How was your Thanksgiving? — Blue Friday. "We all have our private hell . . ."

It is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when many people do their holiday shopping. As I ask various people, "How was your Thanksgiving?," some of the answers make me think it is really Blue Friday — as in feeling blue. An owner of a wine shop told me "at least mine wasn't with any family . . ."  These words prompted me to recall a Johnny Carson quote: "Thanksgiving is a time when you get together with family or friends that you usually see once a year and discover why you only see each other once a year."

I can understand the wine shop owner's sentiments. Once upon a time I had those myself, but, thankfully  I don't feel that way anymore. However, I have survived some angst filled family Thanksgivings. The photo at the top of this post was one such Thanksgiving — the Thanksgiving after John F. Kennedy was assassinated six days prior (which I blogged about in a previous post). A difficult Thanksgiving for the world, for our nation, and obviously for the Kennedy family. As for my family's Thanksgiving that year preserved in this photo, I can be seen sitting to the far right of this photograph. It was probably the last Thanksgiving celebrated at my house with my father before he moved away, and on that day my parents were arguing as usual. In the photo posted above, I am staring at them arguing off-camera while my sisters (seen to the left of me) are throughly engrossed in their Thanksgiving dinner. Both of them were always better at focusing on themselves and what they needed to be doing, while I was not one to accept things easily.



Still there is much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving and always. I spent this one with a dear friend who has MS, and her friend who has Alzheimer's Disease was also there. Both women are in wheelchairs.  It really puts things in perspective. This is not to diminish the pain that occurs within families or friendships. As an employer of my mother's told her during one of her crying spells over my father's leaving, "Sally, we all have our private hell." 

And so we do, but we have our private and public heaven too, and I hope your Thanksgiving was the beginning of many blessings. With that, I'll leave you to view three images of my Thanksgiving-themed black and white photographs which can also be viewed in the print collection via my web-site where they are available to purchase.