Day of Thanksgiving (1951)

[Music] [Music] I'm Bill Johnson around here they just call me dad I've been trying to read but I just can't seem to do it I keep thinking about today Thanksgiving Day we Johnson's had a good Thanksgiving the best we've ever had and I can't help thinking that what made it better was a feeling a real feeling of thankfulness and that's odd too when you consider the shape things were in when I got home from work yesterday my kids dick and Tommy and Susan were all home from school and of course mother and the baby were there as kids will mine were living tomorrow right along with today looking forward to Thanksgiving and like most men I'm glad it was mother instead of me who had to break the news to them tomorrow's Thanksgiving M turkey and dressing and pie and cake and fruit salad and whipped cream and cranberries gee I can hardly wait me too well you know children we've had a lot of expenses this month and well your father and I thought that well the truth of the matter is there just won't be any turkey this year no turkey for Thanksgiving oh I'm going to make a pumpkin pie and we'll have plenty to eat but well we'll just have to get along without turkey mom you don't mean it it won't be Thanksgiving at all even the pilgrims at a feast after all isn't that what thanksgiving's for I don't think it's fair and it was right there that I came in right in the thick of it hello everybody hi hell mother dick Susan well what's been going on around here what's the matter with everybody anyway mom says we're not going to have any Thanksgiving no turkey no good thing a fat lot we're going to have to be thankful for I don't think you kids really mean that we do too we've always had turkey for Thanksgiving yes and everybody else in the Block's going to have it this year same as always yes we've always had turkey just as a lot of Americans have had it and we'll keep on having it turkey on Thanksgiving is a great American tradition but what you kids are saying makes it sound as if the turkeyy is the only thing we had to be thankful for well G was no Dad it's not that at all I know dick with turkey it's easy to lose sight of what Thanksgiving really means and don't think we're just making excuses because we we don't have any turkey this year we well we know it'll mean a lot more to us the next time we do have it well sure suppose we don't have a bang up Feast we're still a lot better off than the pilgrims that's it dick and do you other the kids see what Dick's trying to say turkey or no turkey we've still got all the freedoms and privileges the pilgrims gave us those privileges have come a lot of things things the pilgrims never even dream of why we can make a list a mile long why don't we do it but now hold on a minute you've got the idea but it isn't something you can write down like well like a grocery list you've got to feel it down deep before you can really be thankful for anything I tell you what let's do and let's take a little more time to think this over when you get right down to it there are some pretty tough decisions in making up your mind what means the most to you your life sure that's one thing you can't get along without but do you know that there are some some places in the world today where you have to get along without just about everything else golly Daddy I guess I kind of got carried away but I'll bet you one thing if we really think over what we have to be thankful for when we sit down to whatever mother fixes to eat tomorrow we'll be one family in America that will really have a Thanksgiving dinner well that's how it got started the Johnson's didn't have any turkey and the kids no I mean everybody likes to make something special out of a special day so we fell back on something as old as the pilgrims toting up the common ordinary blessings that we had to be thankful for that night I'd see dick there building his model airplane and Susan just playing only they weren't just playing they were mulling things over thinking big thoughts for such young heads and as for mother and Tom and baby Janet and yes me too it was as if we had our eyes open for the first time seeing all the things there were to appreciate in just any Ordinary Day in America when Thanksgiving Day got here we took our places around the table and we were ready and then well we all knew it there are some things you just can't say but everybody in his own way knew what he had to be thankful for and that this was the time to think about it Tom was first I am thankful for getting plenty to eat all the time with extras that count like cookies and milk after school like Mom says I'm hungry all the time anyway and if I didn't live in a country where there is ples who go around golly and I'm thankful for the free public library where I can get books about Adventure Jack London Richard halberton gee the way they tell a story it's as good as being there yourself and it's free with only a library card yes Tommy thought about some of the things he ought to be glad for all the time and somehow turkey and trimming seem to matter a whole lot less than he thought they did yesterday well then it was Susan's turn Susan's a happy go-lucky kid you'd never credit her with Thinking Beyond her dolls but she got right into the spirit of it I am thankful we have what we need to wear though mother says it's hard to keep up with us we grow so fast I never thought before how many clothes it takes for all kinds of weather or how it would be to have to do without the right ones I'm glad to be able to go to Sunday school or go to any church I want any Sunday I'm thankful for my mother and daddy that they are here with us that both of them aren't too worried about things to take time to have fun with us I'm glad we're a family that families are still important in America I guess dick being the oldest was having some pretty serious thoughts I am thankful for being able to get an education for living where schools all schools open their doors to a guy who wants to learn where school books are studied instead of burned where a GU is rated by how much he knows and the community is by how well it teaches him I'm glad I've got a chance to play batting a ball around once in a while stuff like that I'm glad it's fun growing up in America sure baby Janet's too young to understand the big word Thanksgiving she's too little even to tell us the things that make her happy but we can tell and maybe she's thinking about them now maybe she's thinking about the fun of splashing around in the tub and about how good it feels to be clean about playtime with mother and the security she feels in mother's arms and as for mother seems she's always working cooking ironing tending children daylight to dark what does she have to be thankful for I am thankful that my children had the privilege of being born safely and of growing up healthy and strong I'm thankful that I have the privilege of guiding them useful men and women and I'm thankful for all the things our American System makes possible for the Smiths and the Browns and the Johnson's for washing machines hot water out of a tap and a telephone to call the doctor when one of the family is sick a car to get Dad to work the yes I'm thankful for all the things free people working together can produce I'm thankful that when my neighbor drops in to borrow a cup of flour we've got the right to talk about anything we want to the parent teacher project the new mayor or or Jane Jones hat and last of all I'm truly thankful for the peace of mind that Dad's job brings for knowing that even though there are lots of luxuries we can't afford there still will always be enough to go around for the things we have to have I'm glad Dad doesn't work slave hours that there are evenings and Sundays and vacations when we can all be together that's mother for you grateful for what America means to her family and now for me I've got so many things to be thankful for I'm thankful for this house it may need a coat of paint it has a mortgage but it's ours a place where we can be together in privacy and I'm thankful for the thing that makes this house our home the happiness here not just today or on Christmas morning but on a day-to-day basis all through the year for knowing that a knock on our door means nothing to fear a friend calling or maybe a bill collector or a kid selling magazines you never know what to expect but you can count on one thing it's not going to be some political gangster coming to drag one of us off to jail because we believe in Freedom and I'm glad that that freedom we've got lets me choose the kind of work I like and can do best taking a sluggish motor and making it hum again makes me feel that somebody got to his work or wherever he had to go just because of me and feeling like that gives me a lot of satisfaction and I'm thankful for a newspaper just a few cents worth of printers ink and paper but more valuable than any amount of money because in it the editors got the privilege of printing what he thinks and I've got the privilege of agreeing with him or not however the facts strike me and both of us the editor and I have the right to act on our opinions on Election Day to vote for the principles we believe in and finally I'm thankful for being able to believe in spite of everything that somehow someway the unity we've got here in the Johnson family will someday spread to men and Nations throughout the world all these [Music] amen [Music] aen amen