Re: Thanksgiving Streetwise

11/21/09 - posted by Frank Dunnigan

St. Cecilia's always had a dispensation for the Friday after Thanksgiving, once Monsignor Collins became the pastor after World War II. Back in the late 1930s, however, when Grandma lived on 21st Avenue at Rivera, my dad and his brother worked swing shift at the Post Office, as mail sorters. They would get home from work at about 11:30 p.m., and Grandma would have the turkey and fixings all lined up. Everyone would change into their bedclothes, and at 11:55, they all began assembling turkey sandwiches that were consumed just as soon as the clock began striking 12.