It’s Thanksgiving, 1990: the Traditional, the Trendy and the Zany

Americans prepared to celebrate the 369th Thanksgiving in festivities ranging from parades and religious services to turkey-bowling.

In Plymouth, Mass., where it all began in 1621, descendants of the Pilgrims and others will sit down to the traditional dinner, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, after a costumed Pilgrim’s Progress procession from Plymouth Rock.

The dinner for 1,400 at Memorial Hall will require two tons of turkey and four seatings.

A Gainesville, Fla., naturalist said that the original Thanksgiving meal was one of the first high-fiber, low-cholesterol feasts served in the New World.

Charlotte Porter, associate curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History, pointed out that the European diet to which the Pilgrims were accustomed was heavy on meat and scant on vegetables, but that New World plants--such as corn, potatoes, beans, peppers, tomatoes and cranberries--revolutionized the diet of the early settlers.

In Boston, vegetarian dissenters said the American diet is still too meat-oriented. They planned a meatless Thanksgiving dinner of tofu “turkey,” French pasta, butternut squash and Swiss torte.

The fifth annual Adopt-a-Turkey campaign, meanwhile, was busy delivering 17 homeless, abused and liberated turkeys to the homes of “animal rights” advocates in eight states.

Less dignified is the unorthodox use of frozen turkeys as bowling balls in Norfolk, Va., and 11 other cities where turkey bowls are scheduled this week.

Three holes are drilled in each turkey so that it can be rolled down the lanes in tournaments held to raise money to feed the poor.

Ron Dresner, marketing assistant for Fair Lanes bowling centers, said that Norfolk was the only city where bowlers can face pins painted with the likeness of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“You’ve got to have some fun with this,” Dresner said.

On a more traditional level, major Thanksgiving Day parades were planned in New York City and Houston. The New York parade, sponsored by Macy’s department store, will feature the usual giant balloon comic characters and something new called a “falloon,” described as a float and balloon combined.