Memory is a funny thing. Sometimes it presents you with crystal-clear images of a day or even a moment. Yet other times, it’s very stingy and hands you fuzzy recollections, nothing more than little bits and pieces.
I’ve been trying hard to remember some of my childhood Thanksgivings, especially those from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. What makes Thanksgiving, this fourth Thursday of November, so special?
Back then I remember Mom sitting at the kitchen table working on her Thanksgiving cards. She searched the dime stores for just the right sentiment and sent greeting cards to family and friends. Now, there’s a term you don’t hear anymore—dime stores. It references inexpensive merchandise and variety stores.
It’s a term going back to the late 1800s. In Brooksville, we had Lingles 5 and 10 on Main Street. It carried almost everything.
Mom’s favorite Thanksgiving cards contained messages like “Thanksgiving wishes across the miles” or “Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours.” And I know everyone received not just a card but had a short note or handwritten letter tucked inside.
Can you believe that a first-class postage stamp cost only 3 cents from 1933 to 1958? Imagine that! We had twenty-five years of sending cards and letters across the United States for just pennies each! But it was too good to last! In 1959 a postage stamp increased to 4 cents. And before the decade’s end, there would be two more price hikes. First-class mail rose to 5 cents in 1963 and 6 cents in 1968.
Thanksgiving grocery shopping was certainly different and much simpler in the 1950s. We often planned our meals around the weekly grocery ads. The Tampa Tribune had a special food section on Thursdays. We looked forward to its advertisements, recipes, and household hints.
Grocery stores were much smaller back then, too, roughly one fourth the size of today. There were less aisles and fewer choices. My parents got their groceries done in no time as they chatted with store employees. The meat manager remembered just how Dad preferred his pork chops or roast and the bag boy knew to put our heavy items in the sack first.
Newspapers of the 1950s gave women plenty of Thanksgiving advice. Articles mentioned the use of table linens, fine china, glassware, candles, and flower arrangements to create the perfect table.
I recall those decorative cornucopias of yesteryear. Those “horns of plenty” were used as centerpieces and often filled with seasonal fruits and vegetables. The cornucopia is a symbol of wealth and abundance. Its use dates back to Greek and Roman times.
For Thanksgiving, my parents preferred buying a fresh turkey. Whole frozen turkeys were new to stores. In fact, the Swanson Food Company seriously overestimated public demand for its frozen turkeys in 1953. As a result, they were left with 26 tons of frozen birds unsold. However, an employee devised a plan to turn things around. The company sliced the remaining frozen turkeys and repackaged the meat with vegetable side dishes. The individual meals appeared in freezer cases and came in oven-ready aluminum trays. Sales of them skyrocketed in 1954. The TV dinner was born!
We served a traditional Thanksgiving meal at our house with slow-roasted turkey and homemade gravy. I recall Mom opening the oven door and doing lots of basting. We served stuffing made from scratch and cooked inside the bird. No one considered this method a health hazard back then. However, in 1996 the FDA declared that stuffing should be cooked elsewhere, in a separate pan, to ensure a safe, regulated cooking temperature and to avoid intestinal issues.
Easy-to-serve canned vegetables were popular for Thanksgiving. Mom loved those tiny Le Sueur peas, the ones that came with pearl onions. And we had traditional pumpkin pie. Ours was made by using a few ingredients plus adding a can of Libby’s packed pumpkin and a can of evaporated milk. Today there are dozens of new pumpkin-flavored desserts. We also served something different—strawberry rhubarb pie. You had to look for it at the store or ask about it at the bakery. To me, strawberries and rhubarb have a great flavor together with just the right amount of tartness and sweetness.
We stayed casual on Thanksgiving Day, not a time for our Sunday best. As operators of a poultry farm we had to step away every few hours for daily chores like gathering eggs, feeding chickens, or running the egg washing machinery. Chickens never took a day off.
However holiday “dressing up” was promoted in the 1950s. Many Thanksgiving ads pictured Dad in a suit and tie, carving a large turkey while his adoring and equally well-dressed family looked on. Dinnerware accessories of all kinds were popular. You saw gravy boats, cream pitchers, sugar bowls, soup tureens, platters, and ceramic salt and pepper shakers. Punch bowls and silver serving pieces rounded out the tables for many households.
In the 1950s Thanksgiving housewives learned of new culinary discoveries. Green bean casserole made its debut. In 1955 it was invented at Campbell Soup Company. And who can recall a fruit, marshmallow, and coconut concoction called ambrosia? Just think of it! A new dessert was born by simply opening a few cans!
Not cooking on Thanksgiving? Many restaurants had special menus planned. A full-course 1950s-style turkey dinner averaged $ 1.50 per person. In 1957 you could also be a bit more extravagant and dine at the Crystal Dining Room of Tampa’s Hotel Floridian. The well-known hotel was the tallest building in the city of Tampa from 1926-1966. Their Thanksgiving Day menu included a shrimp cocktail and roast Tom turkey with all the trimmings. They also offered other entrees such as tenderloin of beef or Canadian goose. A fancy meal there costs $2.50 per person.
I noticed some Thanksgiving traditions have been around for a long time. One of them is turning 100 years old, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! It began in 1924 as a gimmick to promote holiday sales in Herald Square. This area of New York City is home to Macy’s flagship department store and all parade volunteers are either Macy’s employees or their sponsored family and friends. The annual parade features giant helium-filled balloons, floats, marching bands, clowns, and other performers. More than 5,000 volunteers make it happen. It takes 90 volunteers on the ground to control a single balloon. The parade has been televised on NBC since 1953 and starts at 8:30 am EST on Thanksgiving morning.
Watching football on Thanksgiving Day is also a tradition, one going back 90 years. Hard to believe only three television networks were covering the NFL games back in the 1950’s! Football games were moved to Thanksgiving Day as a way of encouraging interest in the sport. Baseball was much more popular. Two football teams synonymous with Thanksgiving are the Detroit Lions, who have played every Thanksgiving Day since 1934, and the Dallas Cowboys, who have played Thanksgiving since 1966.
Thanksgiving menus continue to evolve with the years. Jell-O is known for making a frequent holiday appearance. Housewives of the 1950s-1960s couldn’t get enough of molding jello in those little tin molds. They added ingredients such as marshmallows, pineapple, or fruit cocktails and called it dessert. Some women went crazy with jello by adding shredded carrots, cabbage, mixed nuts, mayonnaise and other vegetables. Some of their combinations, although healthy, probably shouldn’t have seen the light of day. And it was even suggested to liven up your holiday leftovers by adding chopped turkey to your Jell-O!
There are no cell phones in my Thanksgiving memories. Instead, we were encouraged to call loved ones on Thanksgiving Day by dialing on the home phone. Phone calls of more than a few miles away were considered “long distance” and cost money compared to free local calls. Phone companies lowered their rates per minute on nights and weekends to make calling more attractive and affordable. Rates usually dropped at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Mom waited and called friends and relatives long distance. She religiously logged her outgoing long-distance calls on a piece of paper and checked her list against the monthly phone bill. Who can remember having one landline, a rotary dial phone, or seeing those itemized phone bills?
Traditions are nice and so are my family recollections. My Aunt Cathy, Uncle Ed and cousin Len are always in my Thanksgiving memories. They lived in Tampa and our families spent many years celebrating the holidays together.
With dishes done and Thanksgiving winding down, my parents and aunt and uncle enjoyed coffee and dessert at the kitchen table. Soon it was time to play cards. They often played four-handed pinochle, a card game which I never truly understood until years later.
Meanwhile my cousin Len and I left the adults alone and went outside. There were many things we could do on the farm. We often played in the woods or rode bikes. At dark we lit a burn pile out back and stayed there talking for hours.
I always enjoyed this time outside in the dark. Len and I sat on Dad’s old Army blanket by the fire and told stories or talked about school and our friends. I recall how nice it was to be there by a fire under a clear sky full of stars. It was a simpler time. I remember being content. It was a Thanksgiving with everything I needed at the moment. It was a time to be grateful and feel blessed.
[Courtesy photo]
