In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn feast, acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. What foods topped their tables? Historians aren't sure, but it's a pretty safe bet that mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie weren't on the menu. The only items known for sure on the menu were venison and wild fowl.

The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot food. Salt was on the table, but pepper, while used for cooking wasn't available on the table.

In the 17th century, a persons social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't sample everything that was on the table, they just ate what was closest to them.

Serving in the seventeenth century was also very different from today. People weren't served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and people took the food from the table and ate it.

Pilgrims also didn't eat in courses as we do today. All types of food were placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose.

Our modern dinner is centered on the turkey, not so for the pilgrims. Their meal included many different meats. Vegetables didn't play much of a part either. The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the feast. Although they had brought sugar with them on the Mayflower, by the time of the feast the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven, so pies, cakes and breads were not possible.

The food that was available might have seemed fatty by todays standards, but the colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attacks were the least of their worries. The plague and pox were their worries.

The pilgrims used many spices in their cooking, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper and dried fruit. The best way to cook was to roast, and when roasting meat, someone was assigned to sit by the meat, his only job to turn the spit.

The biggest meal was the noon meal. It was called "noonmeat." The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper then would be a smaller meal served at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous days "noonmeat." In a pilgrim household the adults sat down to eat, and the children waited on them.

Throughout the years, America's celebrations of thanks have held great meaning as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of good food for the yearly Thanksgiving meal. Although the first Thanksgiving took place in 1621 in Plymouth Colony, in present day Massachusetts, it wasn't until President Lincoln that it was declared a national day of Thanksgiving and still it took until 1941 before it was made into an official national holiday.

And for all you football fans, the first Thanksgiving NFL game was in 1934, between the Detroit Lyons and the Chicago Bears at the University of Detroit stadium in front of 26,000 fans.