Thanksgiving in Defiance - One Hundred Years Ago, November, 1922

 

Thanksgiving was a busy time in the city of Defiance in 1922.  It was a time for family gatherings, many of which were chronicled in the newspapers.

"Prof. and Mrs. Milo Rice will spend Thanksgiving Day and the weekend with her parents in Pandora.

"Dr. and Mrs. G. W. DeMuth and family will spend Thanksgiving with her parents in Fort Wayne."

Many of the churches held Thanksgiving morning services on that day...before the big meal might put parishioners to sleep.

In local schools, Thanksgiving programs were held on the day before Thanksgiving.  School rooms were where "verses were said and songs sung by the little folks."  At the high school, a regular chapel service was held.

Defiance College students were only given one day of vacation in 1922.  Students were kept busy with a Thanksgiving dinner held in Trowbridge Dining Hall and two basketball games in Sisson Gymnasium.

They were probably following Ohio State who also took away the usual five day vacation because of moving to a four quarter system.  To add to a student's injury, any student absent the day before or after Thanksgiving would receive only half the credits for the course!

In Defiance, an afternoon Thanksgiving Day football game was held on the high school field.  Defiance High played St. Mary's High, and Defiance pulled out an easy victory - 46-13.  

For further entertainment, a dog parade was held in the afternoon.  "Boys, get your dogs ready!"  Were girls excluded?  

The headlines read "TURKEY PRICE HIGHER, BUT OTHER EDIBLES WILL REDUCE THE COST OF THE FEAST."  Turkeys sold .55 - .60 a pound, but it was thought that there was a "phantom scarcity created by government reports from turkey raising states, local raisers who have been holding their product for peak prices." Chicken, ducks, and geese were lower priced. Fruits were plentiful and cheap, and potatoes went for .75 a bushel. Five pounds of sweet potatoes would set you back .15 and in the height of the popularity of jello salads, one could buy three boxes of jello for .25.

No television or electronic gadgets were available to distract anyone from enjoying family conversations and activities.  It was truly a family day.

“What if today, we were just grateful for everything?”  Charlie Brown

*Research was a result of reading various Defiance Crescent-News papers from Nov. 1922.