Unusually late in the year, Thanksgiving passed over Ashland the other Thursday. It was cold, but a breath of warm air next to the last few weeks in the valley. Temperatures didn’t drop below freezing, making travel easy enough.
I only moved to Ashland in fall of 2023 and have spent months on end up north. I’ve only experienced two Thanksgivings, neither under particularly notable circumstances. This Thanksgiving, I went out of my way to talk to people that actually have lived in the area. I heard about foods much like those enjoyed and celebrated anywhere else in America–, turkeys or cornish hens brined in the wee hours of Thursday morning, special stuffing recipes pieced together the night before, and sweet potato shepherd’s pie.
Lots of people were out of town for Thanksgiving, or hiding out in the bigger, ritzier houses in the countryside. Ashland felt empty (outside, anyway) and crisp, and not just because there wasn’t class and so many students were gone. The sky was clear, and the streets gave the impression that most Ashlanders were staying inside for the day. I went home for the weekend. When I returned, I-5 was covered in frost and ice and fog except for Ashland, which was bathed in sunlight. That was a good thing– a safe thing.
Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the end of fall term for Southern Oregon Students. There is only one full week after it, followed by finals and Christmas. Out of people I know, more than not are hunkered down for the fall term’s last stretch this Thanksgiving, too.
It’s been a very eventful fall, for Ashland and the country. The City of Ashland’s monthly Housing and Human Services Committee meeting was scheduled for Thanksgiving. November saw the 2024 elections, with enormous, global, and probably incalculable consequences. That was right on the heels of Ashland’s Burning Man celebrations, which wrapped up at the end of October. October’s Burning Man saga saw lots of community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance, the only event of its kind between northwest Nevada, Portland, and the San Francisco Bay Area. It was “decommodified” meaning that participation was free, and put together by local organizers and activists.
The Thanksgiving holiday dates to the Civil War, when the government had lots of interest in a devastated population keeping a happy face on. It’s been tied to resiliency, and especially to the maxim “counting your blessings”. Different people I’ve talked to have different opinions on that particular little piece of advice– it is, after all, turning a blind eye to real problems by definition.
Like the question “what do Ashlanders do for Thanksgiving”, the truth about “count your blessings” may not be straightforward and variable by individual. And maybe that’s alright.
