THANKS: With the Thanksgiving holiday right around the corner, families are preparing their special family recipes, making travel plans to gather and deciding which football team to root for after dinner.
Consider these interesting facts though behind the holiday’s history, traditions and myths — at the very least, utilize these facts as conversation starters around the dinner table.
Most people associate the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, as the busiest shopping day of the year — meaning retailers have a very busy, long work day. However, the day after Thanksgiving is actually the busiest day of the year for plumbers, according to Roto-Rooter. (As a side note, they highly recommend not pouring cooking oil down the drain.)
According to the National Turkey Federation, Americans eat approximately 704 million pounds of turkey each Thanksgiving — this is opposed to 22 million pounds at Christmas and 19 million at Easter.
One of the most unique Thanksgiving gifts ever given had to be the live racoon gifted to President Calvin Coolidge in 1926. The raccoon was intended as dinner, however First Lady Grace Coolidge wasn’t inclined to eat the masked cutie — instead, they adopted the raccoon as a White House pet and named it Rebecca.
The common myth that consuming turkey is to blame for your post-dinner slump and eagerness for a nap is just not true. Although the amino acids in turkey do help your body produce melatonin, which promotes relaxation — Turkey does not have any more of it than any other poultry options. In reality, the consumption of a large meal, with many servings is what makes you sleepy.
An interesting tidbit of information, there are currently four towns in the United States named “Turkey” — in Arizona, Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina.
