Thanksgiving

[Les Sherwood]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Les

[Marion Farrell Cronin]

Ditto that, Les!

[regina buckley emilio]

JUST WANTED TO ADD MY WISHES TO ALL STRATTON PARK FAMILY WISHES FOR A HAPPY THANKSGIVING. GO COWBOYS.

[Les Sherwood]

What are some your memories about
dressing up in old clothes and singing in the alleys to get neighbors to throw money or candy to the “so called beggars”?
I remember it vaguely.”A few classmates of St Anthony recalled some memories and I thought this might be interesting to pass on and get comments on .
Note some comments and an article on “Ragamuffin Day:

“This whole exchange has piqued my curiosity.
If you google 'Thanksgiving begging' or 'Ragamuffin Day', you'll find a couple of pertinent articles.
Yes, I remember the sock. It appears that you childhood was normal by Bronx standards. I think that's where we learned the meaning of "more blessed to give than to receive".

“Wasn't there something about a sock filled with flour, which we whacked each other with? Or was my childhood nuttier than yours?
And by the way, those starving children were in India. I once got into hot water with my Dad for suggesting to my Mom that she take my oatmeal and send it there.”


“I thought it was the "starving children in China". As far as the oatmeal went, I would have happily sent them mine ... and the cream of wheat also.”
Actually that brings back another memory. This is a guy thing.
The guys used to occasionally have egg fights. Just what it sounds like - a bunch of loonies throwing eggs at each other.
Inevitably a voice would scream out an apartment window "Remember the starving children in China!". One or another of the guys would shout back "Sorry lady, I can't throw that far!". Then the police would arrive and "pat us down". Naturally, you wound up with a bunch of guys with eggs splattered inside their pant's pockets. The cops would leave with a smug smile because they knew the game was over and they didn't have to fill out any paperwork.


The New York Public Library has a great collection of photographs from 1933 of "Thanksgiving Ragamuffins." Unfamiliar with the term? According to this website, kids would get dressed up and "go from house to house yelling, 'Anything f' Thanksgiv'n?' In return they would be rewarded with coins, or a piece of fruit, or a piece of candy. Apparently in those days it was called Ragamuffin Day and was practiced the day before Thanksgiving."
In this 1995 NY Times letter to the editor, one man explains, "My brother and I were Thanksgiving 'ragamuffins' in what is now called the Midwood section of Brooklyn — we called it simply Flatbush then — beginning in the early 1930's. We had it on excellent authority — our parents' — that Thanksgiving begging dated to well before World War I. They had, in fact, participated themselves in the Fort .. Based upon our first-hand information, we believe the custom of Thanksgiving begging started no later than the beginning of the century, at least in Brooklyn, where most good things began anyway."
According to this article, "Ragamuffin parades, which harkened back to European traditions, were a chance for the poorer immigrants of New York to march through the streets in extravagant costumes, begging for change. Popular myth would have us believe that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade originated in a similar fashion. Macy's itself supports the belief that its parade began as a spontaneous decision by immigrant store employees wishing to celebrate their newfound Americanness with a European-style parade." Of course, the idea really came from store executives.


[size=150]When I red about egg fight I was sure I participated. It also sounds something Eddie A. would say.[/size]Les

[Eddie Acunzo]

Hey Les, I resemble that remark. Actually I never did the "ragamuffin begging in the alleys" thing, but I sure did the egg fight, and flour sock/chaulk sock thing, with relish.

But I do remember the old ladies who used to pass through the alleys and would sing an Irish ditty or two for their suppers. Tenants of the building would shower them with change, more as a vote of solidarity or a gesture of sympathy and generousity, than as a token of their appreciation. It always reminded our families of the depression and hard times. There, but for the grace of God, etc., etc.

Making it even more appropriate to wish everyone a belated HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Eddie

[Eddie Acunzo]

Sorry. I forgot to mention...GO SAINTS! 11 and 0 baby!

[beth]

I remember the ragamuffin thing on thanksgiving, we would go through the building dressed like hobo's and with a pillow case and ask "anything for thanksgiving?" not many people remember or did do this because when I talk about it they look at me like I grew up in Russia. Also I learned the words to "A Mothers Love is A Blessing" when I was around 8 or 9 and my friend Delia Bourke and I would go through the alleys singing it and I sang at the top of my lungs and I actually would catch my voice at the part "you'll never miss a mothers love till she's buried beneath her grave". Good grief, we made so much money, awful children but Harry's Candy Store was calling our names.