In what would become known as the second audio recording to be successfully made and played back, Thomas Edison tested his phonograph invention in November 1877, by recording his own voice speaking, "Mary Had a Little Lamb". A hundred years later, I visited his lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
Sarah Hale had published "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on May 24, 1830, based upon an actual occurrence when schoolgirl Mary Sawyer brought a lamb to school, and it caused enough of an uproar to inspire the nursery rhyme that remains popular to this day.
Sarah Hale is credited with raising thirty thousand dollars for the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument on Breed's Hill in 1842, and for also petitioning five US presidents for the creation of a national Thanksgiving holiday. President Abraham Lincoln responded by proclamation in 1863, for the first time establishing a single date on which all states would celebrate Thanksgiving, the final Thursday in November. On December 26, 1941, Thanksgiving was moved to the fourth (not final) Thursday in November.
I grew up in a large family, so every dinner was a big production. Our family Thanksgiving dinner was significant in that we could count on roast turkey, and a visit from my Grammy and Gramps on the longest weekend of the year. They lived in Florida and only visited those several days a year while my family lived in New Jersey for more than eight years.
It is around this time every year that I try to remind my grandchildren of how fortunate we all are to be able to see each other every day. I like to think they are old enough to understand me when I say every day is Thanksgiving at my house.
May you and yours have a happy Thanksgiving weekend and safe travels throughout the holiday season!
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