Happy Thanksgiving!
Most of what I know about Thanksgiving I learned from a TV cartoon with a singing Pilgrim mouse.

Still, truth is sometimes even stranger than holiday programming on network TV.

The first contact between Pilgrims and Native Americans took place when a one Abnaki, visiting from southeast Maine, just walked up to the Pilgrims' settlement (while they were having a military meeting to discuss what to do about the Native Americans spotted around the vicinity, no less) and welcomed them - in English: "Welcome Englishmen. I am Samoset. Do you have any beer?"

The Pilgrims, after recovering from their shock, remembered their manners and replied, "No, our beer is gone... would you like some brandy?"

The Pilgrims had drank all of their beer on the ride over and landed when they did largely so that they could build a brewhouse. They brought Samoset some brandy, a biscuit with butter and cheese, some pudding and a piece of roast duck.

And the rest, as they say, is history.