Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to the supplemental material for the special holiday Thanksgiving episode! In this episode I talk about wartime attitudes surrounding the holiday, the turkey and cranberry sauce.
The general attitudes around Thanksgiving in wartime were patriotic in nature, though some were serious with thoughts of all those who were going without around the world. Gratitude for freedoms and democracy were very common sentiments in newspapers and magazines.
Buying a live turkey was the cheapest option for families wanting the traditional bird for their Thanksgiving table! Toms and hens were different prices.
If turkey was out of reach price-wise or they were hard to get, some Americans went the game fowl route - duck, goose, or guinea hen. Even venison was an option.
"From a proud line our bird comes - from the hills of old Vermont..."
This article in the November 1944 Ladies Home Journal gives a nod to the popular obsession with New England traditions and culture prevalent in the 1940s.
There were so many things you could do with the iconic cranberry jelly log
as illustrated here in the 1941 book Cape Cod's Famous Cranberry Recipes.
I mention these cranberry sauce cutters offered by Ocean Spray.
They fit perfectly onto a sliced off round from the jelly log. Note the turkey shape!
The featured cookbook was The Lily Wallace New American Cook Book. My issue is from 1945. This is recipe for Sweet Potato Pecan Pie has always stayed with me for its simplicity and deliciousness. I thought the absence of cinnamon would be missed, but the pie was delightful just as it was!
RESOURCES
Newspapers:
“We’ll Share Thanksgiving”. Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 22 Nov. 1942. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
All other newspapers in my research were accessed via Newspapers.com
Images:
“Freedom From Want” painting by Norman Rockwell, Saturday Evening Post, 6 March 1943. Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. Domestic Operations Branch. Bureau of Special Services. (03/09/1943 - 09/15/1945)
Books/Magazines:
Cape Cod's Famous Cranberry Recipes, 1941
The Lily Wallace New American Cook Book, 1945
Child Life, November 1943
Ladies Home Journal, November 1944
Sports Afield, November 1942
Woman’s Day, November 1942
* The “Diary of Mrs. X” is a diary in my personal collection of a woman who lived in California and wrote about a year of her life in 1945. I don’t know her name, so I just call her “Mrs. X.”
Articles: