It's really the little things that make life worth living. The best things are the simplest things ??home and love and work to do, vegetables in the garden, and fresh fruit from the backyard tree. Lacking these, what else can make life worth living? Having them, we need no more!

Gardeners sometimes forget the little things that "soothe the savage beast" in all of us and make life a pleasure. Things such as a sharp hoe and the wife's strong back add so much to the success or failure of any garden. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. Never let it be said that I do not enjoy work; it fascinates me. I can sit and watch it for hours! If you don't believe me, ask my gardener wife!

Other small, often?overlooked blessings include a rototiller that will start; a hose that will reach where you need to water; seeds which will germinate; and vegetable varieties which will produce. These are what make our gardening life a pleasure.

But gardening is hard work, and we all have proclaimed, "This is the last year!" more than once during the season. But the memory of that fresh tomato, after tasting a December green?picked tomato, will start the rototiller and strengthen the back and determination of most "ole?time" growers when planting time comes again next spring. If I have heard it once, I have heard it a hundred times ??"Parsons, we're quitting this vegetable business! There's no money in it. This is our last year." But these are the same growers who call the next spring wanting to know which are the best vegetable varieties to plant.

I am thankful for these types of people ??mainly, because they make my work necessary. But more than that, these growers, gardeners and farmers are the main spring of the American way of life. They are always coiled and ready to go. I have never seen a gardener who considers his or her garden less than perfect. By the same token, I have never seen a gardener who wasn't going to do better next year. I hope this determination in the American people will never cease.

So remember ??the sweetest flower is the one in your own backyard; the best tomato is the one YOU grew this year; and the most wonderful people in the world are those sitting around your Thanksgiving Day table. As you gobble the Thanksgiving feast and ponder all of your thankful thoughts, don't forget those many "taken?for?granted" little things which give the good life real gusto.

I want to mention some of the "Thanksgivings of Gardening" which all of us share:

1. Be thankful for physical strength which is necessary to prepare a garden.

2. Be thankful for your concern that your family enjoy fresh, nutritious vegetables.

3. Be thankful for that look of joy that flows from your youngster when he picks that first red tomato.

4. Be thankful for an understanding family who will eat your garden?grown vegetables regardless of how they look.

5. Be thankful for your interest in the very essence of all life--the plant.

6. Be thankful for the personal pride stimulated by a successful garden.

7. Be thankful for the invaluable experience gained from struggling to produce a garden.

8. Be thankful for the humilities of failure when we all realize that gardening is not easy.

9. Be thankful for the vegetable farmer who does produce a good crop every year to supply us when we fail.

10. And last but not least, be thankful for the miracle of growth which we all, whether young or old, experience each and every time we plant a seed and watch it grow.

I am sure that you can think of many more Thanksgiving gardening blessings. I would encourage you and your family to do so. We often tend to overlook the blessings with which we are most familiar.