美国国家公共电台 NPR 'An Opportunity To Be Thankful': Reflecting On A First Thanksgiving In The U.S.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's Friday, which means¹ it's time for StoryCorps. Fifty years ago, Roy Daley was living in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. He was 23 when a friend offered him a job in the United² States. He hopped³ a plane to Pennsylvania with little more than two shirts and a change of pants. And he came to StoryCorps with his wife, Ana, and his daughter Lucy to talk about his early days in America.

ROY DALEY: When we arrived, I step out of the plane. I look around, and I encounter⁴ a monster. There was this moving step. How do you get on to a moving escalator when you've never done this? So eventually, I negotiated⁵ - I'll just get on it. And as it was going up - it was a long escalator - how do I get off of this escalator?

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DALEY: That was my first challenge⁶ in the United States. We got to Pennsylvania about 10 o'clock, something like that. And so we went up to sleep. And I got up real early in the morning. Finally, I'm in America. I want to see what it looks like. I came downstairs, and I opened up the door. I was in the middle of nowhere. Guess what? There was no leaf on the tree. Nothing. Everything was dead, like if I landed on the moon. I start to wonder, did I make the right move? I came November 7, just before Thanksgiving. I have never seen a Thanksgiving. I've heard about it.

I was invited to dinner. And I was asked to bring a covered dish. So I went to the store, and I purchased the biggest dish with a cover, put it in a bag. When we got to the church, everybody brought all the food. I took out mine, and I hand it to the lady. And everybody started to laugh. And I had no idea what they were laughing about. So my friend translated, yes, plato cubierto - covered dish - means bring a dish with a cover. They did not say to bring food. In Honduras, if you wanted to bring food, you say, hey, bring a plate of food, you know?

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ANA SMITH-DALEY: Here you are 50 years later. Last year was your 50th year of being in this country.

DALEY: Yes, celebrated⁷ 50 years. For the first year I celebrate Thanksgiving, I discover it was an opportunity to be thankful for all the blessings⁸ you receive during the year. And ever since then, the biggest joy of my life is coming here by myself. And today, I have three children, five grandchildren⁹ and a beautiful wife. So I'm truly blessed.

INSKEEP: Roy Daley and Ana Smith-Daley at StoryCorps in Austin, Texas. Their conversation will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress¹⁰.