Mon Feb 13 2012
By Roger J. Di Paolo
Record-Courier Editor
Chances are your Thanksgiving meal is frozen solid now, waiting to be defrosted in time for dinner Thursday.
Fifty years ago, a group of Kent residents didn’t have to worry about buying the main course for the holiday or making sure the big bird was thawed in time for their celebration.
Instead, they had to find a way to kill it.
That didn’t stop them from gobbling up the chance to win their Thanksgiving dinner, however, as they turned out for a Turkey Day promotion sponsored by the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber event, which took place on Friday, Nov. 20, 1959, featured a giveaway of 25 live turkeys to the lucky winners of a drawing sponsored by 31 chamber members.
The winners had to be present to claim their prizes, which brought a good-sized turnout for the festivities.
“Erie Street looked like a turkey farm,” the Record-Courier reported, as the winning tickets were drawn and the white gobblers were consigned to their fates.
A children’s parade preceded the 3 p.m. drawing, with youngsters competing for cash prizes for the best-decorated coaster wagon. Mayor Charles Paulus judged the 15 entries and Ronnie Kline won the top prize — $25.
While the children may have been more interested in the parade, the potential for a free holiday dinner was the real drawing card for the grown-ups.
Turkey retailed for about 39 cents a pound, which sounds comparable to what it costs today until the price is adjusted for inflation. The 39 cents consumers paid in 1959 comes to about $2.85 a pound in today’s dollars, making a free turkey a highly desirable giveaway 50 years ago.
The tickets were drawn and 25 lucky winners hauled their prizes away.
“Housewives, policemen, postmen and many other people were presented the live turkey,” the R-C reported. Among the winners was a co-ed living in Verder Hall at Kent State University; one can only imagine how her holiday prize may have enlivened the dormitory.
With Thanksgiving six days away, the KSU student and the other winners had plenty of time to arrange for their dinner to be made ready for the roasting pan. Presumably all found a way to get the job done.
While Turkey Day might have added a bit of the barnyard to downtown Kent in 1959, another Thanksgiving celebration a generation earlier sounds even more memorable.
The Kent Eagles Club announced plans for “a big Thanksgiving party” at its club rooms at 217 N. Water St., next to the Kent Opera House, in November 1933.
“Free vaudeville entertainment will be one of the attractions,” the Kent Courier-Tribune reported.
Perhaps more entertaining was another scheduled attraction — a live turkey giveaway that promised to be a bit more of a challenge for the winners than the Kent chamber’s drawing in 1959.
“Two turkeys will be tossed over the building during the evening,” the Courier-Tribune reported, “and the person agile enough to catch the birds will keep the prize.”
One turkey was scheduled “to be freed” at 8 p.m., with the second one to follow 90 minutes later. Turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens also would be sold on the premises.
The names of the winners of the Eagles’ turkey toss are lost to history. Presumably both not only were “agile enough” to catch their prizes but somehow found a way to carry home a live, usually flightless bird destined for the dinner table after being dropped from a two-story building.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner, live or frozen.
Comments
By Posting to this site, you agree to our Terms of Service Be polite.
Inappropriate posts may be removed.
Recordpub.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Login above or Register to comment.
0 Total Comments Home | Back
Copyright Record Publishing Co, LLC. 1995-2011. All Rights Reserved.
Content may not be republished without the expressed written consent of the publisher.
Content may not be republished without the expressed written consent of the publisher.
Dix Communications