Originally published in Countryside Post, Issue 1.12.
The front-page quote is from Franklin Roosevelt’s Thanksgiving proclamation, in the year he moved it. Originally Abraham Lincoln, who proclaimed the first Thanksgiving Day in 1863, set it on the last Thursday in November. Roosevelt moved it to the fourth Thursday—a subtle change, but three years out of seven it means an extra week of Christmas shopping. Be glad it’s where it is, or the Xmas season would start after Halloween.
So what are you thankful for? Me, I’m thankful for a good past three months at Countryside Post. I’m thankful that many of you like it so far, and that you’re contributing—contributions have been downplayed in the news biz over the last 11 decades, and though it’s not a new idea, it’s not put into practice much. I’m also thankful that many of you are overcoming your shyness in order to send things in. Some people are way too critical of their writing ability. Don’t worry; it’s my job to make you sound good.
And now I suppose you’re thankful that I’ve stopped now before this whole letter consists of “I’m thankful for” platitudes. Don’t worry; I don’t make a practice of getting sappy for the holidays.
…Remember that 10 cent menu we ran in issue 1.10? It was printed in 1938. Yes, those were pretty good prices; too bad few people at that time had any money to spend on eating out.
…Next issue, the Post will have a regular section, called “The Countryside,” which will be devoted to ancedotes and photos of the people and things in our countryside. You know, neat stuff. Most of the items people have around here are too short to make a proper story out of them. This way you won’t have to make a “proper” story out of anything—just send it in. It doesn’t even have to be “news”—it just has to be interesting or funny. Phone it, fax it, e-mail it, stick it on a homing pigeon, but send it in! We’ll print it. Thanks.
—Kent Leslie, managing editor
Update, 9/14/2009: I regularly ran interesting quotes on the front page, usually something I found relevant or amusing. Since Thanksgiving was rolling around, I found an appropriate quote from Franklin Roosevelt’s Thanksgiving proclamation, 1939:
Let us, on the day set aside for this purpose, give thanks to the Ruler of the Universe for the strength which He has vouchsafed us to carry our daily labors and for the hope that lives within us of the coming of a day when peace and the productive activities of peace shall reign on every continent.
Dug it out of my Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. That book came in handy.
Our collector friend had brought in a business card-sized restaurant menu from the ’30s, and we ran a photo of it in issue 1.10. Every entreé on it was a dime. But before you get too nostalgic for the prices in the good old days, I felt it was only right to point out the soul-crushing poverty of the good old days.
I’ll discuss “The Countryside” in the next column.