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Aw, what a commendable bunch, those hardy Pilgrims! The Pilgrims' story about Thanksgiving is factual up to a point but with broad interpretations. Writers then and ever since have taken a few facts and played with them loosely. The date of the first Thanksgiving is probably true, but what actually transpired there may be quasi factual and is left up to each writer to decide. The privileged of today are those who live in and near Plymouth and who have first hand knowledge of that first Thanksgiving since it is part of their everyday life. Or maybe they too are too close to see the big story!

Nevertheless, the first Thanksgiving was in response to a good harvest. They did not set out to start anything; only to survive. After the long journey across the Atlantic from England that took sixty-five days, they were forced to cut short their journey because of bad weather. Settling for Plymouth rather than their designated site was a necessity and was not in their original plans. Losing over half of their one hundred and one passengers during the winter of late 1620 and early 1621 they never-the-less persevered.

With the help of Squanto, their Indian guide with whom they communicated well - he spoke English because he had lived in Europe for ten or twelve years - they harvested a bountiful crop of corn and vegetables. In appreciation, they celebrated. Their Indian friends were invited and they had a good time. In addition to the feasting, they celebrated by game playing and dancing and merrymaking for three days.

They did not celebrate the second harvest, or if they did, history does not make much of the event. Possibly they were a little astonished with the raucous Indian ways and their Puritan hearts may have rebelled. This is not a fact, only an opinion. Imagine, if you will, having all your beliefs upturned by a group of people who did not live by the same prescribed standards. This must have been food for thought. Native Americans, then and now, have ways peculiar to European peoples. Yet, what were the Pilgrims' to do? They lived with these people who were kind and helpful and generous and their very survival depended on getting on with them.

In order to understand how this spirit of cooperation was possible among two extremely different cultures, one must understand the Pilgrims' thought process. They believed that God brought then there for a purpose and surely that purpose was to teach the Indians about their God. The second summer, however, it was more each

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