Turkey day!

today it is thanksgiving. its also called turkey day, i learned from various sources, which i find very funny. as the sign above for the liquor store at mc grath highway, leading to somerville where we lived the first 3 months. however, no liquor today. this store was closed as most other stores as well (even many fast food restaurants were closed) basically, everything was closed, aside from a small shop here and there..

i just spent the evening reading up on thanksgiving on wikipedia. that was very informative. maybe i recapitulate all that knowledge here once; there may be some origins also of this feast in the netherlands! but now its time for bed...

happy thanksgiving! :) we had some chicken nuggets... thats what we could find in our freezer being closest to turkey..

When retired...

... you can do the entire day what you want... no? 

we were having a walk a week or 2 ago, on sunday. got out at haymarket, but there was no market, so we turned the other way and ended up in the north end, where we hadnt been before. small houses, small streets, many restaurants and tourists. in one of the many boston travelguides we have i read that in the mid to late 19th century many immigrants arrived here and by 1920, 90% of the population was italian. apparently nowadays still 50% of the people there are of italian descent (that is something i noticed; many americans are real proud to be a real american. but! dont forget and please be aware that in fact they ARE 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16th european on their mother's/father's side, and yes, still would like to visit that country once...).

anyways.. then we came by a deserted ice-skating rink, and next to it were quite some old men, smoking, playing jeux de boules or watching the game from a comfortable chair. i was taking some pictures through the glass, but then we were invited inside (bugh, what a smoke!), and we talked a little (and i took this one crappy pic..). yes yes, they were all italian (see flag) and all retired and playing this game every (every!) day... in winter here inside, in summer closeby outside....