brooklyn history is amazing. we give thanks on turkey day...

hope you enjoy the side note here; a little piece of brooklyn thanksgiving history, and all we can say is, WOW!:



(Thanksgiving in 1911)


From at least the early part of the twentieth century until about the early 1960’s, Brooklyn children celebrated a curious custom on Thanksgiving morning. While Mom was cooking the turkey, kids would put on old, over-size, ragged clothes—usually belonging to one of their parents— and go door to door with small hands outstretched begging for pennies, apples or candy chanting “Anything for Thanksgiving?” The kids sometimes used burnt cork on their faces or wore masks to make themselves look more like ragamuffins while begging for change (see 1911 Thanksgiving photo, “Scrambling for Pennies,” in the G.C. Bain collection). The tradition may have had European roots—and Brooklyn, with a large European immigrant population, became a major borough for a custom that seemed largely limited to New York City neighborhoods and mostly unknown outside of the city. In Betty Smith’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” for instance, Francie participates in the Thanksgiving tradition in Williamsburg, donning a mask.


thanks to the blog Gowanus Lounge for this post. Read more about it at the link. kisses, and happy turkeys for all, treehouse brooklyn