Thanksgiving Trivia Part 1 - The Landing
It’s November 23. Time to think Thanksgiving thoughts. Here are your first two trivia questions . . .
1. What’s the name of the spot in Massachusetts where we think the Pilgrims landed?
New Jersey Plymouth Rock Boston Nantucket Island
2. When did they land in 1620? Nov. 11 Nov. 26 Dec. 10 Dec. 18
And the answers are . . .
1. This is Plymouth Rock. It’s where we think the Pilgrims landed back in 1620. See! It’s on the rock!
But the Pilgrims never refered to Plymouth Rock in any of their writing. The first known written reference was in 1715. That was almost 100 years later. Did they still remember, a rock?
The first documented claim was in 1741 by Elder Thomas Faunce. How did he know? He wrote about it – 121 years later!
2. The Pilgrims didn’t land on November 11th. The Mayflower was sitting in Provincetown Harbor. No Plymouth Rock – in sight! That’s when the men signed the Mayflower Compact. This photo’s the Mayflower, but it’s only a copy of the original.
It wasn’t November 26th either. There’s nothing on the calendar until December 10th. That’s when a scouting group found a good harbor on the west side of Cape Cod Bay. In between the pilgrim men sent out search party after search party looking for a great landing spot.
Why? They needed a place for ships to land. They would still need supplies to come from England. Eventually they’d ship out their own goods/products to sell back to English markets.
They finally landed on December 18th, one week before Christmas of 1620. Why didn’t they land sooner? Bad weather! Can you imagine living aboard ship in December without a heater, or, trying to build new homes in the cold New England winter? YIKES!
Plymouth Harbor Source: By Linear77 - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34890560
Plymouth Rock: By jjron - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19571461
Mayflower II: By GmaJoli - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51381537
Information Sources: 1. en.wikipedia.org
3. Mayflower Lands at Plymouth - HISTORY (This site has great photos and quick video clips)
When I write, I can only have one voice in my head, mine. A little noise is fine. But too much, or worse yet, WORDS, and I must change rooms or pull out headphones. Then I can write on!