On Thanksgiving Eve 65 years ago this week, 4-year-old Billy Parsons agreed to "conjure visions" of the Thanksgiving turkey he would share with his family the next day. While the photographer who created this holiday photo illustration isn't named, it was almost certainly the work of the late Mike Shalhoup, the then-Telegraph newsman and photographer known for coming up with ideas for such illustrations.

Having just added yet another life milestone worthy of all-out celebration – that notable 18-month benchmark – I was still very much a novice in the time-honored tradition of saying a prayer then loading up a rarely seen platter from the “good china” cabinet with steaming slabs of turkey breast, those oh-so-slippery drumsticks, and a bunch of other things the grownups called “all the fixin’s.”

Now, as my, well, umpteenth Thanksgiving observance approaches, I figured it would be fun to take a look back, say, 65 years, to see how we in Greater Nashua prepared for, and celebrated, the holiday that history suggests stems from either newly-arrived English colonists setting aside a “day of thanks-giving” for their first “bountiful harvest” in the new world, or an “autumn feast” at which the colonists broke friendly bread with Native Americans, or a combination thereof.

Over time, of course, the way in which we Americans celebrate Thanksgiving changed, sometimes drastically, and by the mid-20th century our focus was primarily on bringing families together for at least the day, but ideally for the entire four-day weekend.

While post-World War II Americans gradually became more mobile, with the expansion of mostly business-related air travel into the leisure arena, it still took some doing to arrange the long trip home for the college man or woman in the family who chose a faraway destination for their post-secondary learning.

Then there were the families who also had to nearly exhaust themselves to arrange an all-inclusive Turkey Day, but not because of logistical problems typical of long-distance travel, but because eldest son, although living just across town, didn’t want to deal with Uncle Windbag’s braggadocio and requested a rain check ’til next Thanksgiving – while perhaps secretly hoping Uncle would have by then finally got a reply to one of his “seeking mail-order bride” letters and was living happily ever after in some third-world country.

Dean Shalhoup

Longtime reporter, columnist and photographer, is back doing what he does best ñ chronicling the people and history of Nashua. Reaching 40 years with The Telegraph in September, Deanís insights have a large, appreciative following.

Well, now here we are, in the midst of a situation that not only discourages, but in many cases prohibits, the vast majority of Americans from doing the very thing on which Thanksgiving is based: Getting the whole family together.

Think back for a moment to last year’s Thanksgiving. Who could have had so much as an inkling that we would be going into our next Thanksgiving directing our hopes and prayers toward the continued health of those long-distance college kids, rather than toward their return home for Thanksgiving?

It’s said that the 1950s was a simpler time, and America a simpler place, all but devoid of the societal ills and the political and philosophical division we face today.

Much of that suggestion is open to personal interpretation – but I think we can safely say today’s political and philosophical chasm is as wide as it’s been in modern times, especially in the relatively quiet, progressive post World War II era.

Also in the local news in the days leading up to Thanksgiving 1955 was a post-municipal election process called a recount – back when the term, unlike today, didn’t trigger a rapid heart rate, sweaty palms and an onset of hives.

George Gingras was a ward alderman seeking an alderman-at-large seat in that election, and when he came in less than 200 votes behind opponent Roger LeBlanc, the Ward 6 alderman also seeking the at-large seat, Gingras requested a recount.

LeBlanc actually gained a handful of votes in the recount and went on to fill the at-large seat. The reason I bring up this long-forgotten contest is the photo that appeared with the Telegraph story announcing the results of the recount: It showed Arthur Poliquin, the chairman of the aldermanic Elections and Returns Committee, raising LeBlanc’s hand in victory – with Gingras standing next to LeBlanc wearing a big smile.

I’ve been pondering copying it and Tweeting it out to certain Twitter-universe mainstays as an example, albeit 65 years old, of what gracious losing looks like.

On to the time-tested marriage of Thanksgiving and football: As teams from the junior high level to the pros were gearing up for their big Thanksgiving day, and week, clashes with old rivals, Nashua police were busy keeping an eye on another “game” involving football: The selling of what the Telegraph called “grid tickets” in the halls of Nashua High School.

Not the kind of tickets that get you through the stadium gate, but the kind “made of cardboard” that listed the “major college football games scheduled for Saturday” of Thanksgiving weekend, with “odds for each game listed alongside” the teams’ names.

Plenty of us baby boomers remember trying our luck each week by filling out our predictions on these cards and handing them in to someone who hands them to someone else and so on.

Hardly the level of “gambling” that poses a threat to a law-abiding society, the act of circling some numbers on a card and attaching a few bucks to it was nevertheless against the law, and Nashua’s finest made sure we citizens knew it.

It turned out police caught up with the suspect, a 17-year-old kid they determined was “the big distributor” of the cards at NHS. He was charged in juvenile court, but the charges were withdrawn when the kid’s parents assured police their son was in the process of joining the military.

I learned in perusing 1955 Telegraphs that giving away turkeys as prizes at church-sponsored whist parties was a thing back then. Also not uncommon was the practice among retailers of everything from clothes to cars of using turkeys as bait to bring in customers.

The long-gone Longhill Turkey Farm on East Dunstable Road boasted “turkeys for women who want the best,” and a turkey grower named Jean Lebel was selling his “milk-fed” turkeys at his house on Verona Street.

Down on Main Street at the old Nashua Supply Company, all you had to do was purchase – on a lay-away plan, if desired – a new “super deluxe Hotpoint double-oven range” or a “Super-Star” refrigerator to get your FREE NATIVE TURKEY!

As for car dealers, many of them invited potential customers to come in and “talk turkey” while getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Finally, I must say I’m glad that I was too young to be affected by the great snafu of Thanksgiving weekend 1955.

Hint: It involved Santa.

Yep, it seemed like almost every kid in Greater Nashua showed up in downtown Nashua just as they did every year on the day after Thanksgiving for one thing: Greet Santa and officially ring in the Christmas season.

But Santa’s sleigh – upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a helicopter – had some kind of engine trouble, and rather than risk the unthinkable, Santa’s handlers – I mean, helpers – convinced him to put off his downtown Nashua visit for a week.

Word is that although they were almost inconsolable at the time, the thousands of would-be Santa greeters rebounded quite nicely, and by the time he arrived for real a week later, the welcome was as robust as ever.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and here’s hoping we’ll be able to observe our future Thanksgivings the way they are meant to be observed: With tradition and togetherness.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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