The Shadow
Thanksgiving Traditions
Like all families and communities across America, our region is preparing for an exciting, fun, and hopefully thankful Thanksgiving holiday!
Every year, this special holiday offers a time that brings many families and loved ones together.
For me and my family, the Thanksgiving meal is the centerpiece. My wife and others will prepare a warm and filling meal.
The dining table is headlined by the turkey, but we also give due consideration to the stuffing, mashed potatoes, casseroles, yams, green beans and other Thanksgiving delicacies.
Speaking of turkeys, we should all be thankful for Charles W. Wampler, Sr.
Wampler, a Shenandoah Valley native and considered the father of the modern turkey industry, was the first to hatch turkey eggs in an incubator, developing year-round confinement-based farming, and was also the first to contract with farms for poultry growth and helped to found the National Turkey Foundation.
Further, Wampler, who in 1922 was a Virginia cooperative extension agent in Rockingham County, may have never gotten started without A.L. Dean, who was the head of the department of poultry science at Virginia Tech in the 1920s.
When Wampler started, turkeys were scarce, having almost been extirpated from Virginia.
Thanks to Wampler taking pressure off the wild turkey population and the Pittman-Robertson Act authored by Lexington’s own A. Willis Robertson, which dedicates money for wildlife conservation, the wild turkey is numerous.
Our communities will consume more than just food during the holiday!
Another staple of the Thanksgiving holiday is the Thanksgiving Day parade, and those include the Macy’s parade in New York City, the Philadelphia parade sponsored by 6abc Dunkin’ and the Detroit parade sponsored by Gardner White. This tradition is full of floats, balloons, dancers, celebrities and musical acts.
Over the years, numerous Ninth District bands and individuals have participated in these parades.
Further, while the weather might be chilly, it will not stop some from going outside and throwing a football around.
But most, like me, will stay in the comfort of our homes and watch football on TV.
Hometown hero, Wise County native and Super Bowl champion Carroll Dale played on Thanksgiving in 1970 as a member of the Green Bay Packers.
In that game, the Packers lost 16-3 to the eventual NFC Champion Dallas Cowboys.
While it was not a particularly memorable game for Dale, it proved to be an outlier compared to his overall season. He finished the 1970 season with 814 receiving yards and his third consecutive pro bowl selection.
Of course, the day following Thanksgiving is known as “Black Friday” because merchants often have their bottom lines moved from the red (losing money) to the black (making money).
It is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season.
This day features shoppers who brave the weather to stand in long lines in hopes of getting “deals.”
Shoppers not only try to use the purchasing power bonus deals on “Black Friday,” but on the following Monday as well.
Throughout the years, merchants and merchant associations have looked for ways to bring customers to their stores.
One innovative way created a Southwest Virginia cultural icon, the Mill Mountain Star.
The Star obviously rests on top of Mill Mountain, but it was created originally by Roanoke City and the Roanoke Merchants Association to attract visitors to downtown Roanoke for the Christmas holiday shopping season.
After building the special structure, Roanoke held a formal lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving Eve, November 23, 1949.
The cold night featured some public officials at the ceremony, including Roanoke Mayor A.R. Minton and Congressman Clifton Woodrum.
Also in attendance was legendary actor John Payne, a West Roanoke County native who lived in what is today Virginia’s Ninth District for a big part of his youth.
His most remembered film is the academy award-winning Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street. Payne plays the attorney Fred Gailey.
At least as recently as 2018, Macy’s in New York still featured pictures of John Payne and Miracle on 34th Street in their “Santaland.”
To me and many others, family and community inspire joy, love and a sense of belonging for which we all can be thankful.
P.S. Don’t forget last year’s Thanksgiving column where we laid out the historical justification for Virginia being home to the first Thanksgiving!
If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives.
