November 2006 – Edition 19

To help our US readers to celebrate Thanksgiving we have
asked Big Bill to report on Thanksgivings held in Heaven
by the Jerrems clan.

We trust this arrives in time as you gather your family
“down here”. This month’s edition covers what goes on
“up there”. Enjoy.

Ray in Sydney has asked me to tell you about the annual
Jerrems Thanksgiving Dinner, which is held each year in our
village’s Entertainment Hall.

Before I get started on Thanksgiving I would like to say
something about my nickname “Big Bill”. This name is purely
Ray’s invention because there are 9 consecutive generations
of Jerrems people named “William” (I am the third one, born
in 1782) and (so he says) my nickname distinguishes me from the
others. He assures me that it not intended to be disrespectful
of my robust 18 stone frame.

Some of your readers may not be familiar with the origins of
Thanksgiving. Briefly, it goes back to the early 1620s when the
original settlers in the US celebrated their first corn harvest,
after a terrible winter in which half of the settlers had died.
In the US Thanksgiving Dinner is of higher significance than
Christmas dinner.

You may think it strange that my wife and I, born in
Gainsborough in England in the late 1700s and never having lived
in the US, should be invited to the US Jerrems Thanksgiving
Dinners. The story goes back to the 1860s. When my wife
Elizabeth and I arrived in Heaven there were a lot of my
family there, going back 3 generations, and some other English
relatives. But there were only a few Jerrems people who had been
born in the US or had lived there.

David Jerrems, who had served in the Revolutionary War in
1771, was their oldest member, and Thanksgiving was a very
haphazard affair. But things changed when young Jesse and
Samuel Jerrems, who were killed in Virginia while fighting
for the Union in the Civil War, arrived in 1862. They were so
homesick that my kind wife took them under her wing. They had
grown up on a farm in Utica, north of New York, so we all had a
farming background and had lots to reminisce about. My wife, who
is a marvellous cook, suggested that she prepare a slap-up
Thanksgiving dinner for the boys and ask all the relatives
along. It was a great success and we have been doing it ever
since.

The ranks of the US Jerrems clan has of course swelled since
those days, helped considerably by my grandson William George
and his family.

We do not restrict the invitation list to people named Jerrems.
Some are ancestors on the maternal side. The best example of
this is Alexander Nicholl, who is the father of Mary
Nicholl, who married my grandson William George l.
Another is Patrick Joseph Healy, who is the father of
Mark Healy, who married Annie Letitia Jerrems (we
call her “Anne”), the youngest of William George l’s daughters.

Of course some people from large families only come to our
dinner occasionally because they go to other dinners as well. By
way of example, Alexander Nicholl had 10 children and
Patrick Joseph Healy had 12, so we only see them
occasionally.

FOOD AND DRESS

My wife has made sure over the years that we have traditional
Thanksgiving fare at the dinner. Personally I would like
Yorkshire pudding to be added, but Elizabeth says if she agrees
with that then she would have to agree to haggis
(Alexander Nicholl’s favourite) and billy tea and mutton
(suggested by my grandchildren who grew up in Australia). That
convinced me not to insist on Yorkshire pudding.

People can come dressed in “smart casual” (as they now call it)
if they like. Having come from a farming background in
Gainsborough this suits me fine, but others like to dress more
formally. Alexander Nicholl wears a kilt and all his Scottish
paraphernalia but we draw the line at him eating his helping of
Thanksgiving turkey with his dirk. My grandson William George
l and his sons William George, Alexander Nicholl, Arthur Wallace
and Donald Edwin like to dress up in true “Jerrems Tailors”
formal clothes. Mark Healy ll wears very suave 1930s
sports clothes. At the other end of the scale your editor’s
father sometimes wears a track suit and joggers.

The men are very conservative in their dress compared with the
women, who have developed the idea of wearing the clothes they
wore on Earth in their era. My wife wears an 1820s bonnet which
she used to wear to Church and my great great granddaughter
Sydney wears a smart suit.

ENTERTAINMENT

There has been considerable discussion and experimentation on
the subject of entertainment at the Dinners over the 144 years
we have been having them.

After the Civil War ended Samuel and Jesse Jerrems
celebrated by bringing some of their friends (including several
Johnny Rebs) along. They sang some of the Civil War songs to us,
but the songs (for instance “The Vacant Chair” and “Lorena”)
were so melancholy that everyone ended up in tears. I could
understand why the Army Generals had banned the singing of
“Lorena” by their soldiers. On the plus side it was good to see
that all the soldiers on both sides had become good friends.

After that episode there was sporadic discussion about whether
we should play musical instruments instead but nothing
eventuated for a long time. Then, in the early 1900s when he
first arrived, Alexander Nicholl (a rather forceful
personality, if I may say so) wanted to play the bagpipes.
Luckily St Peter had imposed a complete ban on the playing of
bagpipes in Heaven so this saved us from telling Alex that we
did not want him to play them. For once I agreed with St Peter.

The subject of après dinner music lapsed again for some more
years, until Mark Healy l arrived. He and his father
Patrick Joseph Healy put their experience in the famous
musical firm of Lyon & Healy to good use by making a harp.
Not one of those fiddly little harps that the angels and cherubs
play, but a big concert harp which was the same 1880s design as
Wagner had acclaimed. Mark’s wife Anne has been playing
it after dinner ever since. If the angels are having choir
practice next door at the time they come in quietly to listen.
Editor’s Note Mandolin pictured. We have an archived
story on the musical firm.

Speaking of angels reminds me that one time the angels’ choir
came in to listen to Anne’s playing they asked if we would like
them to sing some songs, accompanied by Anne. But their
repertoire was limited because St Peter had issued an edict that
angel choirs could only sing hymns. Unfortunately their hymns
reminded us of funerals, putting a real dampener on our
celebrations, so we did not repeat that idea.

I am really looking forward to a discussion, which is bound to
occur at the Dinner later this week, between my great grandson
William George ll and our most recent arrival William
George lV (known as Jerry lV) about their collections.

Previously the title of “The Greatest Jerrems Collector” clearly
went to William George ll. He collected coins (for which
he was best known), postage stamps, fossils, Indian artifacts,
books and medals. But Jerry has been a collector also. He had a
Pullman railway carriage and a caboose (known as a guard’s van
in Australia) in his back yard. I imagine that he will argue
that his collection is much bigger than WG ll’s collections in
terms of weight.

On the subject of trains, the topic of transport often crops up
amongst the men at the dinner. Personally I prefer a horse to
trains and the new fangled cars, but it needs to be a big horse.
William George ll boasts that he was the first of the
Jerrems family to buy a car. He often tells the story of how his
second wife Genevieve borrowed it in about 1905 and was
booked for exceeding the 20 mph speed limit in a town outside
Chicago. Shortly after he paid the fine she showed her
appreciation by eloping with another fellow.

Mark Healy used to have a Cadillac in the early 1930s on
the family farm in Arizona, but it got washed away in a flood.
At least my horse would have had the sense to keep away from the
floodwaters. Mark says that the prize for the fanciest car
should go to his son Mark,, who owned a 1932 Auburn
Speedster (pictured) which looked like lightning on wheels.

My wife tells me that Patrick Joseph Healy and Alexander
Nicholl will both be coming this year, the first time they
have both come at the same time since 1981 (Elizabeth keeps a
diary setting out when people have come before, and the recipes
she used). There should be some lively discussions between the
Irishman and the Scotsman, they were both very successful
businessmen in the US at almost the same time, commencing in
Chicago in the late1860s.

We get an interesting range of accents at the Dinners. Some
English, Scottish, Irish, and northern and southern US. If any
Aussies are invited they add to the cacophony.

It is a pity that Thanksgiving is held on the fourth Thursday in
November, only a month before Christmas. It does not give
Elizabeth much time to prepare for the avalanche of Aussie
relatives at Christmas.

Finally, Elizabeth and I send our kind regards to all
your readers, particularly those attending Thanksgiving dinners
later this week.

=======================
PS: Please keep that pesky ghost, Old Rascal Ray, down
there for another hundred years.

We might have to dispatch him across the pond to the US, so he
can perform his mischief to other parts of the Empire.

Jerrems Family Quiz

We are introducing a new feature to make sure that everyone has
been paying attention and reading their monthly Jerrems
Journals. After 20 months, we are starting with a 4-question
quiz this month. Don’t worry we grade on the curve, but we know
you are all “above average”.

Click Here to Take the Quiz <=== Don't Forget.