Thanksgiving Celebrations

In a deviation from telling the chronological story of the first year, it seemed good to identify one of the annual celebrations that lasted for quite a few years. The Jesus House Thanksgiving Feast was a unique opporutnity for people to share Thanksgiving with an intimate crowd of 50-100. The first year we celebrated Thanksgiving it was prompted by a practical need. In 1973, I was employed at United Dairy Farmers and scheduled to work on Thanksgiving Day. Since I was not going to my parents house for the day a few of the other staff decided to stay around. Stan & Linda Carter supplied the turkey, my mother sent down her cole slaw (which Andy Wilson ate for the first time then quickly formed an addiction), the rest of us supplied other items. We set up a large piece of plywood on two wooden boxes, surrounded it with pillows and sat on the floor to eat. We thought we were eating just like Jesus! I do not remember everyone who dined with us that day other than Stan, Linda, Andy and Kent Odor. There may have been a few others.

The following year, Judy Gould suggested it would be fun to celebrate Thanksgiving at the Jesus House with friends, so we expanded the event. We had it the evening of Thanksgiving with multiple turkeys, at least one ham and lots and lots of other stuff. About 70 people dined with us so we had to set up mulitple plywood tables!

According to my records this annual event continued through 1980 although we moved it to the Tuesday evening before Thanksgiving. I do not remember why we stopped. I would love to hear your memories of this event especially if any of you remember why we stopped.

This Week in History: Artists Who Performed at the Jesus House the Third Week of November
1971 - Mark O'Hara, Ted Baxendale
1972 - Len Mink
1973 - Dick Mott, Leitourgia
1974 - Jon Owens
1975 - Bruce Kercher
1976 - John Gould
1977 - Odor, Clark & Burns
1978 - Rick Roberts
1979 - Agape Force
1980 - Rick & Diann Marksberry
1981 - Sanctury
1982 - Jews for Jesus
1983 - Harriet Lewis