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Click HERE for link to “Thanks to Vermont.” (Photo above is screenshot only.)
If you’re nostalgic for a taste of a Thanksgiving from the good old days, you might want to watch “Thanks to Vermont,” a 1955 promotional video for Vermont products.
“Thanks to Vermont” is a full-color, 31-minute film produced by the (ahem) Bay State Film Production Co. for the Vermont Development Commission and the Department of Agriculture. The scene is set on Thanksgiving Day in a typical Vermont home, the mother preparing the turkey and father trying to sneak a taste. After he is shooed out of the kitchen, he sits down in his easy chair, lights his pipe, and commences to think about all the good agricultural products Vermont has to offer to consumers both inside and outside the state.
Featured are scenes showing farmland and crop harvesting and haying, modern dairy farms, cheesemaking, poultry farms, maple sugaring with horse-drawn sleds for sap gathering, apple orchards and harvesting (including scenes of heavy pesticide spraying), and potatoes, which are harvested by a method that burns off the top of the plants before machine harvesting.
Strong emphasis is placed on the science and research that goes into making agriculture so successful in Vermont, along with hard work. Also shown are brief scenes of the Vermont School of Agriculture in Randolph Center, Vermont, and the Champlain Valley Exposition, including a horse trotting race.
Narrated by Parker Fennelly, the film was made by (ahem) Bay State Film Productions and is part of the historical video collection for the Vermont Historical Society.
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That was a delightful 31 minutes. Nostalgic to say the least. Thank you!
Too many white people…
LMAO
Ahhh the good ole days…before Vermont became infested.
So when were you born and what generation Vermonter are you Michael?
Infested might just be a relative term.
1958 in Bitburg Germany. Dad was in the U.S.A.F. Dad was raised in Westminster VT. My Ancestors came to America on the Arbella. And you??
David, are you related to the Davis family up here in South Walden? I know Kate, Joanne, Linda and a couple brothers… definitely a generational Vermont family!
My paternal Vermont roots originate from Castleton starting in 1771. 8th generation at this point.
Descendent of two Mayflowers voyagers on my maternal side.
I’ve been involved with the Mayflower society for almost 20 years but only as a spectator. Not really interested in the SAR although past relatives were active members.
Hopefully no actual natives chime in here and embarrass us both.
I don’t believe I know any of the Davis family in Walden.
Some say the day they started I-89 was the beginning of the end of Vermont. I think it started when they offered $10,000 bonuses to move here – if one has to be bribed to move here, they are likely part of an operation to turn the State over like a compost barrell. We certainly see the compost spilling out all over the place – best have the waders on – it’s rather deep and as slippery as a steaming manure pit.
Notice how healthy everyone looks? See how well dressed everyone is, they probably couldn’t stage the fair photos, where I saw only one person who was over weight. People were doing lots of physical work back then eating good food, looking sharp and keeping their mind and hearts in the right place too.
Pesticide safety was a bit to be desired, surely. Cows were not all Holstein, Vermont looked really good back then.
Loved the sugaring scenes, no plastic pipe covering the entire planet, very cool.
They missed the dressed deer carcasses hanging from the eves of the shed or splayed open in the barn. No science or research necessary for harvesting the purest organic meat that kept families fed through the winter until ice fishing season opened up. The venison mince meat pies or cookies were a traditional treat without bio-engineered ingredients.
What a very cool film! Vermont, as it was and should be now. And not a single view of a green pasture or field, filled with costly, inefficient, butt ugly solar arrays…