Jody Victor: The modern Thanksgiving holiday traces its origins from a 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the Plymouth settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. It is this iconic event that is generally referred to as the"First Thanksgiving."

Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them (Squanto had learned English as a slave in Europe and travels in England). The Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in1621. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance; harvest festivals existed in English and Wampanoag tradition alike. Several colonists gave personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth Massachusetts. The Pilgrims, most of whom were Separatists, are not to be confused with Puritans who established their own Massachusetts Bay Colony nearby (current day Boston) in 1628 and had very different religious beliefs.

The Pilgrims did not hold a grue Thanksgiving until 1623, after a switch from communal farming to privatized farming finally resulted in a larger harvest. Irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day.

Gradually, an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed in the mid-17th century. This did not occur on any set day or necessarily on the same day in different colonies in America.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony (consisting mainly of Puritan Christians) celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in 1630, and frequently thereafter until about 1680, when it became an annual festival in that colony; and Connecticut as early as 1639 and annually after 1647, except in 1675. The Dutch in New Netherland appointed a day for giving thanks in 1644 and occasionally thereafter.

Charlestown, Massachusetts held the first recorded Thanksgiving observance June 29, 1671 by proclamation of the town's governing council.

During the 18th century individual colonies commonly observed days of thanksgiving throughout each year. We might not recognize a traditional Thanksgiving Day from that period, as it was not a day marked by plentiful food and drink as it today's custom, but rather a day set aside for prayer and fasting.

Later in the1700s individual colonies would periodically designate a day of thanksgiving in honor of a military victory, and adoption of a state constitution or an exceptionally bountiful crop. Such a Thanksgiving Day celebration was held in December 1777 by the colonies nationwide, commemorating the surrender of British General Burgoyne at Saratoga.

Jody Victor

Jody Victor : Veterans Day is an annual American holiday honoring military veterans. Both a federal holiday and a state holiday in all states, it is usually observed on November 11. However, if it occurs on a Sunday then the following Monday is designated for holiday leave, and if it occurs Saturday then either Saturday or Friday may be so designated. It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, falling on November 11, the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.)

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting the President issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. An Act approved on May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday; "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1953, an Emporia, Kansas shoe store owner named Al King had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who served in World War I. King had been actively involved with the American War Dads during World War II. He began a campaign to turn Armistice Day into "All" Veterans Day. The Emporia Chamber of Commerce took up the cause after determining that 90% of Emporia merchants as well as the Board of Education supported closing their doors on November 11, 1953, to honor veterans. With the help of then-U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, also from Emporia, a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law on May 26, 1954.

Congress amended this act on November 8, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with Veterans, and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

Jody Victor

Jody Victor: If you look at my Eagle photo folder, you will notice all the pictures show a pair of Bald Eagles in flight or on the large branches of what looks to be, a dead tree. This type of area is perfect as a perch or nesting place for Bald Eagles. This tree sits directly across the road, 10 yards from the water's edge at our Sandusky Bay home. What a view we have had this past summer! Watching these big, beautiful beautiful birds fly, perch, dive, and generally cavort right in our front yard. One question the scientific community has wondered and asked, "Is there adequate habitat available for a robust Bald Eagle population in the Great Lakes?"

Habitat is defined as the food, water, shelter and space that an animal requires to survive. The availability of suitable habitat plays a critical role in regulating animal populations. Bald Eagles prefer forested, quiet sites near open water within a territory of one to three square miles, nesting in one of the tallest, mature trees in the area. But forest harvest and lakeshore development for agriculture, residences and recreation continue to deplete and degrade appropriate shoreline habitat.

Yet, eagles can demonstrate remarkable adaptability in the face of habitat pressures, nesting in locations that are subject to human disturbance or provide poor food supplies. For example, Bald Eagles have been observed nesting on the tower at Sandusky Airport here in Ohio.

It is not yet clear whether nesting in such atypical sites, with their related hazards for adult and juvenile birds, will have a negative long-term effect on the overall population. The unanswered question is whether the birds' adaptation to human interference and low quality nesting habitat will deplete or negatively influence the population. Hopefully that question will be answered as a yes, and our Bald Eagle pair will go on in the tree we observe them in and live for many years to come.

Jody Victor