11/28/2025
Happy thanksgiving!
LIFESTYLE
With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From
Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times
From Depression-era resourcefulness to World War II sacrifices, coming together has been an unwavering hallmark of
the Thanksgiving holiday.
Servicemen enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner in New York City, 1918.
Public domain
Jeff Minick
11/23/2025 | Updated: 11/23/2025
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then let’s cut to the chase and begin
with Norman Rockwell’s painting “Freedom from Want.”
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1/9
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With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times | The Epoch Times
In March 1943, “Freedom from Want” appeared in The Saturday Evening
Post. Like the other three paintings in Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” series—he
was inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union
Address—“Freedom from Want” has ever since served as the icon of our
American Thanksgiving, so much so that most people know it only as “the
Thanksgiving painting.”
Framed by the white light of the window, Grandma is carefully lowering a
roasted turkey to the table. At her elbow, her husband stands ready to carve
the bird while everyone else, young and old, is smiling, delighting in the
occasion and one another rather than the food. Although viewers often see
the painting as depicting a sumptuous feast, the side dishes—a plate of
celery, a single casserole dish, a ring of cranberry sauce, and a bowl of fruit—
are certainly nothing fancy, and the drinking glasses are filled with water.
Let’s time-travel back to the year when Rockwell’s painting appeared.
2/9
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11/27/25, 3:26 PM
With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times | The Epoch Times
“Freedom From Want,” circa 1943, by Norman Rockwell. National Archives and
Records Administration
Glad Sacrifices
By Thanksgiving 1943, the United States had been at war with the Axis
powers for almost two years, and rationing was the order of the day. Meats,
cheeses, butter, and other foodstuffs, including turkeys, were in limited
supply, which meant that cooks had to use their ration cards with care to
provide the sort of meal Rockwell painted.
The following year, that roasted turkey would have made even fewer
appearances in American households. In 1944, the government decided to do
all in its power to see that the boys fighting overseas received a traditional
Thanksgiving meal. Consequently, in October 1944, the
SS Great Republic, a
3/9
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11/27/25, 3:26 PM
With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times | The Epoch Times
refrigerator ship, sailed for Europe carrying 1,604 tons of frozen turkeys,
enough to feed every one of the nearly 2 million soldiers stationed in that
part of the world. The ship safely crossed the Atlantic, and men and women
in uniform, whether in London or fighting on the front lines, received their
Thanksgiving meal.
On the other side of the world, GIs, sailors, and Marines downed their share
of the Thanksgiving bird as well. Chaplain Russell Stroup
wrote to the folks
back home: “There was fruit cocktail from cans, mashed potatoes, dressing,
peas, pickles, cranberry sauce, fresh rolls, pumpkin pie, and coffee. Plenty of
everything filled every nook and cranny of the men. They left the groaning
boards as stuffed as the turkeys had been, to lay around for a sunlit
afternoon.”
Despite the shortage of turkeys that year, most Americans on the home
front applauded this priority. They were more than willing to sacrifice the
traditional holiday menu for the good of the troops. This generous spirit of
gratitude and love highlights Thanksgiving Day.
One interesting side note: Before the war, Thanksgiving dinners often
featured other main courses such as ham or roast beef rather than turkey.
Serving up turkey to that many troops, plus the tens of thousands of
reproductions of Rockwell’s painting, locked in that bird as the centerpiece
of the Thanksgiving meal.
Hard Times Don’t Cancel Thanksgiving
Except for the adolescent girl in Rockwell’s painting, the others are all old
enough to remember the Great Depression and its
effect on Thanksgiving.
In 1933, for those fortunate enough to have a job, the average wage was
about 53 cents an hour. A Thanksgiving meal for six cost approximately
$5.50, or 10 hours of labor. In a time when “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”
was playing on radios everywhere, many families simply couldn’t afford the
traditional Thanksgiving meal.
4/9
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With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times | The Epoch Times
Members of the Volunteers of America serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless at Bowery
Tabernacle in New York City, circa 1935. Archive Photos/Getty Images
And so they made do. Creative cooks whipped up inexpensive dishes,
concocting mock duck, for instance, by rolling up a flank steak in seasonings
and stuffing, then searing and roasting it to reproduce the taste of real, and
expensive, duck. Porcupine meatballs—ground beef mixed with rice—
became popular, and other inexpensive foodstuffs such as potatoes, with 2
pounds selling for a nickel, allowed for tasty side dishes. The introduction of
“instant gelatins” brought about the molded salad, a concoction of gelatin,
mayonnaise, fruits, and nuts.
A personal note here: Since that time, my own family has for several
generations served up what we call the “green salad,” a Pacific Lime Mold
that I now realize is likely the offspring of that long-ago era.
The household chefs who created these dishes understood that
Thanksgiving didn’t depend so much on the food as on the fellowship of
friends and family and an appreciation of the blessings in one’s life. For the
5/9
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11/27/25, 3:26 PM
With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times | The Epoch Times
stout of heart, misfortune, even misfortune as deep and widespread as the
Depression, didn’t cancel the celebration.
Peace, Harmony, Tranquility, and Union
In late September 1863, magazine editor and longtime advocate of a
National Day of Thanksgiving Sarah Hale
wrote to President Abraham
Lincoln, asking that Thanksgiving be “made a National and fixed Union
Festival” so that it might “become permanently, an American custom and
institution.”
Unlike earlier presidents petitioned by Hale, Lincoln acted. Secretary of
State William Seward
penned the proclamation, issued under Lincoln’s
name, that established “the last Thursday of November next, as a day of
Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the
Heavens.”
Concluding this document, written in the middle of our nation’s bloodiest
war, are words pertinent to us today. The proclamation recommends that
Americans “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to
heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent
with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquillity and Union.”
6/9
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11/27/25, 3:26 PM
With or Without the Turkey: Lessons From Thanksgiving in War and Hard Times | The Epoch Times
Illustration of a family preparing the Thanksgiving meal, circa 1882. Kean Collection/Getty Images
As during Lincoln’s presidency, political and cultural divisions are an
unfortunate hallmark of our age. Moreover, personal quarrels and grudges
have also sundered many families, so much so that media and online articles
now appear annually suggesting ways to avoid acrimony around the holiday
dinner table.
The True Treasure of Thanksgiving
If we go back to Rockwell’s painting, we see the happy faces of relatives and
friends enjoying the pleasures of companionship. It’s highly unlikely that
they agree 100 percent on the issues of the day, and all doubtless have their
personal quirks, but they push these aside in favor of laughter and union.
We also notice the partial portrait of the man in the lower right-hand corner
of the painting. He looks out at us as if to say, “Do you get it? Do you see?
This is what Thanksgiving is all about.”
During these Thanksgivings, when war or want might have smothered
gratitude for life, liberty, and the bounties of a generous land and climate, Americans sat down together to share a meal, whether it was turkey with all
the fixings or porcupine meatballs with green beans and cornbread, as a sign
of appreciation for their country, their families, and their friends.
We can do the same. We can remember and honor the sacrifices of those
countless millions of people who have shaped our country, as well as the
sacrifices of family and friends who have shaped us. On this special day, we
can put aside our misfortunes and be thankful for the blessings in our lives
and for life itself. We can take a break from the headlines and our private
quarrels and aim instead for unity and tranquility.
Enjoy the food and drink, but most of all, as Rockwell’s painting encourages
us, treasure the company.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone
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Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught
history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the
author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction,
“Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va
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