LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - NOVEMBER 21, 2021 by Lynne Belluscio It was just before Thanksgiving in 1910 in LeRoy. Alexander Sutherland bought a live turkey for the traditional Thanksgiving dinner and brought it home and put it in a bag in the woodshed. He would dispatch it later. His wife would pluck the feathers and get it ready for the oven, but the turkey had other ideas. Sutherland heard a loud crash in the dining room and when he went to see what happened, he discovered that his Thanksgiving dinner had escaped from the woodshed and had made its way into the dining room. The frightened bird, crashed into the china cupboard and broke the family set of china and did a pretty good number on the china cupboard in the process. This story was reported in the LeRoy Gazette and although there is no mention of what became of the errant gobbler, one can only suspect that it eventually made it to the dinner table...on the everyday dishes. Thanksgiving in LeRoy in 1910 was full of activities. The local school held special Thanksgiving programs on Wednesday. Domimic Mogavero, Rosie and Bittina Antinore gave recitations. Margaret O’Shea, Winefred Olsen, and Ralph Stevens did a dialog. Louisa Rider read a poem, “Harvest to Come.” The front page of the Gazette listed all the children who participated in the school program. It was over a column in length. At a time when football games weren’t on television, it was still a Thanksgiving tradition to watch football and it was a big attraction in LeRoy on Thanksgiving Day in 1910. Three LeRoy teams had games scheduled on Thanksgiving Day. The first game of the day was at 10 am in the morning at the Summit Street field. The “All LeRoy Eleven” played the self proclaimed amateur champions of Rochester, the “Dreadnaughts”. Don McVean and Trenton Taylor scored touchdowns. The final score was 12 to 4. The 1:30 game was between the “LeRoy Stars” and the “East Ends” from Buffalo. LeRoy lost the game 19 to 0. The newspaper noted that “The Buffalo team was a lot larger than the boys from LeRoy”. At 3 pm, the High School played against Greigsville. It was a grudge match, since LeRoy had defeated Greigsville the Saturday before. This game was also played on the Summit Street gridiron*. The game was the final game of the season and LeRoy beat Greigsville again in a blowout, 41 to 0. There were seven touchdowns, three by Glidden, two each by Bundy and Kavanaough. Glidden and Selden each kicked 3 goals. During the season, the LeRoy High School team scored 111 points against their opponents and had been scored on for only 5 points. The entire LeRoy High School team was invited for a victory dinner at the Wiss Hotel the week after Thanksgiving. The LeRoy merchants were getting ready for the Christmas season and shoppers were reminded in the Gazette that there were only five weeks until Christmas. I can’t help but wonder if Mrs. Sutherland received a new set of china for Christmas. A favorite song, which is now sung at Christmas time, was originally a Thanksgiving song. It was written by Lydia Child and published in 1844 as a poem. Interestingly, it reflects a time when the climate was much colder, and snow was common at Thanksgiving. Much later, the poem was put to music. Here is the original four stanzas: Over the river, and through the wood, To Grandfather's house we go; the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh, through the white and drifted snow. Over the river, and through the wood, to Grandfather's house away! We would not stop for doll or top, for 'tis Thanksgiving Day. Over the river, and through the wood, oh, how the wind does blow! It stings the toes and bites the nose, as over the ground we go. Over the river, and through the wood, and straight through the barnyard gate. We seem to go extremely slow, it is so hard to wait! *Here’s a bit of history. Many people don’t know why the football field is called a gridiron. When food was cooked over an open fire, one of the utensils was a grill with short feet that could be put over hot coals to cook steaks and chops. It was called a gridiron and when the football field was designed, someone noticed that the parallel yard lines resembled the parallel bars on the gridiron thus the name.) And finally, how do you keep a turkey in suspense? I’ll tell you later. How to Keep a Turkey in Suspense