The Year Thanksgiving …” Traveled”

Dear Reader:

When it comes to Americans and their holiday traditions-be forewarned: Don’t Mess With Them!!!

FDR learned this the hard way… the year was 1939… still a time of Great Depression economical challenges. The ” mobile ” Thanksgiving idea started out innocuously enough with good intentions but snowballed …with a terrible backlash.

That particular year Thanksgiving fell on the last day of November ( 30th.) Retailers lobbied Franklin Roosevelt to move it back one week to the 23rd … in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.

FDR wanted to do anything to help the shaky economy so he agreed. In the middle of August he casually announced to reporters that Thanksgiving would come early that year.

This decision sold more newspaper copies than the war in Europe…. sparking a firestorm of controversy. Letters flooded the White House and political cartoonists had a field day.

Calendar makers were livid… all whose products were now inaccurate, college and high school football coaches clamored in line too… upset to find that the big Thanksgiving game was no longer on the right day.

In the thousands of letters received in the White House some were couples with Thanksgiving wedding plans and children with Thanksgiving birthdays.

Protesters outside the White House began chanting and re-naming Thanksgiving Franksgiving Day!

***However some creative retailers in one particular product saw a sharp increase in sales….turning lemons into lemonade!

Yes! Hotdogs returned ( not just as baseball’s favorite food) but now enjoyed on ” **Franksgiving.”**

The issue in 1939 divided the country half and half-23 states pro and 23 con. Texas and Colorado celebrated both dates that year.

” The following year Roosevelt sheepishly admitted that the whole thing was a mistake and returned Thanksgiving to its original date! Congress passed a law setting that date in stone, so no further Presidents could ever again mess with Thanksgiving. “

So until tomorrow… traditions filled with family memories always take precedence … matters of the heart over matters of economics!

Today is my favorite day… Winnie the Pooh

… and Jackson’s too! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON! You finally caught up with the rest of us Ya’s… jump on in… the water is getting better and better!

**From left to right… my bridesmaids… Susan, Libby and on the right Brooke, JACKSON , and Julie!!!**

And today… the Ya’s….

**My last two hibiscus blooms of the season… good-bye my beauties- until next year!!!**

About Becky Dingle

I was born a Tarheel but ended up a Sandlapper. My grandparents were cotton farmers in Laurens, South Carolina and it was in my grandmother’s house that my love of storytelling began beside an old Franklin stove. When I graduated from Laurens High School, I attended Erskine College (Due West of what?) and would later get my Masters Degree in Education/Social Studies from Charleston Southern. I am presently an adjunct professor/clinical supervisor at CSU and have also taught at the College of Charleston. For 28 years I taught Social Studies through storytelling. My philosophy matched Rudyard Kipling’s quote: “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” Today I still spread this message through workshops and presentations throughout the state. The secret of success in teaching social studies is always in the story. I want to keep learning and being surprised by life…it is the greatest teacher. Like Kermit said, “When you’re green you grow, when you’re ripe you rot.”

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