Christmas Present

Tonight he's just a big kid eagerly waiting for Christmas. The first Christmas Eve I remember. My grandma told me to go out on a porch and drag in the eulog. The eulog turned out to be grandpa.

The American Meat Institute presents William Bandic's In The Life of Riley. The Meat People of America, providing a great food for a great nation. But there are many other things besides meat that the meat industry supplies to a fighting nation.

Fats for explosives, leather for shoes, and many other military uses, warm fleeces for flyers, jackets, wool for sturdy uniforms, life-saving extracts and drugs for military hospitals. Yes, an industry that learned years ago to use everything but the squeal provides hundreds of essential materials for vital wartime needs.

And now on behalf of all those engaged in supplying meat to the nation, the American Meat Institute presents The life of Riley. Well, it's the week before Christmas and all through the land, people are busy sending and receiving gaily wrapped packages.

War worker Riley had just had the living room of his California bungalow with two such packages and his arms. Well, what's that you got there, Riley? Christmas presents? Yeah, Dublin, for me. Something I can really use.

Oh, who gave them to you, Dad? A very good friend of mine, me. See? I like that. A new hat. How do I look? Well, don't you think those pork pie hats are a little too useful for you?

No, no, no, the man in the store said I got the perfect face for a pork pie hat. Oh, what's in the other package, Pop? Cigars. Oh, but Dad, your friend, while no Benny always gives you cigars for Christmas.