Thanksgiving in the USA is the fourth Thursday of November, remembering the first gathering of settlers with Indigenous people to celebrate having arrived safely.

Americans often refer to it as "turkey day", reminding me of a cartoon showing tribal elders meeting settlers to ask: "Couldn't you come another day?

"On Wednesdays we have pizza, Thursdays it's just turkey!"

The original feast was in 1621 and lasted three days, according to the internet.

It was attended by 90 Native American Wampanoag people and 53 survivors of the Mayflower.

The meal consisted of local American foods: turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, green beans, cranberries, and pumpkin pie.

The Wampanoag language was also known as Massachusett, hence the name of the US state in which they lived.

The Trump politics to send migrants back was not yet American policy, so the Wampanoag were welcoming.

North America then filled with other migrants wanting a new life, free from the restrictions elsewhere.

A few were wealthy and came to make their fortune; more came with nothing much but created economic strength with hard work.

Thanksgiving has become the Americans' day for families to get together, even more than Christmas which may be a lot colder with snow and travel disruption in the north.

To repeat an old story, a friend ran over a wild turkey and claimed a truly "free range bird" for Thanksgiving, while some said it was just "road kill".

We now know that only very old turkeys are too slow to avoid traffic and a week of marinating would have been better, followed by long slow cooking.

However, all the trimmings listed above made an excellent meal with good wine and good company!

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, so called because it has become the traditional start in America for serious Christmas shopping when the slow autumn losses make red ink change into Christmas profits reported in black.

The phrase crossed the Atlantic, but like so many things it lost its meaning in transit.

There was an election when we lived in Michigan, in which there was a referendum to increase funding to the local school.

This was opposed by the majority in our rural area because they didn't want children to get too clever and leave the farms!

A few years later, I was in conversation with an affluent widow in West Michigan who supported the Democratic party's proposals to improve health care and support for the unemployed, more similar to UK policies.

However, she would vote Republican, she said, otherwise her taxes would increase!

The Trump MAGA slogan "Make America Great Again" appeals to people who think short-term, making a priority of their personal needs.

Without such a focused attitude the early settlers would not have had enough firewood to avoid freezing all winter, but the world today has too many long-term problems.

Democracy works well when the electors are concerned for the whole community, but the result is not good when people only vote for themselves.

Climate change, generating super-strength hurricanes in the southern USA and drought causing Lake Mead in Arizona to nearly run dry, may finally alert America to global warming.

Much of the fruit and vegetables in American stores are picked by "undocumented workers", so sending them back won't help either!

So, give thanks for what we do have this Christmas, and brace ourselves for 2025!