OCR Text |
Show THE OLD HOME HOLIDAY The most characteristic feature of Thanksgiving day is that it is a celebration and renewal of home joys. Perhaps more than any of the holidays, it has been the time of family reunions. The old timers used to invite large parties of relatives to gather at that time. If they could not all be entertained for dinner, there might be a big party in the evening, when the old home would resound with the laughter of children, while the greybeards sat around and discussed dis-cussed the state of the nation. The kid element yelled with delight, as they played "hunt the slipper" and "blind man's buff." The women folks performed the most mighty stunts of dinner getting. Some of them would think nothing of cooking a splendiferous feast for 20 to 30 guests. The moment when they bore the gorgeous bird to the dinner table amid the "ohs" and the "ahs" of children and the smacking of lips by too hungry boys, was about the high point of their lives. It gave the old folks pleasure to come back to the homes where they lived in early youth, to see the trees which they had climbed for birds' nests or the uiuun unere iney naci nsned with their angleworms. The modern world is shuffled all over the land The sons and daughters are scattered around everywhere, every-where, and the majority can't get back to the old homes. The home where we were brought up may belong to strangers. The old family hearthstone is merely a memory for many. Entertaining company is more difficult under modern mod-ern standards, and the big family reunions of the past are mostly gone by. Many sons and daughters will go home for all that. Thanksgiving clay should not pass without a prayer of appreciation for the old home where love and helpfulness shaped our lives |