I spent some time with my father today who turned 81. My spouse calls him an old goat, but I call him dad. He has to share his birthday with the Thanksgiving weekend. He says he doesn’t mind and in fact, much of the family is around because of the Thanksgiving holiday. As I sat and looked at my father, who is clearly showing his age, I started to think about the history of TV fathers and it got me thinking….

 Indeed TV gave us some warm and fuzzy feelings about what a dad should be. TV dads of yesteryear were the undisputed rulers and heads of their household. They were always right and had some sort of lovely life lesson to offer whether we wanted it or not. They were the center of the household.

 One of my most favorite TV dads was My Three Sons which was based on a pipe smoking widowed father and his trusty male housekeeper raising his three sons. He always seemed to have time to not only raise his kids, smoke a pipe and offer life lessons, he was always golfing. Now that is my kind of dad.

Next TV dad that comes to mind for me is Ward Cleaver. He simply embodies the stereotypical 50s dad. He was a businessman that took his job as seriously as his family. Even when frustrated, Ward hardly raised his voice. It was as if June spiked his coffee with Prozac.

 I really got a kick out of Jim Anderson from Father Knows Best . He was the Stepford dad. There was no two ways about it. He was like a dad-bot and someone was controlling him. I love to watch the old TV series and giggle. It seemed as if  someone was controlling this almost perfect 1950s family. As always, the dad  Jim ended each episode by teaching his children some important moral lesson.

Let’s try not to forget Ozzie Nelson in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. It baffled me that he somehow supported his family without ever letting them know what he actually did for a living. But gosh darn it he was the bread winner and that is all that mattered.

 Another interesting TV dad was Ben Cartwright from Bonanza. Now here was a TV dad that could not let go on his poor sons and they lived with him even as adult men. But Ben was a great father, well even though he shot and killed a great deal of people, it was always in self-defense which was something he needed to teach his aging sons.

 Howard Cunningham was another great TV dad who was not only a good dad to his two kids, actually three but you rarely saw the eldest one. To top it off, he was a father like figure to greaser Fonzie, and Ritchie’s wacky friends. More modern day TV gave us good TV dads such as Cliff Huxtable from the Cosby show. There was ex-hippy dad Steven Keaton from Family Matters and who could forget Tony Danza from Who’s the Boss?

 Who was your favorite TV dad from days past?

I find it odd that people will push and shove become rude and obnoxious all in the name of Christmas. For the past 50 years, Black Friday encourages American consumers to spend money that they do not have and sink deeper into debt all in the hope of generating an alchemic change in the economy by turning red into black. However, in all this questing for peace on earth and good will to man, the number of car accidents increases by almost 60 percent every Black Friday. Hey, as long as it is at least 50 percent off it is all worth it, yes? And of course, this has got me thinking….

 What won’t people do for a bargain? I mean come on ‘tis the season to show your love with your pocketbook right?  No longer are the holidays about good will and peace on earth, it is about game boys, Xboxes, flat screen TVs, sales on shirts and skirts, pots and pans, gizmos and gadgets, and everything else we absolutely can’t live without.

 Call me a scrooge, I just don’t do it. Why should I gift someone just once a year? Why can’t I gift people all year? This is why I do not celebrate Christmas with gifts. I personally like to donate to a few charities, go to Heifer International, buy a couple of clutches of chickens and send them to a 3rd world country so some family who doesn’t have food or opportunity can eat rather than play with Xboxs and walk around with new handbags and spiffy shoes that will break in a few weeks.

 Imagine living in the 50s and what giving would have been like then. Of course, we would not have all the new gadgets or video games, so that would save money. Ipods, Itouches, video cameras and handheld whatevers didn’t exist either. Oh my God, then how did people show their love and appreciation if they could not get to a Walmart or Best Buy to buy all these handy dandy things? Shucks, those stores did not exist either.

 People had to do with what they had. Designers’ shoes at $250.00 didn’t exist, but I tell you a person could get a great pair of Oxford men’s shoes for $12.95. For those really cold nights an automatic electric blanket did the trick for $9.94 rather than a $300.00 dollar comforter. In lieu of M3P players and Itune gift certificates, we had to settle for 45s records at 54 cents each. An alarm clock would set us back at $1.99, and in the kitchen, there were no cooking-station frying pans; no Paula Dean cooking sets, just a Teflon frying pan for $1.00.

 Toys were hard to come by too. Gosh I mean big spenders would need to drop $4.95 for a scooter and for those who liked to play school and get chalk and blackboard set; it would set you back all of 99 cents. An Etcha Sketch was $1.87 and a good old-fashioned jigsaw puzzle put you in the hole for all of 37 cents. Spending beyond your means was getting your wife a portable Singer sewing machine $19.90 or a power drill for under $10.00.

 Maybe this year we can forget Black Friday and Cyber Monday and avoid Blue Tuesday and give from our heart. Peace on earth cannot be purchased, not even at 80% off. Sorry folks peace on earth is priceless. It doesn’t fit in a stocking, or under the tree. Peace on earth, much like love, can only be given. So welcome to the holiday season and be sure to spread peace on earth…its free, and while you’re at it good will towards man comes with the package!

I awoke at 4:30 am this morning to start the traditional holiday cooking. I like to cook my apple, cranberry, walnut, nutmeg stuffing and the broccoli and cauliflower au gratin the day before.  The pies, potatoes, and everything except the turkey I do the day before because that makes Thanksgiving so much easier to sit and enjoy. As the smells permeated my house, and I kept picking the crusty yummy top off the stuffing, I got to thinking…

 I clearly should do a great story about a retro Thanksgiving. You know, what did everyone eat on Thanksgiving Day? I went on the internet and hit all my research dives, but there wasn’t anything really. I searched the retro databank that I keep on hand, still there was nothing. I yahooed, googled, and asked Jeeves, I found nothing. Well nothing of significance that is.

 How can this be? Did people not eat Thanksgiving dinners in the 50s and 60s? Why wasn’t there lots of information? What the heck is going on? Then it dawned on me that some things, no matter how old they are, never change.

 That’s right, traditional Thanksgiving is about turkey, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, and family and friends. Yes side dishes change occasionally through time. Lime jello with green olives might not be the side dish of choice today. And music has changed; The Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson might not be the soft sounds in the background playing on the hi-fi. It might be more like John Mayer or Brandi Carlile playing on the Ipod console. Of course, the attire will be quite different: Poodle skirts, leather jackets, and ducktails might not be the fashion worn at the table, but for the most part, the tradition of Thanksgiving really hasn’t changed.

 We may change. We get older and hopefully wiser. Our families grow, or, in many cases, sadly, they shrink. We bring in new blood, new family, new friends, new fashions and trends, but traditions seem to just be that; traditions.

 So Happy Thanksgiving everyone and be grateful that some things are not meant to change, just get better.

Enjoy this video of an old fashioned Thanksgiving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4X8sqXlxq4