Plimoth Plantation

Plimoth Plantation!

It isn't Thanksgiving until you've taken a run through Plimoth Plantation.

P Double is a recreation of the Pilgrim village in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They also have a Wampanoag village there.

As this guy would tell you, all the cool kids head to Plimoth in November.

A view of the harbor, from the fort.

We got there as it opened, and there was still a good crowd. PP is popular.

"He's got a cannon that's bad... similar to the one that I got from my own dad."

If children have to duck to get in, you know Big Steve isn't getting in there.

In times of war, the Pilgrims would get a second guy in a hat to guard the fort's other bench.

That's like a sheep or a goat or something... I was born in Dorchester, farm stuff is beyond me.

The Wampanoags invented the clambake,

A saquish, an "abundance of clams." It could be "small creek," depending on who you ask.

"Hey.... what's uppeth with thee?"

Thanksgiving Primer: Turkeys

It's time to talk Turkey!

Turkeys are native to the Americas. No less an authority than Benjamin Franklin advocated for the turkey to be our national symbol, a role filled instead by the eagle.

Turkeys were used by Native Americans for food. Spanish explorers noted that the Aztecs made tamales with turkey, which means that the Aztecs invented the Turkey Sandwich.

Threatening a turkey was invented in 2018, by the staff of Cranberry County Magazine (see below)...

Turkeys are named after the nation of Turkey, just in case you thought it was the other way around. They were brought to Europe by Spanish, English and French explorers, and became popular there. One breed of turkeys in England can trace their stock back to the first Earl of Orford, who brought back a quantity from the colonies.

The nation-of-Turkey part relates to the commercial trade in the birds. Spain would sell turkeys into Mediterranean markets, with many of them being sold to European traders afterwards by Ottoman merchants. People began to call them Turkish fowl and so forth, and then just Turkeys.

Shakespeare used the term in 1601, and the casual use of it by Billy Shakes implies that the term was in common use.

Turkeys are both wild and domestic in the Americas. Adult males are called Toms or Gobblers, adult females are called Hens, and juvenile turkeys are called Jakes. Males are larger and more colorful than females. Turkeys have over 5000 feathers.

Turkeys weigh 11-24 pounds generally, with 17 pounds as the average weight. The record weight is 37 pounds. They are among the largest native birds in North America, surpassed only by Condors, Cranes, Pelicans and Swans.

Turkeys prefer forests, as they roost in trees to avoid predators. They are active in daylight, as they have horrible night vision.

They are excellent and agile flyers, contrary to what you may have seen on WKRP in Cincinnati.

 Much like the Wright Brothers, they tend to fly low and rarely fly more than a quarter mile. Wild turkeys do not migrate.

They are very tasty birds. This hurt them during colonial times, with the species being eradicated in some areas. They went from tens of millions to 1.3 million in the 1980s. Restoration efforts have the number up to 7 million now, and they are a common sight in Massachusetts.

They were rare enough to be a luxury meal by the 1800s. The Cratchit family was going to eat a goose for Christmas before Scrooge sprang for the turkey.

Turkeys have a strict social code which they sometimes work humans into. A submissive Turkey may follow a human, while a flock leader may attack humans. It is advised by some to scare turkeys if they start acting aggressive, and even tree huggers advance the concept of beating one down if you absolutely have to.

Turkeys on the Thanksgiving table are domestic, and not wild turkeys. There is often Wild Turkey on my family's dinner table... but we are of Irish descent, and things just sort of work out that way at times.

Our models today are from Plymouth, Onset and Cape Cod Community College in Hyannis.

Autumn On Cape Cod

Our photographers have been after foliage for most of Autumn, but the search for foliage leads to other finds.

We never turn down a pumpkin shot.

This is the October storm that had already put a water spout down off of Falmouth. It was played out by the time it moved out to sea again off of Sandwich.

Turkeys are nervous as Thanksgiving approaches.

Lord of the gourd

First snow of winter.

Piles o' pumpkins

If you don't paint it brightly, it looks haunted.

Speaking of bright...

The very last of our foliage shots.

A full truck of cranberries

Prolly gonna need the tree guy...

This column provides 100% of the RDA of Vitamin A.

Wareham bog in the video below...

Cranberries

We'll be back tomorrow with a more focused article.

MIAA Football Playoff Games

Last week, 20-11
Season, 213-107

The eastern finals are upon is. Whoever wins today goes to the State Championship games at Gillette after Thanksgiving.

Let's make some picks!

(N)Tewksbury
Gm 1: 11/17 1pm
at: Cawley Stadium , Lowell
(S)Duxbury

Tewksbury is named for a town in England, which in turn was named after a hermit, who in turn was named after the Greek word for Mary. It was a War Of The Roses battlefield.

Like Duxbury, her roots go back to 1637. Her population is about twice that of Duxbury. One former resident was Anne Sullivan, who was the tutor of Helen Keller.

They went 6-1 this year, crushed Billerica, Beverly and Danvers to get here, and stand between Duxbury and the state championship.

The winner of Duxbury/Tewksbury gets the winner of the Springfield Central/St. John's of Sudbury game.

Duxbury generally owns the North Shore, with Gloucester being a frequent foe.

I am a Duxbury kid and may be exhibiting bias, but I see Dragons ruling the day. I haven't bet against them yet this year, and I always end up smiling.

Duxbury, 20-19

(S)Dighton-Rehoboth
BYE

Due to some flaw in the schedule, Dee Ah gets into the state finals on a bye.

D/R went 5-2, but exploded in the playoffs, outscoring their foes 106-37 over 3 games. At no point were they seriously challenged.

They get the winner of Gloucester and Nashoba.

(N)Swampscott
Gm 1: 11/17 4pm
at: Hanover High School
(S)Scituate

Amazingly, Swampscott isn't named after a swamp. This is a shame, as I was hoping it would be like the Swamp Castle in the Month Python movie. "The first castle sank into the swamp, the second castle sank into the swamp, the third castle caught fire, fell over and sank into the swamp, but the fourth stayed up."

It is actually an Algonquin word for "red rock."

They beat Triton, Pentucket and Amesbury to get here, shutting out Pentucket. The combined record of their playoff opponents was 9-12, with Amesbury having 6 of those wins. They themselves are 6-1.

Scituate is also 6-1, entered the tournament as the 3 seed, and dropped 57 points on undefeated Holliston before shutting out Canton, who had beaten the top seed.

This could be a shootout, bet the Over.

Scituate, 37-35

(S)Old Rochester
BYE

Two teams from the South Coast skate into the Super Bowl on a bye.

Oh Ah is undefeated. They got by Bishop Stang, Dedham and Ashland to get to this point.

They get the winner of Stoneham vs Littleton in the state finals. Littleton, which you think would be small, is almost twice as populous as Rochester, but that's why God made Marion and Mattapoisett. Stoneham athletes are famous for knee injuries.

(N)St. Mary's
Gm 1: 11/17 1pm
at: Hormel Stadium, Medford
(S)Cohasset

Cohasset was the 5th seed in an 8 team field, but that only served to motivate them. They throttled Southeastern, ended top seed Mashpee's 2 year winning streak (there may be kids on Cohasset who were in elementary school when Mashpee last lost), and knocked off Abington to make the EMASS final.

St Mary's, a Lynn school named after the Blessed Virgin herself, is 854 for 854 on Hail Mary passes historically. "We'd throw a Hail Mary on every play, but some of the fine print in Leviticus leads me to believe that Our Lady prefers a West Coast offense," said SM coach Jesus Joseph.

Mary was 4-3 this year, before running Georgetown, Greater Lawerence and the fearsome Nashoba Tech to get to the Big Dance.

Cohasset seems to be on an almost supernatural run, and they will go out the way they went in against the high school from the City of Sin.

Cohasset, 36-21

(N)Pope John
Gm 1: 11/17 12pm
at: Holbrook High School
(S)West Bridgewater

Also attempting to thwart belief that God intervenes in high school football games is West Bridgewater. They went 6-1, were the #1 seed, and smoked Cape Cod Tech, Tri-County and the law firm of Coyle & Cassidy to make the East finals.

St. John's is in Shrewsbury. They are 10-0, beat Tech Boston, Lynn Vocational and Boston English to make this game, and the combined score in those 3 games was 115-16.

Westie is scoring 42 points a game or so, and will be my dark horse pick to knock off the Shrewsbury powerhouse.

The WB, 21-20

South Shore Surf Check, 11/16

The first snow of the year came with a Nor'easter. We started checking the surf in Bourne.

We then went to Marshfield. As you can see in the video below, it was windy.

It wasn't a bad Nor'easter, a C-, but this also about 3 hours after high tide.

If I was out at 5 AM, we'd have better material to work with, but it would be too dark to see anything... always a downer in a visual medium.

Duxbury was next. I didn't see any new seawall damage, but the revetment stones had shifted.

This was, again, hours after high tide.

May as well check Plymouth...

White Cliffs, aiming at Cedarville. Sagamore Beach, our last stop, features in the video below.

Saggy...

Saggy, aiming at Plymouth.