Giving thanks for the Delaware County Library

Thanks­giv­ing is tra­di­tion­ally the time to take a few moments to reflect on that for which we are thank­ful. I would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to express my grat­i­tude to the Delaware com­mu­nity for your con­tin­ued, more-than-a-century long sup­port of the library, sup­port that began in 1855 with the first move­ment to build a library in Delaware. In 1897, a group of stal­wart women took it upon them­selves to start a library with 30 books.

Built with a gen­er­ous grant from Andrew Carnegie, the Delaware Pub­lic Library, located at 101 N. San­dusky St. was ded­i­cated on Sept. 1, 1906, with large crowds attend­ing the open­ing cer­e­monies. The col­lec­tion con­sisted of more than 4,000 books, mag­a­zines, and news­pa­pers and the words “Free To All” were inscribed above the front door.

The branches in Ostran­der and Pow­ell were opened in 1991 and 1993 respec­tively, and in 1992, the ren­o­vated main library was reopened at its present loca­tion. And in 2011, with the pas­sage of the library levy in 2009, the doors to the Orange Branch were opened.

We are truly thank­ful for your sup­port over the last 150-plus years. This Thanks­giv­ing, I hope the Delaware County Dis­trict Library is on your list of things you are thank­ful for, and I hope you con­tinue to visit, use and enjoy the library.

On a per­sonal note, I am thank­ful for the remark­able staff that work dili­gently and enthu­si­as­ti­cally to make Delaware Library such a fine asset to our com­mu­nity. They per­son­ify the con­cepts of “cus­tomer ser­vice,” life­long learn­ing” and “the right to read.”

As a reminder: The library and its branches will close at 5 p.m. on Thanks­giv­ing Eve and will reopen at 9 a.m. Fri­day, Nov. 23.

Here are some Thanks­giv­ing ques­tions and answers that have been asked over the past few months. These answers were all found in Hol­i­day Sym­bols and Cus­toms. Happy Thanksgiving!

Which pres­i­dent started the tra­di­tion of par­don­ing the White House turkeys?

The ori­gins of the tra­di­tion of par­don­ing the White House turkey are unclear. Many credit Pres­i­dent Harry Tru­man with start­ing the infor­mal and light­hearted tra­di­tion in 1947. How­ever, the Tru­man Library says that no doc­u­ments, speeches, news­pa­per clip­pings, pho­tographs or other con­tem­po­rary records are known to exist that spec­ify that he ever “par­doned” a turkey. The Eisen­hower Pres­i­den­tial Library says doc­u­ments in their col­lec­tion reveal that Pres­i­dent Dwight Eisen­hower ate the birds pre­sented to him dur­ing his two terms. Pres­i­dent John F. Kennedy spon­ta­neously spared a turkey on Nov. 19, 1963, just days before his assas­si­na­tion, but did not grant a “par­don.” The bird was wear­ing a sign read­ing, “Good Eatin’ Mr. Pres­i­dent.” Kennedy responded, “Let’s just keep him.” Since 1989 when the cus­tom of ‘par­don­ing’ the turkey was for­mal­ized, the turkey has been taken to a farm where it will live out the rest of its nat­ural life.

How did the Macy’s Thanks­giv­ing Day Parade become a tele­vi­sion event?

Approx­i­mately 44 mil­lion peo­ple watch the Macy’s Thanks­giv­ing Day Parade. In the early 1900s, peo­ple started asso­ci­at­ing Thanks­giv­ing with the begin­ning of the Christ­mas shop­ping sea­son. To cap­i­tal­ize on this behav­ior and cel­e­brate the expan­sion of its flag­ship store in Her­ald Square, Macy’s announced it would treat New York to a spe­cial hol­i­day event in 1924 — the first Macy’s Thanks­giv­ing Day Parade. Soon after, Macy’s part­nered with NBC to broad­cast the parade so that peo­ple beyond the Big Apple could delight in the fes­tiv­i­ties every Thanks­giv­ing morning.

Why do we have turkey on Thanksgiving?

Turkey is prac­ti­cally syn­ony­mous with Thanks­giv­ing — so much so that the hol­i­day is typ­i­cally referred to as “Turkey Day.” The asso­ci­a­tion goes back to the very first Thanks­giv­ing in 1621, when Ply­mouth Colony Gov­er­nor William Brad­ford was said to com­ment on “the great store of wild turkeys.” Inter­est­ingly enough, how­ever, veni­son, fish, and duck made up the bulk of that first feast. But it’s the fair feath­ered fowl that has staked its claim on the Thanks­giv­ing din­ner table; accord­ing to a recent sur­vey con­ducted by the National Turkey Fed­er­a­tion, nearly 88 per­cent of Amer­i­cans said they eat turkey at Thanksgiving.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked!

Posted by Mary Santos on Nov 17 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.