Well, here it is just about Thanksgiving already. This will be the first Thanksgiving in a long time that all our kids and grandkids are coming to our house. Obviously, we’re looking forward to their visit and having all the family together.
As is kind of my tradition, I blog something about Thanksgiving every year just because, well, it’s a tradition.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned some of these “fun facts” before, but there’s only so much you can say a bout a single day that occurs every year…. and — repeating is part of the tradition.
Around the turn of the century, at Thanksgiving, children and adults would dress up in masks and host costume crawls in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. The tradition of children dressing up as poor people in New York became so popular that Thanksgiving was nicknamed “Ragamuffin Day.”
Three towns in the U.S. are called Turkey — they are located in Texas, Kentucky and North Carolina. Other town names that are appropriate around Thanksgiving include Pilgrim, Michigan, Cranberry, Pennsylvania and Yum Yum, Tennessee.
The first Thanksgiving was declared by the Continental Congress in 1777. but the custom fell out of use around 1815. When that happened, Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” began petitioning presidents to make it a national holiday. She finally succeeded in 1863, when President Lincoln issued a proclamation. Even then, Thanksgiving didn’t officially have the set date as the fourth Thursday in November until 1941.
Until 1932, balloons from Macy’s parade were released into the sky when the parade was over. Macy’s offered a $50 reward for those who found a deflated balloon and returned it. The idea never proved very successful because the balloons usually burst after being set free.
More turkeys (44 to 46 million, annually) are raised I’m Minnesota than any other state.
President Roosevelt officially changed the date of Thanksgiving in 1941 to the second-to-last Thursday in November as a way to encourage more holiday shopping to boost the economy. That decision didn’t go over well, and earned him “the honor” of being compared to Hitler.
So with all the activity generated by four grandkids, I’m not sure how much football will get watched, but the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys will be playing their annual games. The Lions have played on Thanksgiving since 1934 — The Cowboys didn’t start until 1966.
No matter what, this will be a memorable Thanksgiving — probably the best ever….
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