Saying Grace Puzzle

I finished my 4th puzzle of the year! which says something about my year thus far, I suppose.

As I worked on puzzling this scene together, I found myself thinking about what it means to say grace. And then went looking for some info on this particular piece of art.

I learned that this served as the cover for the 1951 Thanksgiving issue of The Post. Apparently Norman Rockwell got the idea for the painting from a lady who wrote to him and told him about a time when she observed a “Mennonite family saying grace in an automat“.

So then I looked up automat. Check that out! Some kind of vending machine, cafeteria, fast food mash up?!? According to Wikipedia, The first such eating establishment came to the U.S. in 1902, but were mostly relegated to nostalgia by the 1970s. Apparently many of the New York City automats were converted to Burger Kings.

But I digress! This is what I really wanted to say – In my quick google survey of Saying Grace I found this quote from The Post regarding the art on their 1951 Thanksgiving issue:

The world is not too happy a place these days. There are wars and threats of wars. Anxiety and frustration are abroad, and in many quarters we see the bankruptcy of morals. So, suddenly comes the day to give thanks for the goodness of life. And perhaps this can be done most understandingly by someone like this little old lady who, wherever she may be, bows her head to say grace, speaking not analytically from the mind but spontaneously from the heart.