Just The Facts......Turkey Facts!

THANKSGIVING FUN FACTS

Though many competing claims exist, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621.  More than 200 years later, President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving.  Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.  Took long enough!

Sarah Josepha-Hale, the enormously influential magazine editor and author who waged a tireless campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the mid-19^th century, was also the author of the classic nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” A “little turkey” just doesn’t have quite the rhyme…

In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative Thanksgiving stamp.  Designed by the artist Margaret Cusack in a style resembling traditional folk-art needlework, it depicted a cornucopia overflowing with fruits and vegetables, under the phrase “We Give Thanks.”

Despite record-high gas prices (more than $3.00 per gallon) in 2007, the American Automobile Association estimated that 38.7 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more from home for the Thanksgiving holiday, a slight increase (1.5%) over the previous year.   Of those Americans traveling for Thanksgiving in 2007, approximately 80 percent (31.2 million) were expected to go by motor vehicle, 12.1 percent (4.7 million) by airplane and the rest (2.8 million) by train, bus or other mode of transportation.  What other modes are there?  Scooters, maybe?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is the top turkey-producing statein America, with a planned production total of 49 million turkeys in 2008.  Just six states-Minnesota, North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri, and Indiana-will probably produce two-thirds of the estimated 271 million birds that will be raised in the U.S. this year.  So what do they do with all those feathers?

The National Turkey Federation estimated that 46 million turkeys-one fifth of the annual total 235 million consumed in the U.S. in 2007-were eaten at Thanksgiving.

In a survey conducted by the National Turkey Federation, nearly 88 percent of Americans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving.  The average weight of turkeys purchased was 15 pounds, which translates to some 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the U.S. during Thanksgiving in 2007.  That’s 2.25 pounds of turkey per every single person in the U.S.!  Lots of leftovers……

The cranberry is one of only three fruits-the others are the blueberry and the Concord grape-that are entirely native to North Amercian soil.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measered just over 12 feet long.  It was baked on October 8, 2005 by the New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio, and included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust.  Hey, what about the Cool Whip?

Three towns in the U.S. take their name from the traditional Thanksgiving bird, including Turkey, Texas (pop. 465); Turkey Creek, Louisiana (pop. 363); and Turkey, North Carolina (pop. 270).  And hardly anybody lives there!

Originally known as Macy’s Christmas Parade-to signify the launch of the Christmas shopping season-the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in New York City in 1924.  It was launched by Macy’s employees and featured animals from the Central Park Zoo.  Today, some 3 million people attend the annual parade and another 44 million watch it on television.  So that’s where the post-Thanksgiving shopping plague came from…..

Tony Sarg, a children’s book illustrator and puppeteer, designed the  first giant hot air balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1927.  He later created the elaborate mechanically animated window displays that grace the façade of the New York store from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  Pretty cool!

Snoopy has appeared as a giant balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade more times than any other character in history.  As the Flying Ace, Snoopy made his 6^th appearance in the 2006 parade. 

The first time the Detroit Lions played football on Thanksgiving Day was in 1934, when they hosted the Chicago Bears at the University of Detroit stadium, in front of 26,000 fans.  The NBC radio network broadcast of the game on 94 stations across the country-the first national Thanksgiving football broadcast.  Since that time, the Lions have played a game every Thanksgiving (except  between 1939 and 1944); in 1956, fans watched the game on television for the first time.  Did they know they’d be setting a precedence?

All joking aside, this is the day to give thanks for the many wonderful things in our lives.  Hey, seriously, things could be a lot worse!  For all of our peeps who are traveling or having family in for the holiday, we wish everyone a very happy and safe Thanksgiving!