The Mystery of the Missing Thanksgiving

It's official - Thanksgiving must have been kidnapped. (Hey, I write mysteries. I get to be dramatic). Why kidnapped, you wonder?????? Well, you don't really have to wonder. The evidence is all around you. Remember last month when everything was orange and black? Pumpkins, ghosts, scary spiders and creatures hulking in doorways......candy with black and orange wrappers, black and orange streamers in your co-workers cubicle. Yeah, you remember - it was Halloween. Halloween is cool and fun and it's always interesting to see what people do for that holiday.

But then I noticed that the pumpkin patches disappeared, the streamers came down, and everywhere I looked, read and green with flashy gold and silver began to take its place. The radio began playing Jingle Bells and such (and since it was still 85 degrees in Texas, it seemed a bit out of place). So WHAT, I ask you.......happened to Thanksgiving?

I remember the old days (I'm not that darned young), when you used to do all your Christmas fare the day after Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if it was a fine way to work off all the turkey and pie from the day before, but hey, it was a tradition. It was the biggest shopping day of the year. A lot of people are off work, so everywhere you looked men were out in yards hanging lights under the careful direction of women with taste. Fall decorative items, like haystacks, scarecrows, pumpkins, corn and all those pretty fall leaf wreaths came down and in their place went up the red and green.

Not so this year. It's like Thanksgiving doesn't exist. And that is a very bad thing. C'mon, Thanksgiving is a great holiday. What could possibly be wrong with a four-day weekend and a holiday that centers around eating??????? Are we really going to let the retailers take over our lives and push Christmas back yet another month? And where does it stop? Are they going to assasinate the Easter Bunny next year and claim he's outdated? What about Fourth of July - have we been celebrating freedom long enough?

At the rate we're going, the entire year is going to be a red and green technicolor event. Which would please cats to no end since they finally get a whole year of a colorful world. But I'm not so sure it would please me.

I like Thanksgiving. I like having four days off work - one of which I plan to write, write, write, with. I like the fried turkey and dressing and pies and football after eating. I like that I don't have to think up gifts and fight people at the mall to buy them for Thanksgiving.

So please put away your pretty red balls and gold streamers and wait just a few more days. Thanksgiving is a great holiday, and we ought to remember that!

Deadly DeLeon