One of my favorite holidays is coming up:Thanksgiving. I mean, a holiday totally devoted to eating? Count me in!
When I think about past Thanksgiving dinners, I'm beginning to realize that it isn't the holiday itself that makes me love it so much, but rather the experiences that came along with it.
War of the Worlds
I'm not sure what year it was, but I know that a lot of family was over at our house that Thanksgiving. The big dinner had already been eaten, stomachs were no longer empty. The football game was either over or nobody had bothered to pay attention to it at that point. Either way, the suggestion was made to put on a movie.
The film of choice was "War of the Worlds" by Stephen Spielberg, based off of the radio program with the same name. All of my local family a well as family from Tennessee, Minnesota, and Ontario, Canada all piled into the basement and started watching. By the film's end, a huge discussion filled the room. The split was caused by whether or not the film was actually good. Some relatives thought that the ending was anticlimactic, thus making the whole film pointless. Others pointed out that the film was exciting all the way until its ending. This movie was played at the next Thanksgiving, and the next one, and the one after that. Watching "War of the Worlds" had become a Thanksgiving tradition without us even realizing it.
Thanksgiving in Houston.
On one particular Thanksgiving week, our family took a plane down to Texas to visit my aunt and uncle. The memories that come to my mind isn't even the Thanksgiving dinner itself, but of the events that happened during that whole week.
My brother and I had free reign of the television upstairs. Since there was no bedtime for us, we could stay up for as long as we wanted. This trip to Houston introduced me to Adult Swim, the late night block on Cartoon Network. I was introduced to "The Boondocks." "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" and "Samurai Champloo." These shows hold a special place in my heart and are still some of my all-time favorite shows.
This trip was also where I got my first iPod.The iPod was nothing special, just a simple 8-gigabyte nano. However, it felt as though I had finally gotten a piece of future tech. "Something that could hold music without a CD? That's crazy!!" My young mind was blown away at that time. That Houston trip allowed me to find new shows to re-watch and enjoy, as well as becoming a part of modern history with the iPod craze.