Fairview High School, Class of 1942 Memorabilia, Allen Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Sheila Parker Conque ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ NOTE: The copy I have of the following play was handwritten and copied on a "ditto" machine. Mother (Wilda Mae Chaney) wrote on the back: "Thanksgiving Program given by Fairview High School, including the 7th Grade in 1941." DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR? Composed by Carrie Shea Boyd, 11th Grade Home Ec. Teacher CHARACTERS: Grandmother.......................................................Sybil Turner Daddy ..............................................................S. E. Howell Mother .........................................................Lucille Chaney Grown Boy, Jimmy ......................................................Carlys Sigler Grown Daughter, Patsy .............................................Faye Turner Small Girl, Betty .................................................Troy Chaney Scene: The living room of an ordinary country home. The family is gathered around the fireplace talking. It is Thanksgiving night. (Enter Jimmy gaily) JIMMY: Boy, oh boy, have I had plenty to eat today? Pop, I guess to make my day end perfect now I'll just have to have the car for the night. It's Thanksgiving Day and you know you can't refuse me anything today. DADDY: Jimmy, "Thanksgiving" doesn't mean that we have to see that all your selfish wants are satisfied. Thanksgiving is a day set aside each year for our whole nation to thank God for his many blessings and gifts which he gives us every day. We don't have to ask for them, and many of us never think of thanking him at any other time. Now Jimmy, you don't even want to thank God even one day a year and you pretend you have nothing to be thankful for. JIMMY: Oh, I've heard all this ever since I was born, yet every time I want the least thing, I never get it. What do I have to be thankful for? My family doesn't appreciate me. I don't think I even belong here. You don't ever give me things like other boys have, for instance a car to go places in at night. Thanksgiving night and staying home with the old people! (Sits down.) GRANDMOTHER: Jimmy, stay with us tonight, and let's see if we all don't have many, many things to be thankful for. JIMMY: I'll have to stay, but I already know that I don't have anything to waste a whole day thanking anybody for. I don't see why a civilized country like America would go in for such Tommy-rot. Think of all the business, work and military training stopping in this time of need. I think it's no good. BETTY: Mother, just think of the dinner he ate today. JIMMY: Didn't you get enough? PATSY: I have always wondered why boys seem to enjoy causing as much trouble as possible. Why can't he learn to be thankful like I am? JIMMY: Patsy! GRANDMOTHER: Now, children, let's think a minute of my childhood days. Thanksgiving was one of the days all children looked forward to almost as much as Christmas. We walked 4 miles to a little log school house where one teacher tried to teach everyone. We had very little time off for programs or singing, but we always had our Thanksgiving program. I can just hear the Thanksgiving song we sang long ago. (audience sings) Then I said a poem. I made it myself in one of our classes. Mine was the best in school, so I said it on the program. I was so proud. (says poem) JIMMY: Why, Grandmother, I didn't know you couldn't make poetry. PATSY: I think we will make poems later on in English. I am thankful that you are a poet. Maybe you will help me. BETTY: Grandmother, you make Thanksgiving so plain. Please tell us the story of the first Thanksgiving Day. GRANDMOTHER: It is a very, very old story, yet none is told more except the Christmas story. (tells story) JIMMY (Clapping): That's good, Grandmother! I am beginning to be glad I stayed here tonight after all. Dad, are you going to sleep? DAD: No, Jimmy. Last night I got to thinking, when I couldn't go to sleep, Of the way Thanksgiving served me in the days when joy was cheap - Of how we'd have a turkey, and of how I'd beg a taste. Whenever they would open up the oven door to "baste" The bulging breast, and how then from the oven came a drift Of tantalizing odor, such as only boys have sniffed. I got to thinking of it - for I couldn't go to sleep - Of mince pies in the pantry, where I'd sidle in and peep And jelly and plum butter, and the peach preserves and cake. And then I got to thinking of how fine 'twould be to take A trip back to the old days, when the dancing candle light Played pranks with all the shadows on the wall Thanksgiving nite. The boys I used to play with I could shut my eyes and see The whole troop of them waiting and a-waving hands to me. All freckled, ragged-trousered, with their scarfs and mittens, too, They made a splendid picture - but the picture wasn't true. For they've grown up now, as I have, and strange paths have lured our feet- The paths that find Tomorrow, and that never, never meet. I wondered if they also were not lying half awake And thinking of the turkey and the jelly and the cake. And if they had their fancies of the lazy little street That leads beneath the maples, where the topmost branches meet - And suddenly I heard them - heard the murmurs loud and clear That told me they were with me and were very, very near. JIMMY: I can just see you and those other boys, Dad, trying to steal some of those good things to eat. It must have been fun. I hear talking - Someone's coming. (enter boys and girls - Jimmy meets) JIMMY: Hi, there. Come in. What are you all doing tonight? (Everyone speaks. "Hello." "Come on in." "Happy Thanksgiving!") PATSY: Come sit by me, Drue. MOTHER: Find chairs and come close to the fire. It's really cold outside! GIRLS: No, thanks, we are only making minute calls on several friends and singing and a Thanksgiving song. BOYS: Would you like to hear it? EVERYONE: Sure! JIMMY: Oh, boy! It seems like Grandmother's day now. (Boys and girls sing song) EVERYONE: (Clapping: "Fine!" "Good." "That was pretty!" etc.) MOTHER: Sit down with us for a while. Gs & Bs: No, we must run along now. GRANDMOTHER: Children, you have no idea just how much I enjoyed that. Please come sing again soon! Gs & Bs: We sure will! Happy Thanksgiving and good-by! JIMMY: (Goes to door with them) Nite. BETTY: Mother, you have been so quiet tonight. MOTHER: I am just enjoying listening to you talk. I am so thankful for my family. BETTY: I have an idea! Mother, you haven't told us a story in a long time. Please tell us a Thanksgiving story before we go to bed. PATSY: Please do, Mother. MOTHER: I thought my family had grown too old for bedtime stories. Let me think. Oh, I know a good story: The Thanksgiving Dinner That Flew Away. But first, Betty, run get the bowl of apples and nuts so we can eat while I talk. (Tells story) (Betty leaves and comes back with bowl of fruit) JIMMY: I just declare - I am so ashamed of the way I talked tonight. Mother, everything that you and Grandmother and Dad have said has made me realize how much I have to be thankful for: a comfortable home in a free country; a loving, kind family; the dearest grandmother in the world; a public school with a number of teachers; and, nice equipment for work and play that Grandmother didn't have; a good church to work in; and I only have to work a little compared to the Pilgrim boys and get to go and have a good time so much more than they did. I am thankful for America and thankful I am an American. (Curtain closes; audience sings.)