No turkey or pumpkin pie?

Ira Wesley Kitmacher

It has been four hundred and four years since the first Thanksgiving in 1621!

During that three-day event in Plymouth, Massachusetts, 50 pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Natives celebrated a successful harvest. They ate venison, duck, goose, lobster, seal, swans and fish. Interestingly, neither turkey (wild turkeys were difficult to hunt and cook) nor pumpkin pie (the Pilgrims did not have sugar or oven-based baking) were on the menu. They did however eat roasted, boiled, and stewed pumpkins. They also hollowed them out, filled them with milk, spices, and honey, and baked them in hot ashes to make a custard-like dish.

An interesting legend about the turkey is that Founding Father Benjamin Franklin wanted it and not the eagle to be America’s official bird on the Great Seal of the United States. He viewed the turkey as “courageous,” “respectable,” and a “true original Native of America,” and disdained the “cowardly” eagle” (he saw it as having “bad moral character,” for stealing from other birds). Franklin did not officially propose the turkey as a national symbol and the eagle was placed on the Great Seal in 1782 (it did not become America’s national bird until 2024).

Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln designated it as such after 17 years of campaigning by Sarah Josepha Hale, author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” She made these efforts to unite a Civil War-torn America, to create a nationwide holiday, and promote national values.

He named the last Thursday in November as the holiday to coincide with the date the Pilgrims first landed onboard the Mayflower in Massachusetts.

In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved the holiday to one week earlier, to lengthen the holiday shopping season and increase spending during the Great Depression.

President John F. Kennedy informally “pardoned” the first turkey in 1963 (100 years after President Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday), although the first official pardon was not until 1989 when President George H.W. Bush did so.

While Thanksgiving is a joyous American holiday, many Indigenous people view it as a “National Day of Mourning,” as up to 95 percent of Natives died from settler-borne diseases and wars, plus displacement, and destruction of their culture.

Close to home, in 1917, during World War I, Thanksgiving celebrations had a patriotic tone. Camp Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) was completed, and the holiday offered a chance for the community to support the war effort. One hundred Camp Lewis soldiers visited Olympia and the chamber of commerce arranged for them to eat Thanksgiving dinner with local families.

In 1924, live zoo animals from New York City’s Central Park Zoo, including bears, elephants, camels and monkeys, were the main event in the first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade instead of today’s large balloons. The parade was important as it established an annual tradition and a landmark event.

During World War II, the Olympia Canning Company directed 60 percent of its canned fruit production, including Bartlett pears, to be sent to troops overseas. Soldiers wrote home about enjoying the taste of Olympia at the front. Food rationing also impacted communities, with the Salvation Army replacing traditional food baskets with checks in 1943.

In 1953, Swanson used a surplus of Thanksgiving turkey to package frozen meals in aluminum trays — giving rise to the “TV Dinner.” This revolutionized the frozen food industry, creating a new convenient, prepackaged meal.

On Nov. 24, 1983, the “Turkey Day Storm” hit the Puget Sound region, with 270,000 homes losing electricity. It was a destructive and memorable event, with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour on Thanksgiving morning. Many trees still had leaves, which caused widespread power outages, dashing countless dinner plans. 

Did you know only male turkeys gobble, not females. The chemical tryptophan, blamed by many for making them tired after eating turkey, is in fact not the culprit. Rather, it is more likely the high calorie and carb content of the entire meal that makes us sleepy. Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers! According to Roto-Rooter, turkey grease, potato peels and stuffing frequently clog sinks.

Enjoy the day, remember the history, and plan to take a nap!

Ira Wesley Kitmacher is an Olympia-based historian and author, writing “Haunted Puget Sound,” “Pacific Northwest Legends and Lore,” and other published books. He leads tours based on his books. Ira is a speaker at various public venues.  He is featured on television, radio, and other media. Ira is a Commissioner on the Thurston County Historic Commission. He is a professor, having taught at Georgetown University and other colleges. Ira is a retired senior federal executive and attorney.