Hi Everybody, Have you missed me ? Surely you have missed being bullied to stand up or sit down, or to come to the Altar to be blessed or to take the Sacrament? Yes it's little Bossy Barbara! ......... No, not the little Barbara that does everything- Sunday School, Tea and Coffee ,giving out the service books and any other jobs she takes on. No I'm the Cockney one..self styled ambassador for the Isle of Dogs! Well, at the moment I'm in Florida , it's a tough life, but someone has to live it. 

 The Florida Keys are small coral islands joined by many bridges carrying the US 1 road from Key West to the mainland of the United States. I don't like making sweeping statements but most of the people who live here are very, very rich. Their yachts are like ocean going liners, and they are dripping in diamonds. BUT, as a community the people of the Keys seem to be the most generous and philanthropic people I have ever encountered. They must have read in the Bible about rich people and the camel going through the eye of a needle!  There are a great many churches here of all denominations and they do lots for the community. 

Last Sunday I went to a small open air church.  It was very informal, but the preacher was really moving; he asked us to attend a fundraising day nearby for a local lady with lots of health problems, including various amputations, to help pay for her care and rehabilitation. It was a great success - all the food , drink and raffle prizes were donated by local businesses.

My husband Don and I are very fortunate to be able to visit a sort of social or community club called the Moose Lodge. There, we rub shoulders with millionaires and regular guys like us. These Moose Lodges are all over the country providing somewhere to go to take part in lots of activities, but also to have a place just to meet friends and eat, and feel that you belong. Their fundraised amounts for good causes are truly huge, and  they help so many people.  'Our' Moose Lodge is nicknamed the 'Gucci Moose' as there are so many rich people there attired in designer label clothing! Although a few patrons have been spotted wearing George at Asda and M&S, no names mentioned.

Fortunately in this very exclusive area there are food banks for the poor people working in the service industries, and used furniture shops selling the most beautiful expensive donated items cheaply to actually build homes for needy families. Our friends have been to four or five fundraising events in the last two weeks. I was surprised and was told it was Fundraising Season and everyone should be 'thankful'! The 'haves' in this area seem really to care about the 'have nots'.  

Next week it is Thanksgiving Day; it's always a Thursday at the end of November and is a public holiday ,originally to celebrate the survival of some of the first settlers in the US after a very hard first winter. I mean of course the Pilgrim Fathers who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 near Cape Cod and called their settlement Plymouth. The journey from England had been hazardous and some of the crew and passengers had died at sea. The terrain wasn't particularly good for wheat planting and the weather was also pretty extreme, consequently over a third of the settlers died of illness and malnutrition in the first few months. If it hadn't been for the help of the local Wampanoag tribe they would never have survived that first winter. The Wampanoag (People of the First Light) showed the pilgrims how to trap animals and birds for food and to grow maize. They also helped them to construct thatched huts to live in. Without their help the new arrivals would have perished. 

The Thanksgiving holiday is so important that families try to be together for that day and eat turkey ( one of the available birds to trap) and sweetcorn ( an easier crop to grow) as part of their celebratory meal. The  Moose Lodge opens its doors on Thanksgiving to everyone irrespective of race and creed to give them a Thanksgiving meal at no cost and somewhere to eat it in safety and companionship.  It's an act of thankfulness and giving things back .....all the food is donated.  

A few years ago my daughter Alex and I helped to serve the meals. I was asked why we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving in England.  After explaining that the Pilgrim Fathers had left England and had been grateful for their survival in their new country, I conceded that perhaps we should have our own Thanksgiving in Church and remember all the things we are thankful for , and people we are grateful to , for their fellowship, kindness and hard work - like the other little Barbara.

Happy Thanksgiving, anyway

Barbara Liddell.