Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, All! :-)

Cover to LIFE Magazine, November 22, 1923

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

I hope that you have a wonderful holiday with your loved ones.



“The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth,” Jennie A. Brownscombe, 1914

Throwback Thursday: this ad for the WOR-TV Channel 9 Thanksgiving monster movie marathon!

Here’s just a nifty newspaper advertisement for WOR-TV Channel 9’s annual Thanksgiving monster movie marathon — about which I’ve posted once or twice before.

I actually remember nearly all of this lineup from watching in the 1980’s!  The three big-gorilla flicks came first, in glorious black and white, with the Godzilla entries after.  (The only movie below that doesn’t ring a bell for me is “Godzilla vs. The Bionic Monster.”  I must have missed that one.



401468534_10233725175737539_1429726933968027342_n

I wrote this a few years ago. I’m still thankful today. :-)

“A Roanoke Thanksgiving”

I am thankful for
fine friends, gracious neighbors, and presently forgotten adversaries,
the smell of smoke outside, its rich and deep and ageless burning notes that sound upon the palette,
the hills under all my days, which pluck up my breath,
all the countless “hellos” their slopes will yield,
the mountains’ incandescence in this cooling season,
the colors now igniting their high and wooded perches,
this new home, this Old South,
this ranging, easy vale of firming winds and firm tradition,
its gentle people, and their surprising hearts —
this fair, far Star City.

~ Eric Robert Nolan, Thanksgiving 2019



Happy Thanksgiving, All!

We all know that 2020 has been a difficult year, to say the least — and that this Thanksgiving, for many of us, will be unlike those in the past.  Let’s each be thankful for what we do have — whether it is our health, our homes, our hopes, or one another.

Pictured — lead-glazed glass painting depicting the potato harvest and Thanksgiving in the Hippolit Church in Amelinghausen, Germany.

800px-Amelinghausen_-_Kartoffelernte_und_Erntedank

Photo credit: Oxfordian Kissuth, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Roanoke Times features “A Roanoke Thanksgiving”

I got a nice surprise when I woke up this morning — The Roanoke Times published my holiday poem, “A Roanoke Thanksgiving.”  You can find it right here.

As you might remember if you follow this blog, I penned this poem about my adopted city at about this time last year.  Thanks to the good folks over at The Roanoke Times for letting me share it today with my neighbors!



You stare at this cake long enough, you get high.

Either that, or Dr. Strange is summoned before you and emerges from it.

Seriously, look at that thing.

 

2151422066868356334 - Copy

A new Thanksgiving friend.

He goes by the name of Jasper, and he’s one mellow rabbit. He was one of my (quite gracious) hosts for Thanksgiving dinner today in the vicinity of Roanoke. Seriously, this guy is chill. He lets all sorts of visitors pick him up and pet him. He has two siblings — one cat and one dog — and I’m told he chases them around the house.

 

483313983661138983

 

Throwback Thursday: The “WKRP in Cincinnati” Turkey Drop Scene (1978)!!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

I’m not sure if the below scene from “WKRP in Cincinnati” (1978-1982) is overexposed; it annually pops up a lot before Thanksgiving.  (I’ve shared it on Facebook at least once, I’m sure of it.)  It is, of course, the famous “turkey drop” scene from the Thanksgiving episode of the show’s first year.  (WKRP would have been on the air only two months when this episode first aired.)  The title of the episode was “Turkeys Away,” and it’s still quite well remembered by people interested in television pop culture.

The scene is really funny — people went nuts for it back in the day.  I still remember my parents and older siblings truly cracking up over over it.  And it really is all tied together by Gordon Jump’s perfect delivery of its feckless final line.

Hey … there’s actually another bit of WKRP trivia that’s been making the rounds lately on social media.  It turns out that the lyrics for its closing theme, which many people my age remember quite well, are actually nothing but gibberish.  Seriously, check it out.

 

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

I hope that you and all you love enjoy a safe and happy holiday.

 

1024px-_Thanksgiving_Towne._We_are_a_comin._