Here in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in early October, but on the U. S. Thanksgiving Day when I always seem to have a late afternoon and evening meeting as I will again this year, my thoughts reach back to those holidays of the past. For many years when we lived in New Jersey our Thanksgiving Day was observed in a rather unusual way. Since my father worked at No. 2 Broadway, NY he rarely had entire weekends off, and we took advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend. Each year we would pack the car with everything we needed and much, much more including a turkey, dates stuffed with peanut butter (rather strange tasting but something my mother insisted must be a part of every Thanksgiving), cranberry sauce, turnips, potatoes, onions, pumpkin pie and all the rest. We would meet my father at the Matawan Railroad Station around 7:00 p.m. and then travel the two hour trip up to Stokes Forest in Sussex County, where we would spend four days in one of the cabins on Lake Ocquitunk. In those days there was no electricity in the cabins, just kerosene lamps for friendly light and a fireplace for cheerful heat. Sometimes we would enjoy wonderful warm late fall weather and would wander through the woods over th! e soft leaf covered trails to a favorite fishing spot. One year we had an 8 inch snowfall and sledded down the Coursen Road hill all morning, tracked animals in the snow and made a big igloo. Another year the temperature dropped to 0º and we had to drive into town at 11:00 p.m. for antifreeze for the old 1938 DeSoto car. Whatever the weather, it was fun, warm, and comfortable. I will be thinking of all this again on Thursday, wishing I could join you in your festivities, but we will celebrate a bit of it here, as when I return home from yet another "important" meeting about something of little consequence, we will sit in front of our wood fire for a while and remember, and be thankful for so much . . and we will look ahead and be thankful for what is still to come. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Jim from Prince Edward Island.