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CNN Sunday Morning

Patriotic Colors Decorate the Holidays

Aired November 18, 2001 - 07:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: SAVIDGE: It's beginning to look a lot like the Fourth of July. Apparently this Christmas, instead of the traditional red, white and green, you'll be seeing red, white and blue.

Here's CNN Toria Tolley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TORIA TOLLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thanksgiving is nearly here, yet across America, it looks more like the Fourth of July. This year, the colors of the holiday season appear to be red, white and blue. On street corners, cars, and in windows, Old Glory is now as standard a decoration as turkeys and Christmas trees.

Artist Mark Herron went to his attic not for strings of lights and boxes, but for a print he created 13 years ago called "American Arise." The renewed interest, he believes shows this season is different than past years.

MARK HERRON, ARTISTS: It's just brought a new level of consciousness to our country, I think, and an awareness of where we are going and who we look to for safety.

TOLLEY: Ermine Demph (ph) Phillips has operated Phillips Variety Store for more than half of her 80 odd years. Her business remains lively, her customers resolute.

ERMINE PHILLIPS, STOREKEEPER: I think everybody's been -- seems pretty calm. Maybe not to the ones you can do something about it, don't you think?

TOLLEY: There is a certain comfort, some say, shopping among the many flags. The cash register rings. The chitchat patriotic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think America is very strong. And I think that we'll get through this together. And we do what we have to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I -- yes, I do too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's bringing a lot of people together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think a lot of good things have come from this because it's united every -- before everybody was kind of on their own. Now, I think it's united everyone and everyone is together and pulling together. And we have that old American spirit again.

TOLLEY (on-camera): There's a new holiday spirit emerging this year. You can see it in America's storefronts, restaurants and even hair salons.

(voice-over): Amidst the suds and the scissors, discussions of how things are different this year and yet the same.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The only thing that's changed is I'm praying a whole lot more, for our military and for our president. That's the only thing. Other than that, I'm not worried about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am very, very angry because my children are still having to use the airlines and -- but for me, I would -- if I were younger, I would enlist in a New York instant.

TOLLEY: The colors of the harvest and the smell of turkey may mean it's Thanksgiving, but the abundant red, white and blue quietly demonstrates how people are indeed giving thanks.

Toria Tolley, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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