An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving (2008) - Jacqueline Bisset, Helene Joy,

Comedy Club Sheffield Sticker by True North Brew Co

flying atlantic records Sticker by Halestorm

Farm Deutschland Sticker by Milchland Niedersachsen

by Louisa May Alcott

Learning Goals

Identify and enjoy features of classic literature.

Analyze interactions among discourse elements that constitute a genre.

Acquire vocabulary and grammar structures in context.

Develop higher order thinking skills to spot clues, make inferences, think critically and draw conclusions to pose arguments in answer to writing and speaking prompts.

Engage in individual and collaborative group work in integrated language skills.

About the story

Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving (1881) is a heartwarming tale about reuniting family over the holidays. From her short story collection, Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag (1872-1882), it is featured in Thanksgiving Stories.
It’s a simple story of a time long ago and far away (very early 19th century), starring a country family in New Hampshire, “poor in money, but rich in land and love …” Familiar themes but I never grow tired of them, especially when the world today is so full of uncertainty and misery.

The Author

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters were primarily educated by their father, teacher/philosopher A. Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau, and theatricals in the barn at "Hillside" (now "The Wayside"). Like the character of "Jo March" in Little Women, young Louisa was a tomboy.

For Louisa, writing was an early passion.
At age 15, troubled by the poverty plaguing her family, she vowed, "I will do something by and by. Whether as a teacher, seamstress, governess, or household servant, for many years Louisa did any work she could find.

Louisa’s career as an author began at the age of eight with poetry, and later short stories that appeared in popular magazines. In 1854, when she was 22, her first book, Flower Fables, was published.
In 1868, when Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher, Thomas Niles, asked her to write "a girls' story."
Virtually overnight, Little Women was a phenomenal success, primarily due to its timeless storytelling about the first American juvenile heroine, "Jo March," who acted from her own individuality ,

In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of short stories and poems. She died on 6 March 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord

Source

The Story

Sixty years ago, up among the New Hampshire hills, lived Farmer Bassett, with a house full of sturdy sons and daughters growing up about him. They were poor in money, but rich in land and love, for the wide acres of wood, corn, and pasture land fed, warmed, and clothed the flock, while mutual patience, affection, and courage made the old farm-house a very happy home.
November had come; the crops were in, and barn, buttery, and bin were overflowing with the harvest that rewarded the summer's hard work. The big kitchen was a jolly place just now, for in the great fireplace roared a cheerful fire; on the walls hung garlands of dried apples, onions, and corn; up aloft from the beams shone crook-necked squashes, juicy hams, and dried venison—for in those days deer still haunted the deep forests, and hunters flourished. Savory smells were in the air; on the crane hung steaming kettles, and down among the red embers copper sauce-pans simmered, all suggestive of some approaching feast.
A white-headed baby lay in the old blue cradle that had rocked seven other babies, now and then lifting his head to look out, like a round, full moon, then subsided to kick and crow contentedly, and suck the rosy apple he had no teeth to bite. Two small boys sat on the wooden settle shelling corn for popping, and picking out the biggest nuts from the goodly store their own hands had gathered in October.