Vermont Thanksgiving of bygone era seen in 1955 promotional video

By Guy Page on November 26, 2020

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.