To say I was born and raised in
New York City would be a little misleading because in my memories of New York
in the 40s and 50s, the city was a collection of small towns or villages. I was
born in Woodside, a section of the borough of Queens, and the skyscrapers and
streets of Manhattan were as remote for me as China would be to my
grandchildren today.
Because of our insularity I can’t
be sure if a Thanksgiving custom we had back then was unique to Woodside or
whether it could have been found elsewhere throughout the great metropolis.
Anyone else I’ve mentioned it to has never heard of it including my wife who
was born a little bit north of the City in White Plains, the hub of Westchester
county.
Anyway, on Thanksgiving morning
the children in our neighborhood would dress up as bums or hobos. It didn’t
take much since we would usually wear our clothes until they literally fell
apart. We would take our most worn and tattered clothing and rip and tear them
a little more. Then, we would blacken a cork over a candle and smear it over
our faces to simulate dirt. I remember my grandmother giving me a little pouch
with a drawstring, or was it a pillowcase, that we hobos could sling over our
shoulders.
Then, we were ready to make the
rounds of our neighbors to ask, “anything for thanksgiving.” Inevitably, they
would answer our plea with some of the bounty from the meal they were
preparing. Usually it would be apples, or walnuts, or sometimes a few pennies. Don’t
laugh. twenty pennies were enough to buy a Spalding (Spaldeen), the elite of
bouncing rubber balls used by us in so many street games.
I don’t know where the “anything
for thanksgiving” custom came from. We lived in a small neighborhood that
seemed to have been mainly Irish with a mixture of Italians. In my nearby
Catholic school the majority of the kids seemed to have Irish names. There were
Ryans, Regans, Dunphys, Moylans, and Healys. However, A few blocks down busy 69 Street were the Napolitanos who ran the grocery store. In the other direction
lived the dreaded Gallos whose kids were the toughest in the school.
But I’m not sure that “anything
for thanksgiving” was an ethnic custom.
We were a predominately Catholic neighborhood and the idea of thanksgiving was
part of our religious heritage even though none of us knew that the word
“Eucharist” meant “Thanksgiving.” On the other hand, it could have been a
peculiarly American response to the end of the Great Depression and the Second
World War. Nothing had marked the depression so much as homeless men on bread
lines or riding the rails. These were the hobos that we children imitated.
Even
though most of us could be considered poor, at least we and our neighbors would
be able to sit down that afternoon in our homes to the best meal of the year.
We did have a lot to be thankful for. The Depression was over, the men had
returned from the terrible war, and the NY Yankees were on the verge of
recovering their past glory.
Almost 70 years have passed since
those childhood years but I can truly say that my wife and I have much to be
thankful for. Our grandparents came to this country from Italy with nothing but
their own traditions, customs, and religion. Like most children of immigrants
our parent came to love America and worked hard to provide for their children
and give them a standard of living that is still the envy of the world.
Today, after one of the most
divisive political campaigns in U.S. history, there is more reason to hope than
to fear. I would just like to end this post with George Washington’s
Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789. Thanksgiving did not become a National
holiday until after the terrible Civil War, but Washington’s words are as
meaningful today as they were in 1789.
Thanksgiving Proclamation
Issued by
President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789
Whereas
it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to
obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His
protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint
committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day
of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with
grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by
affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for
their safety and happiness:”
Now,
therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next,
to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and
glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is,
or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere
and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this
country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies
and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and
conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and
plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in
which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our
safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;
for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we
have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the
great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also
that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to
the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and
other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations,
to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render
our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a
Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully
executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations
(especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good
governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true
religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and,
generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He
alone knows to be best.
Given
under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of
our Lord 1789.
Go. Washington
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