Wednesday, November 23, 2022

All Kinds of Pilgrims

Started off the morning with breakfast and the short Molly's Pilgrim from 1985, since I read the book earlier. Molly's a Russian immigrant who is living in a small American town with her parents. She hasn't exactly gotten a warm welcome. Her classmates make fun of her accent, her old-fashioned clothes, her borcht lunches, and her Slavic looks. At Thanksgiving, her teacher asks the class to make Pilgrim or Indian dolls. Molly's mother makes her doll look like them, rather than the typical Victorian pilgrim. The kids in her class are confused, until Molly and her teacher explain that, like the Pilgrims of old, Molly and her parents came to the US for religious freedom. As a boy in Molly's class points out, it really does take all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving.

Headed off to work shortly after the special ended. We weren't bad when I arrived, but people started streaming around 11, and it wouldn't really let up until almost 5:30. Everyone wanted to do their shopping soon as they got off work and picked up the kids from school. I was surprised at the huge orders, including one over $650! I figured everyone did their big shopping well before today. We did have problems with a man this morning, but other than that, there was no really major trouble.

At least they fed us. We had cheese pizza and candy leftover from Halloween in the employee's room from noon onwards. They still had pizza left when I got ready to head out. Reeces pumpkins work just as well for Thanksgiving as they do Halloween anyway. 

Went straight home after work and into dinner. Watched the famous Thanksgiving episode of WKRP In Cincinnati, "Turkeys Away!," while I ate. Feeling left out, station manager Arthur Carlson comes up with a big secret promotion he won't tell anyone else about. Of course, Arthur thinks he's thought through every detail, but as news reporter Les Nessman learns the hard way, he didn't consider the fact that turkeys are flightless birds...

Switched to Match Game '79 while I had dessert. Carolyn Reisner became the all-time champ on the show with over $32,000, thanks to Brett helping her with "Snug __." Later on, the next female contestant shows off her nifty nails painted with Groucho Marx's face on them. 

Moved to DVD for the swashbuckler spoof Jack of All Trades. They somehow managed to get a Thanksgiving episode, "One, Two, Three, Give Me Lady Liberty," into their second season. Jack is ready for a big Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings, but Emilia is more interested in finding out why diminutive emperor Napoleon is building a statue she modeled for. They first distract him with food, then pull out another Thanksgiving tradition - football - to keep him away from that statue!

Finished the night online with more Thanksgiving programming. Larry Appleton thinks he can sell "Wild Turkey" the night before Thanksgiving in the seventh season of Perfect Strangers. Balki does sell one turkey, before Jennifer finds her diamond ring missing and thinks the turkey ate it. Balki and Larry try to retrieve it from the family who bought it, even after it's already cooked and on the dining room table.

The Thanksgiving Treasure is the second Addie Mills movie from 1973. Addie (Lisa Lucas) is delighted when she sees a beautiful horse at a run-down farm on the edge of town. Turns out the horse, whose name is Treasure, belongs to grouchy old Walter Renquist (Barnard Hughes). Renquist is a bitter enemy of Addie's father James (Jason Robards) because he never finished digging him a pond years ago. Addie brings him Thanksgiving dinner in order to befriend him and ride the horse. She manages to make friends with both, despite Renquist insisting she's bossy. When Renquist gets sick, Addie learns a hard lesson in being thankful for the people around us, even when they're gone.

Charming and lovely as the other Addie movies, I especially like the bleak winter landscapes Addie and her friend Cora Sue (Franny Michael) ride through here. I also enjoy how she eventually makes a friend out of Renquist, making what happens in the end all the harder. Great for families looking for Thanksgiving programming, especially those with girls Addie's age.

Here's even more holiday blasts from the past!

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