Happy Days: The First Thanksgiving

November 25, 2014October 25, 2015 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 2 Comments

I haven’t watched Happy Days in years and my how I have missed it. The cozy living room, the breakfast nook, the hair scarfs, and how wonderfully Henry Winkler managed to pull off the greaser look with just a brown bomber jacket and a ton of hairspray.

But Mrs. Cunningham is struggling through Thanksgiving to be honest. She’s cooked an entire turkey dinner for the entire family and not a single person has helped her. Not even Joanie and she’s the girl. Everyone is so busy watching football that they have forgotten what Thanksgiving is all about, so Marion Cunningham decides to tell them.

Screen Shot 2014-10-22 at 8.32.57 PM “Now in 1621 the Pilgrims had this wonderful harvest…” (cue ripple screen affect to signify dream/fantasy sequence…)

It turns out that the “womenfolk” of the colony have been talking and would like to celebrate the harvest with a feast that they want to call “Thanksgiving.” But it was Fonzie’s idea to invite them to dinner.

It’s surprising to me that Pilgrim Fonzie literally just used magic to make fire in the hearth, yet none of these witch-fearing folk seem to want to hunt him down. His power is great. But Pilgrim Mr. Cunningham is suspicious of him because he makes all the ladies squeal and kiss in public. For shame!

So anyway, Fonzie gets put in the stocks because he wants to be nice to the natives. And by be nice I mean tread them like humans and not defraud them of all of their possessions/land/livelihood/lives. Fonzie agrees to spend the rest of the day in the stocks only if they will leave the tribe alone.

It’s only when Pilgrim Joanie gets her foot caught in an animal trap that they decide that Fonzie’s special powers can be used for good. It turns out that Fonzie could have magically gotten out of the stocks the whole time, but he was staying in there for civil disobedience and all. He gets Joanie out of the trap and they decide that he is not evil, so they invite him to the Thanksgiving feast. Fonzie says he can’t make it though because he has a reservation with for dinner with the Indians.

Everyone is like “oh no, savages! Agh!” and Fonzie is all like “you guys are racist,” so he and Richie talk them into having a peaceful, lovely Thanksgiving in which everyone is invited regardless of cultural differences.

And that is history. You see, back in the early days, Pilgrim Richie and Pilgrim Fonzie taught us all that every human life is important. And we learned never to be racist again.

That’s how it happened

Then end.

Very Special Lesson: DON’T THINK ABOUT THE TRUTH. THIS IS THE THANKSGIVING STORY.

Very Thanksgiving Activity: Here is a fun printable craft that you can do when your family is driving you crazy. It will help you remember that you like each other. Or you can just list all of the other things that you do like and remind yourself that this is only one day out of the whole entire year.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: There’s the Rub

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 5 Comments

Carlton and Hilary volunteer at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving, but they are only doing it to serve their own needs. Carlton wants the volunteer service for his college application and Hilary wants to film the experience for her talk show. Carlton picks a fight with a young homeless Brad from Home Improvement. Brad puts him in his place for being so stuck up, but then he says he was only kidding. I think Carlton is really humbled either way.

Hillary gets annoyed at manual labor and starts clearing plates before people are done eating, then she is totally shocked and horrified when they run out of food. When she finds out that the supervisor who has been bossing her around is not some holier-than-thou volunteer, but rather a homeless woman, she realizes she has been a big jerk.

Meanwhile, Will takes Uncle Phil to a massage parlor after he throws out his back. They get arrested after they’re surprised to learn it’s, erm, not the kind of massage parlor they expected. In jail, Uncle Phil settles in to eat a prison Thanksgiving dinner and is only moved to tell of the detective when Will starts to wax on about the delicious meal that they are missing. He only lightly played the judge card when they were arrested, but missing out on the “little tiny onions” in cream sauce moves him to provide a litany of procedural errors that could cost the detective his job unless he gets the D.A. on the phone immediately. Pretty soon there after, Will and Uncle Phil get to go home.

Carlton and Hillary realize that they really do want to help the homeless, so they return to the shelter with a catered candlelight dinner. When the camera crew finally shows up, Hillary sends them away because she doesn’t want to exploit the homeless anymore. I guess she didn’t think of turning it into a public interest piece that might actually help the homeless. Oh well.

Very Special Lesson: Catering a candlelight supper for one night is far better than feeding the homeless for many nights.

Very Thanksgiving Activity: I have had the opportunity to volunteer at a couple of food pantries in the past. I can say firsthand that food pantries are often the first way to help underserved populations connect with the resources they need to improve their circumstances. Food pantries cannot operate without grants and donations from area food banks, many of which come from individual donations. If you really want to help this Thanksgiving or ever, I suggest finding your local food bank and making a donation: http://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank/

A Very Thankful Blog

November 23, 2014October 13, 2014 ~ theveryspecialblog ~ 2 Comments

Hello Readers! We are nearing that MOST very special time of the year: THE HOLIDAYS! Are you ready? I for one think that the holidays can be stressful (sometimes down right depressing) as much as they can be warm, cozy, happy times. But I’ll be honest, I have been looking forward to the holidays this year in particular because there are so many holiday specials, abut which I simply cannot wait to wax sardonic. That being said, I have noticed that we seem to be living in a world that now begins Christmas immediately following Halloween, totally usurping my long-standing favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. Well, this shall not be in the case on The Very Special Blog! From now until Thanksgiving (which is obviously not far away) I will be exclusively covering Thanksgiving episodes! So start buying your green bean casserole ingredients and stay tuned for some heartfelt lessons about geing grateful. Oh, and thank you for letting me share my loving criticisms with you over the past several months!