Ragamuffins and Thanksgiving

3rd topic: “Questions about how we spend Thanksgiving: Preparing the food? Savoring the feast? Going to parades or football games? Watching television? Playing intergenerational games? Talking? Walking? Volunteering at a food pantry or homeless shelter?” 

The image is of a group of ragamuffins, a Thanksgiving Day tradition from the early to mid-1900s. Dressed in clothes they borrowed from their parents or older siblings with dirt smeared on their face or wearing a mask, and their hair tucked under a cap, children would go door-to-door asking:  “Got anything for Thanksgiving?”  Over the course of giving talks about “Thanksgiving: The True Story” I’ve met people who remember being ragamufffins, most recently an 87-year- old man who said he and his friends would dress up and sing in the courtyard of their apartment building. “People would throw pennies, probably to shut us up,” he said.

#footballgames #parades