The old days...No thanksgiving for this family ..what has happened to us ?

[tcreeley]

Nice old clip, my wife and I watched it and really enjoyed it.

Our family has more than usual to be thankful for this year.

It's our first son's first Thanksgiving. He's almost 8 months old and as healthy as can be.

My hours were cut back at work to 32 per week a couple months ago and 1/4 of our workforce was let go. I've been there for 20 years and decided to go ahead and work 40 perweek for 32 hours pay. The owner was very grateful. Last week he put me back on 40 hours. I can tell you, being the only bread winner in our family, it was a relief to hear we had a few sales go through.

My situation now isn't much different than my father's was in the 1960's. He cut hair for $1.50 per head and never knew how many customer would show up day to day. He took on 2 other jobs to make ends meet, working the grain elevator and framing houses.

Over the past 7 years I've learned how lucky we are to be born in the USA. My wife is from the Philippines and I've traveled there 3 times now. She grew up with no running water, no stove, no restroom, basically nothing and barely enough rice and fish to survive. Some of the stories I've heard and seen are just heartbreaking. She still has family there and we try to help as much as we can.

Very Very Thankfully Yours,

Kevin, Jena, and Kyle

Happy Thanksgiving! Congrats on your family and son!

 

[JD 4520]

Gee Whiz Dad, a Thanksgiving Without Turkey?! A Lesson From 1951 - NationalJournal.com

Great little video with a powerful message. We have much to be thankful for. Many blessings to you all.

 

[Mace Canute]

Gee Whiz Dad, a Thanksgiving Without Turkey?! A Lesson From 1951 - NationalJournal.com

I was around for that Thanksgiving. I guess that dates me, eh?

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I was around for that Thanksgiving. I guess that dates me, eh?

And so was I. I was about 13 years old in 1951. The message was clear and well presented, and certainly reflectd the sentiments of that time. It is not (and was not) credible from the perspective that the family was too prosperous to not have a turkey on Thanksgiving. Had they chose to not have a turkey as a symbolic gesture to emphasize what they really had to be thankful for, it would have made sense. Anyone in their position should have and could have had a turkey.

At that time we lived in a 3 room house (3 boys, Mom and Dad) no running water, no indoor plumbing, no central heat. Mom heated her wash water in a cast iron kettle in the front yard; the wash was hung on a clothes line, we took baths in a galvanized wash tub. No telephone. Our clothes were all well worn; I had to put cardboard in the bottom of my shoes to keep my feet off the ground. My baseball bat was a sledge hammer handle; my baseball glove was made by my Mom from pillow ticking (you know, the old striped stuff they made pillows from), filled with cotton. My Dad cut our hair at home; I wore overalls that you could buy for $1.25 a pair, instead of Levis which cost two or three times as much.

We ate a lot of squirrels, quail, fish, rabbits; we gathered possum grapes and wild blackberries. My Dad never wore a suit in his life, except maybe at my daughter's wedding. Our school lunches cost $1.00 per week per child; we took our lunches about half the time because the folks didn't always have the $2.00 per week for the lunches.

BUT...We had turkey for Thanksgiving every year.

 

[ncnurseryman]

Great stories of the past and what's important for the family.

 

[creekbend]

Nice old clip, my wife and I watched it and really enjoyed it.

Our family has more than usual to be thankful for this year.

It's our first son's first Thanksgiving. He's almost 8 months old and as healthy as can be.

My hours were cut back at work to 32 per week a couple months ago and 1/4 of our workforce was let go. I've been there for 20 years and decided to go ahead and work 40 perweek for 32 hours pay. The owner was very grateful. Last week he put me back on 40 hours. I can tell you, being the only bread winner in our family, it was a relief to hear we had a few sales go through.

My situation now isn't much different than my father's was in the 1960's. He cut hair for $1.50 per head and never knew how many customer would show up day to day. He took on 2 other jobs to make ends meet, working the grain elevator and framing houses.

Over the past 7 years I've learned how lucky we are to be born in the USA. My wife is from the Philippines and I've traveled there 3 times now. She grew up with no running water, no stove, no restroom, basically nothing and barely enough rice and fish to survive. Some of the stories I've heard and seen are just heartbreaking. She still has family there and we try to help as much as we can.

Very Very Thankfully Yours,

Kevin, Jena, and Kyle

Thanks for posting. There is an old adage that goes somewhat like this:"One doesn't appreciate things, until they are gone". We, as Humans, tend to take things for granted. Best wishes to your entire Family.This comes from the bottom of my Heart and Soul.

 

[Jstpssng]

How do you guys find these things;

Every generation has tried to make life a little easier for their kids than they had it.

Somehow though recognising the effort involved to make ends meet has gotten lost along the way.

We always had food on the table, clean clothes, and a warm place to stay; I always took it for granted that everybody lived that way.

 

[tcreeley]

Living on a farm, there was always food, but sometimes, not much else. As sorry as I might have felt for myself at any given moment- for not having what my friends had, I recognized that the people who came to stay with us and live on the farm had less, much less. -15 - 16 year olds, newly weds with a baby, lumberjacks, middle age men, white haired men, families with children, mentally challenged people. They were people and all were broke.
My mother prepared meals for everyone. It was just what happened. Everyone depended on everyone else to get the work done. There was always work to do.
Today I can't walk by the less fortunate because they are real people to me- no matter how they got that way or how they look and act. They still need food and a place to sleep.

 

[sseelhoff]

I was around for that Thanksgiving. I guess that dates me, eh?

At least you found someone willing to date you, eh?

(I used babblefish to translate that into Canadian.)

 

[ljohnson778]

Living on a farm, there was always food, but sometimes, not much else. As sorry as I might have felt for myself at any given moment- for not having what my friends had, I recognized that the people who came to stay with us and live on the farm had less, much less. -15 - 16 year olds, newly weds with a baby, lumberjacks, middle age men, white haired men, families with children, mentally challenged people. They were people and all were broke.
My mother prepared meals for everyone. It was just what happened. Everyone depended on everyone else to get the work done. There was always work to do.
Today I can't walk by the less fortunate because they are real people to me- no matter how they got that way or how they look and act. They still need food and a place to sleep.

X2 brother, X2...