The Northwoods Puritan

When I was little, we often checked out holiday appropriate picture books from the library. Thanksgiving is a holiday starved for good children's literature, but I do vividly remember one such book. It was called, "Life In The Day of the Pilgrim," or something like that and it basically involved a first Thanksgiving reenactment which had been photographed and turned into a picture book.

By far my favorite part of the whole book was the two-page spread where they showed a young pilgrim girl getting dressed for the day. (Don't worry, they started with their first layer of underclothes on.) Getting dressed when you were a Puritan was a pretty complex process: there were layers upon layers of underclothes, various stockings, overdresses, bonnets, etc. etc. There were at least 14 steps involved in going from your bedclothes to being dressed for the day.

Because I was a really cool young child I liked the idea of having such a methodical dressing routine. When getting ready for Sunday School (the only time I routinely wore a dress and slip as a child) I liked to lay out my tights, slip, dress and shoes and pretend I was Puritan donning my daily layers of clothing. Since getting dressed for church involved only about 1/4 of the clothes necessary for a Puritan, it wasn't a terrible convincing ritual, but at least I was blessed with a good imagination.

Then, the other night, I laid out everything I typically have on when I venture outside on winter days. I'm basically a Northwoods Puritan!

Wherever you are this Thanksgiving, be safe and be happy. Happy Thanksgiving!