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Thanksgiving Day is about gratitude. Thankfulness for the blessings of the year, of family and friends. And we can take a moment to be thankful for the small, silly things that have made our life better. A lesson from my grandfather.
That’s my featured image for today. My maternal grandpa Bob, with the Thanksgiving turkey circa 1952. He was a charming man and a fun grandpa. It didn’t take much for him to find a way to make us laugh. He could sit at the dinner table and spin a tale for us of The Hero, The Damsel in Distress, and The Villain, using just a napkin as a prop to play all three parts.
And he enjoyed telling us of the old days (he was born in 1901) and how different things were now (“now” being the 1960s) and then he would say he was thankful for the “light bulb”. “The light bulb, grandpa? That’s silly!” And he would explain he grew up in rural Pennsylvania with kerosene lamps and an outhouse. “Come to think of it,” he mused, “I’m pretty thankful for the toilet, too.”
And we’d burst into giggles at that.
But it made us think. Among all our blessings of the big stuff, there is the silly, little overlooked things that make our lives easier or more fun. My mom (just turned 93!) is grateful for ball point pens. A southpaw, she went to school at the time of ink wells and dip pens which made avoiding smearing the written text an exercise in contortion.
And as I enter my seventh decade and look back, there are so many little things I’m grateful for …
1) VCRs — growing up, you either made sure to watch your favorite show when it aired or caught a rerun during the summer. That was it, friends.
2) Photocopy machines — my first big girl job as a junior secretary? Two or three copies of the letter your boss wanted typed meant using carbon paper between sheets of typing paper. And bless be the inventors of printer technology!
Come on now, friends. I have a long list of tiny gratitudes. But I want to hear yours. What things have become must haves in your everyday life that make it better or more convenient or even just more fun?
I’m looking forward to reading your comments. I can hear my grandpa laughing now.
And a blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours.
featured image copyright Click Family photos
Kate says: Grandpa Bob looks like our kind of guy! ❤️
Bob says: Thank you for your message of Thanksgiving. You are truly blessed by family and friends.
In addition to my family, we are grateful to the community that sustains us with food, drink, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education, and a justice system.
Let us give thanks, also, to the foresight of our nation’s founders, who penned a constitution based on natural rights, which our servants in the government take oaths to defend. The recent election could have turned out so differently, plunging us into a dark age. But now: let us be thankful that the election process worked as envisioned.
Finally, I am grateful to God, who looked after me even when I wasn’t thankful for His presence.
Edward Lunny says: Hm, tiny gratitudes? Electronic ignition and fuel injection in our automobiles. How many folks remember manual chokes, distributors with points and condensers, and frequent tune ups, i.e. 12,000 miles or less.
ALLAN says: Amen! And now dats gatherings are smaller, families are smaller, we had family gather and the house was so full tables upstairs, and in the basement were loaded with family, thank you for sharing, Grandpa Bob sounds like my grandfather, always with a story,
Royal Idiot says: Modern medicine…….without it I and many more wouldn’t be here today to give thanks…….
Lewis says: That’s a nice remembrance of your Grandfather! Mine is a little wooden figure of a Pilgrim man who strides along my bookshelf every Thanksgiving. My Grampie made him with his jigsaw, mounted him on a tiny log! My auntie painted his hat, walking stick, and cloak. He stands a bit more than 6″ and reminds me of the Thanksgiving table where adults sat at the big table and the cousins squabbled together at the kids’ table! Those days he had lots of “family” himself, more figurines, wooden turkeys, punkins, kept him company. I fear he is the last of his breed!
This time of year I think of the real Pilgrims who bet their lives on the New World. My family has roots back to the first landing, both sides of our parents’ marriages, and I am grateful for that knowledge. Talk about electric lights, toilets, automobiles, shelter, food! It’s all so easy for us compared to that first landing. What’s not to be grateful for?
Scott says: Me and mine are still on the sunny side of the grass.. Things may be tight, and some of the family refuses to associate with :garbage” such as us, but we’re still here, and not planning on going anywhere soon, and I think that’s plenty to be thankful for about now..
And as of two weeks ago, our republic has a chance to survive, and I’m pretty thankful for that as well.
Scott says: On a not unrelated note, watching “It’s a Wonderful Life ” right now.. good movie for resetting your priorities… Or reminding you of them.
Royal Idiot says: Modern medicine…….without it I and many more wouldn’t be here today to give thanks…….
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