Happy Thanksgiving !!!!
Phyllis Pollack
Commercial | Civil Mediator at PGP Mediation - specializing in Employment, Personal Injury, Real Estate, Lemon Law, and Trademark disputes and Lecturer in Law at University of Southern California's Gould School of Law
Once again, Thanksgiving is upon us. Last year- 2022- I posted the blog below which I believe is as relevant today as it was last year. So, I would like to share it again. And…. again I want to thank each of you for such a great year. I? deeply appreciate your kindness, generosity, and continuing trust and faith in me. Have a Wonderful Turkey Day!??
Thanksgiving is in a few days, and I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy Turkey Day! I also want to take a moment to thank each of you- my readers and clients- for reading my blog each week and for allowing me to help you and your own clients resolve their disputes. Without you, I would not be a blogger and a mediator who is extremely happy with my full-time profession! THANK YOU!
More than ever, this Thanksgiving is truly a time to give thanks and count our blessings.? It seems that we are on the back end of the Covid pandemic (even though the flu season seems to be raging upon us!)? and that life is slowly getting back to normal. For the first time in three years, we will be able to gather with friends, and family and celebrate as in pre-pandemic days.? For that, we should give thanks, and count our blessings. We should also not forget those whom we lost to the pandemic. May they rest in peace.
While Thanksgiving actually started out as a religious holiday, it is also a time to eat quite a lot- (overindulge?) and have fun. Thus, I would like to share with you some fun facts about our day of Turkey brought to us by:
For example; the first Thanksgiving? (held in 1621) did not last merely one day, but in fact, lasted three days and occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1. (Think of the indigestion—and they did not have Tums or Rolaids!). It was shared by about 50 colonists and 90 Native Americans (from the Wampanoag tribe). Of the colonists- five were women, and they were the ones who served the meal (Nothing has changed!). It also did NOT include what we usually have today- turkey (from the Hebrew word “Tukki” meaning “Big Bird or Pheasant Bird”) ?mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, or cranberries ( which were then used for treating arrow wounds, and not for eating!), but rather consisted of deer, rabbit, and squash and perhaps a fowl other than turkey. ?What is more- they did not eat this three-day feast with forks as this utensil had not been invented!
Speaking of pumpkin pie, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked was 12 feet in diameter weighing slightly more than a ton. To make it, the cooks used 900 pounds of pumpkin, 1,860 eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, and 250 pounds of crust. (I wonder how many calories were in the whole pie?)
…And the average size turkey that graces our tables weighs 15 pounds, consisting of 70% white meat and 30% dark meat! In 2007, we ate 46 million turkeys (or, roughly, 535 million pounds) on Turkey Day! (Which is about 20% of the turkeys we consume each year.) Minnesota raises most of these turkeys (47 million each year) while Wisconsin raises most of the cranberries. (To determine if cranberries are NOT overripe they must bounce four inches high before being harvested and sold!) Illinois raises the most pumpkins, and North Carolina raises the most sweet potatoes! ?Typically, by the time we finish eating all of these goodies, (aka Thanksgiving dinner), we have consumed about 4,500 calories! Or, at least it feels like it! And… on average, we have traveled 214 miles just to sit down and consume all of those calories!
And… while the night before Thanksgiving is the biggest drinking night of the year, the day after Thanksgiving- Friday- is the busiest day for plumbers who are called to unclog all of the sewer systems.
In 1953, there were approximately 260 tons of frozen turkey left over from Thanksgiving. As a result, Swanson came up with the idea of frozen T.V. dinners. (Talk about overestimating demand!) It sold for 98 cents and consisted of turkey, cornbread stuffing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes
Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until President Lincoln declared it as such in 1863. ?It was in 1939 though that President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of the month. He did so to improve the shopping spree we all go on for Christmas. As it was during the Depression, any sort of economic stimulus was very much needed. However, no one liked this idea and so the President was forced to move it back to the last Thursday in November two years later. (I do not think the economy has suffered though as a result!). Franklin D. Roosevelt also legalized it as a national holiday.
While Thanksgiving is a holiday for most of us, it was the day of doom for the turkey! It was President? Harry S. Truman in 1947? that first formally pardoned the turkey in 1989. For the next sixteen years, each year the spared turkeys were sent to Frying Pan Park in Herndon, VA where they lived peacefully in retirement. From 2005 until? 2009- the spared birds went to Disneyland and Walt Disney World where they were the grand marshals of Disney’s Thanksgiving parade.? Since then the spared turkeys have retired to Mount Vernon or to Turkey Hill Farm in nearby Leesburg, Virginia.
What about dancing? The turkey trot was not created until the early 1900’s. It became popular in the 1920s. It is indeed modeled after the turkey’s actual walk- a short 2 step jerky affair!
At about the time that the turkey trot was in vogue, Mr. Macy started his Macy’s parade- in 1924- with 400 employees marching through the streets to celebrate the Christmas season and drawing 250,000 people to watch it… ??Real animals from the Central Park Zoo took part.? Three years later- in 1927, the helium balloons were added. The first balloon animal in the parade was Felix the Cat. (It was actually Gimbels that held the first Thanksgiving parade!).? Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the balloons will travel only one block this year!
And what about football? The first football game on Thanksgiving occurred in 1934- the ‘Thanksgiving Classic” when the Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions. The Lions have played every Thanksgiving since then except during World War II.
… And Thanksgiving became “universal” (pun intended) when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate their own turkey dinner with all of the trimmings as their first meal on the moon!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Let us all count our blessings!
… Just something to think about!