NOVEMBER 1934 -- PART 2 (AND WHAT INA DIDN'T SAY)

 As Ina was writing to son Vance on November 21 in 1934, Thanksgiving was still a week away – November 29, the last Thursday of November in those days. In 1941, the legislature set the date for Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November, apparently to ensure adequate shopping time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes, even in the ‘30s, merchants were concerned about holiday shopping. (You can find lots of Thanksgiving history online.)

But in her letter, Ina doesn’t say a thing about Thanksgiving. For a report on that, I turn to her sister, Bertha (June’s wife), who lived on the adjacent homestead. Bertha’s letters are more chatty than Ina’s and often give a better picture of life at the rural community of Gilbert (on Russell Ridge south of Orofino).

Bertha wrote: “We are to have a community dinner at the Gilbert schoolhouse Thanksgiving. I got two quarts of cranberries Saturday. If it is bad weather I’ll have Julian’s here [that would be Jack and Ina and anyone at their house]. We have had 2 weeks or more of fine weather, just a shower now and then and some frost and in October it got to 24 above and froze the pumpkins some.”

On Friday, Dec. 8, 1933, the following item appeared in the Clearwater Tribune (Orofino):

The weather turned warm again Tuesday night with a southeast wind and snow which turned to rain before morning. The ground is again bare except on the north slopes.

 

Thanksgiving morning was foggy and chilly but the sun soon came out. Between forty and fifty met at the old school house at Gilbert and had a fine dinner and social time. In the evening we betook ourselves to the other school house and were entertained by singing and a fine reading by Mrs. James Weeks, after which we all returned to our homes feeling the day had been well spent even though we had not been able to go to church and listen to a Thanksgiving sermon.

Some of the neighbors stayed at home and entertained guests . . .

In another letter, Bertha says that she had never had turkey at Thanksgiving. I suppose they had chicken and beef, which were undoubtedly plentiful. These days, wild turkeys roam the Gilbert region, but it’s cheaper and less effort to just buy a domestic turkey.

So, it seems to me that Ina probably attended the local Thanksgiving potluck dinner at the schoolhouse, and that’s the easy way to do it – good food and pleasant conversation in an impersonal setting. KW