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Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, 1914
The first gas engine automobile rolled into New Haven on Nov. 23, or thereabouts, back in 1896.
That’s part of the discussion on a special three-party Thanksgiving episode of WNHH radio’s This Day In New Haven History.”
As you consider walking, biking, flying, or, yes, probably driving to see the relatives for the holiday, click on or download the above audio to hear how the newfangled “man-maiming combination of steel and gasoline odor is to take the place of the noble animal that is not only admired but loved by humanity.”
Turkey wasn’t cheap 111 years ago, either! No matter what you paid for your butterball this season, it’s likely adjusted for inflation. And if you think ours is bad, just turn back the clock: New Haveners paid a lot more for their Thanksgiving bird back on Nov. 24, 1904. To hear more about the great scarcity of turkeys, click on or download the above audio.
Before there were acts at the College Street Music Hall, and even before they came to Cafe 9, there were “Toodles,” “Forty Winks” and “Young England,” three humorous shows to help you laugh your head off. They headlined the gala Thanksgiving Day offerings at a New Haven music hall back in 1863. That was also the very first year — in the middle of the Civil War and only months after the carnage of Gettysburg — that Thanksgiving was declared a holiday on the national level. “Toodles” was one heckuva way to celebrate. To catch the range of expressions, reverent and not so, click on the above sound file.
Happy Thanksgiving, readers! Next week, tune in as we revisit a 2005 serial fable originally published in the Independent entitled “Revolt of the Turkeys.”
