Thanksgiving away from home–even the Pilgrims, in the colonies just a year or so, had to endure it. Maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be. As much as we stampede to the airport and the expressway to get to a Norman Rockwell feast, the most memorable Thanksgivings are the ones that didn’t go by the book. The year the flight got canceled. The year the baby came early. The year you were stationed at Great Lakes and some guy named Harold Lasky fashioned a toque out of a paper bag and handed turkey and bread and pie to some friendly ladies who served it to you and a few thousand other fellas at a USO club. And then you gave thanks that the war in Korea was over.
Number of military Thanksgiving menus from 1917 to 1997 that did not include turkey: 0.
Number of feathers on a mature turkey: 3,500.
Cologne Bob Hope packed for his USO tour in 1969: Brut 33.
Number of turkeys eaten for Thanksgiving 2001: 46 million.
No. 1 turkey-eating country: Israel.
Percentage increase in Americans who dined out on Thanksgiving between 1996 and 2000: 37.
