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Show -r r - v jh Asan IP A" li, t it VUI! TsT f tA I A U.VIV?. BCX lALT 2503 i,, U5r&2l::3 cur, CCCP. uta:i 84101 Th SUK CMitONKIS it vtJUH4 4ly l As Thanksgiving approaches, ! foal at times, to come up with any significant reasons to be hsrd-prsss- d, thankful. A cursory examination reveals that Inflation and unemployment sr the highest that theyve been in my lifetime. Crime and un- certainty are about the only things above ail of this whose stocks might be said to be advancing. Add to all this the fact that there seems to be no relief In the near future and you have a rather drab picture. Perhaps all of this raises the possibility The Winter of 1620 marked the arrival of the first Pilgrims. They were met with the hardships of a bitter New England winter. With Spring came the knowledge of productive farming. Encouraged, taught by native Indians, they sowed their first corn crop. In honor of a fruitful year, a day of Thanksgiving to show was proclaimed gratitude for their blessings. of calling Thanksgiving off until sufficient reasons accumulate to have enough thankfulness to reinstate It. At this timo it would seem to bo sheer folly to speculate as to just when that might be. it occurs to mo, at this point, that there might be a less drastic alternative. Looking back on my early days, I note a marked difference in the standard of misery. Misery itself has changed Hit! with the times, however, the yardstick by which it is measured has undergone some remarkable transformations. In my earlier days, one car for the family wouid have been a luxury. Today, the two that I own are labeled a necessity, a T.V. $et would also have been a prized possession in those days. The two that I have now are essential In settling family arguments. In all fairness, everything that we have an excess of today is not necessarily good. For instance, paying a water bill as we do today was unheard of then. We had quite an Ingenous method for saving that $2.10 a month. If we wanted water to drink we simply went outside to the wsll and drew a bucket. Albeit, we gave up purification and chlorination, if we wanted water for our bath, which we got every Saturday night whether wo needed it or net, we carried It from a crosd about a quarter of a mile away to be heated In an old motel wash tub. Vo certainly didnt pay any $25 a month for a fuel bill In those days either. Instead, w took an occasional jaunt to tho forest to cut cur fire wood and had cur coal house filled for the winter. The Inconvenience of our frequent trudges through the snow to tho coat and wood house was a small price to pay for the romance of a fireplace, and a warm morning stove. In that respect, I must confess my I ignorance in those early days, for thought of ail of that as drudgsry. However, since Ive become a learned and cultured Individual, Ive become awsro of the romance of the whole thing although I still have trouble sometimes deciding just exactly now good the good old days realty were. In light of alt that has bean said, I wouid not have one believe that the problems of today arent real, or that we shouldnt bs concerned about them. Thoy are real Indeed and failing to face thorn serves only to perpetuate them. I am saying, however, that wo should vlsw alt things In their proper porspeetiwa. Therefore, ss we note those things such ss u ncniploy m nt and cost of living, that era on the r!$s, it is well that wo be aware that this, too, Is the course cf our Standard of Misery. John M. Cavendish |