Zeno's Bar & Grill

It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's the one time I can subtly or not-so-subtly work my dual Pilgrim heritage without it being too obvious. That's right, my great-great (insert thirteen more greats here) grandma and grandpa both came over on the Mayflower. Not so easy to slip into casual conversations at other times of the year, but perfect for November.

And this year was a major bonanza since my daughter was assigned to make a doll of an immigrant ancestor and accompanying diorama in honor of Thanksgiving.


Yes, I know there are probably bajillions of other people descended from the hardy souls who crossed the Atlantic on that ship. But, um, hopefully not so many at my daughter's school. Somewhere along the line one of my relatives traced our family's heritage all the way back to John Howland, an indentured servant and Elizabeth Tilley, a fourteen-year old girl at the time of the trip.

My daughter latched onto Elizabeth for her project, even though I tried to convince her that the story about John Howland falling off the Mayflower and having to be pulled aboard was much more exciting (this is a true story, by the way.)

It turns out that Elizabeth was one of only a handful of girls to make the trip. As such, she was among the first European women since Leif Ericsson's sister to set foot on North America. She was probably sent ashore with the other women to do the laundry when they first arrived. We also found her name on a passenger list from William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation.

You will be glad to know that our illustrious anscestor has been duly immortalized in the artistic medium of empty toilet paper roll and clay.

--Melanie