Elleda Wilson: No turkey?

Nov. 24—Was wild turkey served at the first Thanksgiving at the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts in 1621?

Gov. William Bradford, describing the autumn harvest of 1621, wrote, "And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion."

So, wild turkeys were harvested, yet scholars still think the Thanksgiving group of Pilgrims and Native Americans probably feasted on other fowl instead, such as duck, geese, swan or even passenger pigeons.

Actually, it's believed that Bradford's "great store of turkeys" observation is what started the association of turkeys with Thanksgiving dinner. After his journal containing the comment was reprinted in 1856, "before long," the Encyclopedia Britannica says, "the cultural links between Pilgrims, turkeys and Thanksgiving became an inextricable and integral part of American schoolchildren's education."