So when the Indians and Pilgrims sat down together back in 1621, they had a successful harvest for which to be thankful. It was their celebration of the bountiful supply and the coming together of two peoples who had feared each other in the beginning.

Now it’s 2010 and, for the second time, groups in Vicksburg and Warren County who previously at least didn’t agree with each other have come together over plates of food — albeit french toast and coffee instead of corn and wild game — in a modicum of camaraderie that could knock the proverbial ice off relations between the Board of Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Vicksburg and the Warren County Board of Supervisors, ice that was rock-hard solid for nearly all of the eight years of the previous city administration.

In the breakfast meeting at a motel last week, little of substance was discussed, but that’s OK. If these meetings continue monthly — as participants loosely agreed upon Monday — hey, at least they’re talking and, who knows, substance could come.

Look around. No entity in this area, the city, the county, the schools, manufacturers, retailers, even the hand-over-fist money-making casinos are bringing in the bucks of previous years. The economy stinks, sales taxes are down, tourism is down; generally, people who have money are afraid to spend and those who don’t have money are not terribly high on the idea of having much real soon.

Sure, some federal money is trickling in, but it’s clear who’ll end up paying down that note, too.

So maybe the time is right for a new sense of cooperation.

All said, maybe the city and the county — in conjunction with legislators who could guide some changes — can drink coffee, eat a biscuit and actually work together. It sure can’t hurt.