Rockwell Visits Post in Philadelphia

"Because America was a nation of immigrants who lacked universally shared traditions, it had to invent some.  So it came up with Thanksgiving, baseball and Norman Rockwell." 

(Deborah Solomon, Smithsonian Magazine)

The Curtis Building in Philadelphia, which opened in 1910, was the headquarters of the Post, courtesy http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/saturday-evening-post/#17037.

In 1916, the Saturday Evening Post was considered to be the premier place to showcase an illustrator's work.  Without an appointment, Norman Rockwell boarded a train for Philadelphia. Under his arm was his portfolio, filled with two paintings and a sketch.  The editors at the Post liked Norman Rockwell's idea and went ahead and purchased the two paintings.  Thus began a 47 year relationship between the Post and Rockwell.   He would paint 321 original covers for the magazine, elevating its subscription base to 6,900,000 nationwide. (http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/post-artists/biography-norman-rockwell)

The American public couldn't get enough of Rockwell's work.  "Because America was a nation of immigrants who lacked universally shared traditions, it had to invent some.  So it came up with Thanksgiving, baseball and Norman Rockwell."  The public loved his patriotism, his commitment to American values.  

Rockwell did not receive the same warm welcome from the art world.  While most artists were starving, Rockwell was bringing in a steady pay cheque.  While most artists of the time were embracing Cubism, or Minimalism, Rockwell had his own "corny" style.  "While most avant-gardists were heading down a one way street, Rockwell was driving in the opposite direction -- he was putting stuff into art." (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/inside-americas-great-romance-with-norman-rockwell-22055/?no-ist) 

Rockwell's style worked.  Called "the Dickens of the paintbrush", Rockwell is considered to be one of the premier artists of America.  

Baby Carriage was one of the two paintings in Rockwell's portfolio when he first visited the Post in 1916 courtesy http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Baby-Carriage-Saturday-Evening-Post-Cover-May-20-1916-Posters_i7553148_.htm.

James Gillespie's "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

"If you don't wash behind your ears, Haven, Santa won't come to see you." 

(James "Haven" Gillespie's Mother)

In September of 1934, James "Haven" Gillespie was a New York City vaudevillian turned songwriter who had fallen on hard times financially.  To add to his misery, his brother passed away.  Right after the funeral, he got a call from Edgar Bittner of Leo Feist publishing asking him to write a Christmas song.  Feeling too overcome with grief, Gillespie initially rejected the idea.

However, one subway ride changed everything.  Gillespie started to recollect Christmases spent in Kentucky with his brother, along with seven other siblings, in which his mother would warn them that Santa Claus was watching.  "If you don't wash behind your ears, Haven, Santa won't come to see you," reminded his mother.

Within fifteen minutes, Gillespie had penned the lyrics to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".  He called in composer John Coots to write the music.  On Thanksgiving of 1934, the song was featured on the Eddie Cantor Radio Show.  The song was an instant hit.  An average of 25,000 orders per day were taken for the sheet music.  In the decades since its debut, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" has been recorded by everyone from Alvin and the Chipmunks to Jackie Gleason to Bruce Springsteen to Justin Bieber.  And to think that James Gillespie almost passed up the opportunity to write it.

Note:  To listen to the song, visit http://mentalfloss.com/article/60596/origins-10-popular-christmas-carols.

http://www.thelevisalazer.com/lifestyles/3315-favorite-christmas-song-written-by-james-haven-gillespie.html

Plymouth Rock

"This rock has become an object of veneration in the United States.  I have seen bits and pieces of it carefully preserved in several towns in the Union.  Does this sufficiently show that all human power and greatness is in the soul of man?  Here is a stone in which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant; and the stone becomes famous; it is treasured by a great nation; its very dust is shared as a relic."  (Alexis de Tocqueville, upon the occasion of his visit from France, 1834)

Plymouth Rock, on which 135 Pilgrims first landed in 1620, courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock.

Forty years ago, when my family visited Boston, we made the pilgrimage to Plymouth Rock.  Two things stood out in my seven-year-old mind:  the fact that my dad had to bend over when we explored the decks of the Mayflower and the bronze pilgrim figurine that my mom bought me at the gift shop. Here is the history of the great rock..

Plymouth, located on the Atlantic Ocean 45 miles south of Boston, is where the Pilgrims chose to land in 1620.  Alexis de Tocqueville called them outcasts as they were a group of separatists fleeing the persecution of the Church of England.  The group, numbering in the dozens, had first landed at Provincetown, Massachusetts on Cape Cod in November.  After stealing some corn, getting in a skirmish with the Natives and failing to find a good place to settle, they set off again.  

Henry Bacon's painting circa 1834 courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock.

On a blustery December day, they landed at Plymouth where they happened upon a giant rock which served as a natural dock.  They decided to call it Plymouth after the town that they had disembarked from in England.  Relieved to have reached land, grateful to have survived that first winter and thankful for God's bountiful harvest that first summer, the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving the following November.  

Elder Faunce, in the "Story of the Pilgrim Fathers" (1841), confirmed that his father landed at the same rock in 1623 upon arriving from England.  In 1774, on the eve of the American Revolution, the giant rock was split in two, the top half remaining at the site, the bottom half being relocated to the town's meeting house in Plymouth.  Passersby would sometimes chip pieces off the stone as keepsakes.

The 1867 structure courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock.

The rock remained there for 50 years.  In 1834, it was relocated to Pilgrim Hall where a Victorian Canopy was built around it in 1867.  As in the past, tourists would sometimes steal pieces of the rock as souvenirs.

In 1880, the top half of the rock was re-attached to the bottom half of the rock at the Atlantic shoreline.  The 1620 date was carved into the rock at that time.  Estimated to weigh 20,000 pounds in 1620, the rock now measures about a third of its original size.  

While the rock has lost much of its weight, it has not lost its intrigue.  Nearly one million people flock to Plymouth each year to view the rock, a tad more than first landed on it almost 400 years ago.

The Parthenon-like portico circa 1970's, the way it would have looked when I visited on my Boston trip courtesy dreamstime.com. 

Falling for Picture Books

Here are recommended picture books for fall:

1.  Thanks for Thanksgiving (Julie Markes)

2.  One Little Two Little Three Little Pilgrims (B.G. Hennessey)

3.  I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (Alison Jackson)

4.  Turkey Trouble (Wendi Silvano)

5.  Apple Pie that Papa Baked (Lauren Thomspon)

6.  Pumpkin Soup (Helen Cooper)

7.  Too Many Pumpkins (Linda White)

8.  Seed by Seed:  The Legend and Legacy of John "Appleseed" Chapman (Esme Codell)

9.  Apple Picking Time (Michele Benoit Slawson)

10.  One More Acorn (Don Freeman)

http://www.amazon.ca/Too-Many-Pumpkins-Linda-White/dp/0823413209

Falling for Chapter Books

Here are ten chapter books recommended for fall.

1.  The Best Halloween Ever (Barbara Robinson)

2.  Haunted Castle on Hallow's Eve (Mary Pope Osborne)

3.  The Skeleton in the Smithsonian (Ron Roy)

4.  Thanksgiving on Thursday (Mary Pope Osborne)

5.  The Great Turkey Walk (Kathleen Karr)

6.  The Candy Corn Contest (Patricia Reilly Giff)

7.  The Peculiar Pumpkin Thief (Geronimo Stilton)

8.  Coyote Autumn (Bill Wallace)

9.  Apple Orchard Race (Abby Klein)

10.  There's an Owl in the Shower (Jean Craighead George)

Coyote Autumn courtesy http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YhwYB3xZL.jpg

Peeling Back the Foil

What do you do with two hundred and sixty tons of turkey leftover from Thanksgiving?  That was the question that Gilbert and Clark Swanson asked themselves after they overestimated the number of turkeys that would sell over Thanksgiving 1953.  They rented a refrigerated car and stuffed it full of turkeys.  As the turkeys rode the rails, they challenged their employees to come up with a more economical solution to the problem.

Nebraska's Gerry Thomas, a Swanson salesman, made a trip to Pan-Am in Pittsburgh to study their frozen dinners served on their airplanes.  He "borrowed" one of their aluminum trays, then set to work redesigning it into three, rather than one, compartments.  While the frozen dinner idea had been around for about a decade, no one had married the frozen dinner to TV; that is, until Mr. Thomas.  By 1953, most middle-class American households no longer had a maid.  But they did have a TV set -- 33 million of them.  Why not market the dinners as TV dinners?  Gerry even designed the box like a TV set complete with a volume knob.



                                

http://blog.retroplanet.com/happy-birthday-swanson-tv-dinner/

Swanson assembled two dozen women in the Fall of 1953.  Armed with spatulas and ice cream scoops, the women assembled 5000 dinners complete with turkey slices, sweet potatoes, peas and cornbread dressing.  Each TV dinner was priced at 98 cents.  Directions on the box recommended that the dinner be reheated for only 25 minutes.

One Swanson ad showed a woman arriving home at dinner time and saying to her husband;  "I'm late, but dinner won't be."  While Gerry Thomas received hate mail from some men, complaining that they wanted their wives to cook from scratch as their mothers had, the majority of Americans seemed to warm up to the idea of a TV dinner.  In the first year alone, Swanson sold 10 million.

By 1960, Swanson added a fourth compartment:  dessert.  Two years later, they officially dropped the name TV dinner.  However, the notion stuck.  With the advent of microwaves, the foil tray was replaced by a plastic one.  At over 60 years old,, the TV dinner is still going strong.

Source:  www.gourmet.com

http://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/his1005spring2011/2011/04/10/im-late-but-dinner-wont-be/

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Thanksgiving

1.  Algonquian Indians were among the first to harvest wild cranberries.  They used them as food, medicine and a symbol of peace.

2.  Although pumpkin pies are a staple of North American Thanksgivings, they did not become popular until the early 19th Century.

3.  Oktoberfest, which is celebrated in Kitchener, Ontario, originated in Germany in 1810 after King Ludwig I married Therese.

4.  Canadians purchased 3 million turkeys in 2011 which accounts for 32% of yearly sales.

5.  Thanksgiving is a statutory holiday in most Canadian provinces with the exception of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I.

6.  Martin Frobisher held the first Canadian Thanksgiving in 1578 to celebrate his safe arrival to the new land.

7.  In 1953, Swanson, after overestimating the need for Thanksgiving dinner, had 260 tons of frozen turkeys to get rid of.  They ordered 5000 aluminum plates with separated sections and filled them with turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes and peas, creating the first TV dinners.

8.  Only about half of the 102 people aboard the Mayflower that sailed to America in 1620 were actually Pilgrims.  The other half were "Strangers", simply people wanting to come to the New World.

9.  The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving dinner is 15 pounds.  Turkeys will have 3500 feathers at maturity.

10.  The first Thanksgiving, celebrated by the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, lasted three days.

http://www.centralpark.com/news/636/start-making-your-thanksgiving-day-parade-plans-with-jw-marriott-essex-house

Thanksgiving Blessings

Thanksgiving Sunday dawned sunny and warm, not a cloud in the sky, not a whisper of wind in the air.  Rob, Thomas, Jacqueline and I piled into the van to go to church.  Rob and Thomas sat in the sanctuary for the service while Jacqueline and I taught Sunday school.  We met our class of Senior Kindergarten students for the first time.  Their cute faces, their Sunday dresses, their legs dangling from the chairs, were a welcome sight.  Jacqueline was thrilled that her reading buddy from school was in the class.  So was her reading buddy!  We sang "The B-I-B-L-E" a song that I learned in Sunday School 40 years ago.  I read a story about Adam, Eve and the Garden of Eden.  Jacqueline drew a picture of a pink and green snake on the board, much appreciated by a teacher lacking artistic talent.  The kids stared at it with wide eyes.  Afterwards, Jacqueline collected the books, Rob stacked the chairs and we rushed home to prepare the Thanksgiving dinner.

Jacqueline set the dining room table with my Royal Doulton china plates, most of which were wedding gifts.  She placed a Thanksgiving serviette on each plate.  I set out the crystal glasses, also wedding gifts, above each plate.  To complement the chrysanthemum flowers in a black vase which served as a centerpiece, Jacqueline added two cinnamon candles.

I stuffed the Butterball turkey and placed it in my new roasting pan.  The old one was really meant for a roast, not a turkey.  I put the sour cream mashed potato casserole in the microwave to warm up. Julie tossed her Seven Layer Salad, always a hit in our family.  I unthawed Laurie's turnip and carrots along with her homemade turkey gravy.

As the turkey roasted to a golden brown, its smell wafting through the house, I thought I could escape from the kitchen for a few minutes.  I went outside in the backyard to watch Rob and Bill play soccer with Thomas and Jacqueline.  I soaked in the sun which bathed the patio in warmth.  Once again, we were enjoying an Indian summer for Thanksgiving.  My reverie was interrupted by sudden shouts from Rob who had scored or missed a shot.

Inside the house, my nephews Bo and Mason played with the 40 year old Fischer Price toys.  Bo chose everyone's favourite, the castle, dropping the men down the trap door.  The adults sat upstairs in the living room chatting.

Finally, we sat down to eat the Thanksgiving feast.  We said a prayer, each thanking God for one of our blessings.  Just when we thought we couldn't eat another bite, I brought out the apple pie and pumpkin pie dessert topped off with spoonfuls of whipped cream.  The food was tasty, the company pleasant, the weather gorgeous.  May the peace of Thanksgiving be in everyone's heart today and always!

valdosta.edu

In Search of the Big Bird

This morning I dropped the kids off at school and headed straight for Food Basics to do my Thanksgiving shopping.  The store had only opened half an hour before I arrived and the workers were stocking the shelves.  I took my time in the produce section, thinking there was no rush.  Then I made my way to the meat section:  only one Butterball turkey left!  I love Butterballs; they always turn out so tasty and juicy.  As I held the bird in my hand, an elderly lady approached me.  "Is that the last Butterball?" she asked.  "I think so," I replied.  I examined it, wondering if it was big enough for my whole family.  The elderly lady said:  "Oh, that's too bad.  I wanted a Butterball.  And that's a small one, just right for me.  I'm only cooking for two.  My husband passed away.  He was a veteran." I'm holding the turkey, thinking:  How can I take this knowing that the other lady will have to choose one of the other turkeys.  Her husband was a veteran.  That would be cruel.  I'm thinking maybe I should give her the Butterball and head to the other Food Basics to search for one.

But a solution arrives with one of the workers.  I ask:  "Is this the last Butterball turkey?"  She walks around the corner and finds one more in another bin.  It happens to be $3.00 more.  It's a bit bigger -- perfect for my family.  I hand the elderly lady the smaller turkey.  She's thrilled!  "Merry Christmas!" she exclaims, putting the smaller turkey in her cart.  I thank God for everything at my age," she adds, making sure that I know she knows it's not Christmas.  I put the bigger turkey in my cart.  I ask the worker where the stuffing is.  The elderly lady and I, with the last two Butterballs in the store, follow her to the bread section.  I help the lady read the directions on the blue stuffing box.  It's Paxo, my mom's favourite.  The lady buys one box while I buy two.  She declares:  "I'm glad I came early this morning.  If I'd come later, I wouldn't have met you, and I wouldn't have got the big bird.  I thank God for everything at my age."  I certainly didn't do much for the lady.  But some people count their blessings, no matter how small. I can learn from the lady with the big bird.  She has thanksgiving in her heart all year round.  May God bless her!

http://www.jantoo.com/