, we often associate the “first Thanksgiving” being in Plymouth, Massachusetts. That three-day harvest feast in the Fall of 1621 between English colonists and the Wampanoag people.
The image is an artistic interpretation of the first Catholic mass celebrated in what is now the United States, specifically in St. Augustine, Florida. The event took place on Sept. 8, 1565, when Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his expedition landed to establish a settlement.
But Florida has its own claim to an even earlier Thanksgiving meal. In 1565, Spanish explorers in St. Augustine shared a feast with the Timucua, a celebration that historians recognize as a very early first Thanksgiving.
It was Sept. 8, 1565. The Spanish, led by Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, held a Catholic Mass and feast with the tribe that called the area home. Historians say the meal included venison and gopher tortoise from the Native Americans, salted pork, red wine, garbanzo beans, and olives from the Spanish.
The Great Depression, the New Deal and Florida parks
In this search of Florida’s history, a photo emerged from Thanksgiving 1933. You see, from that year until 1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps built facilities at eight nature areas that became the foundation of Florida’s network of parks today.
This photograph from 1933 is of men enrolled in Company 451 at the Camp Florida Forest 1 Corps, stationed in Olustee. They served on the mess crew and would have cooked the Thanksgiving meal.
It was taken at the Camp Florida Forest 1 Corps, stationed in Olustee. The folks in the photograph served on the mess crew and would have cooked the Thanksgiving meal.
At the time, the United States was recovering from the Great Depression and most families were struggling with basic necessities like shelter and food. Employment was scarce as businesses were struggling as well.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Corps on April 5, 1933. It was just one month into his presidency, making the CCC one of the earliest New Deal programs.
Back to Southwest Florida
On Nov. 23, 2023, News-Press Reporter Kate Cimini wrote of first Thanksgivings. You can read that full story with the shared link on this page, but I wanted to share these submissions from the article, “Songs on the beach and new beginnings: ‘First Thanksgivings’ in Southwest Florida.”
Cathy Goodacre-Lee and her family on their boat shortly after arriving in Fort Myers, Florida, from Canada.
From Cathy Goodacre-Lee, Fort Myers Beach
I first arrived in Fort Myers the day before Thanksgiving, 1955. My parents, sister, and our cat left Canada in September and sailed in our boat down the east coast with the plan of moving permanently to Fort Myers.
This was not only our first Thanksgiving in Fort Myers; it was our very first American Thanksgiving. We spent that day tied to a dock in the city yacht basin. Our dinner was not turkey since it would have been impossible to cook in the 28-foot boat my father had built. To be honest, I don’t remember what we ate that day!
We later moved out to Fort Myers Beach where my parents spent every Thanksgiving after that first one, eating traditional roast turkey. I will now have celebrated 68 consecutive Thanksgivings in Lee County.
From Jenny Herrick, Naples
We had just moved down from Pennsylvania and our grandson was five years old. It was probably 2003. And he came home from Kindergarten, of course, a few days before Thanksgiving with pilgrim and American Indian hats, so I decided we should go out to the beach at Wiggins Pass and have a First Thanksgiving like the pilgrims and the American Indians.
They had grills at Wiggins Pass, so we took shrimp, seafood, sweet potatoes, cranberries and corn on the cob. We just thought how can you have turkey and dressing when it’s so hot? We set up a table and we decorated the table with leaves and acorns and pinecones, and then we sang. We taught my grandson “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and sang that. We had little paper dolls sitting on the table, as well. Two families joined us; they were thrilled with our decorations and they stayed and sang with us.
From all of us, to all of you
Happy Thanksgiving! May your gratitude outweigh your loss each and every day.
Sources: History.com, The News-Press, Naples Daily News archives, State Archives of Florida and the National Park Service.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: From the Archives: Thanksgiving, Florida, love, loss and gratitude