Pardon My Turkey
Friday, November 29, 2024
Pardon My Turkey
Now for a little lighter fare while everyone digests: Maybe you’ve found yourself wondering what happens to those turkeys who receive a presidential pardon. We need not wonder any more. Leave it to Atlas Obscura to find answers…or at least an answer.
Lincoln’s pardoned turkey was actually gifted to the First Family in 1863, just a month after the president declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. Though meant to be Christmas dinner that year, the turkey was quickly adopted by Tad Lincoln, the president’s 10-year-old son. Tad named the bird Jack and trained it to follow him all over the White House. When the time came to slaughter and eat Jack, Tad begged his father to spare the creature’s life. Lincoln, ever indulgent of his youngest child, wrote a note “pardoning” Jack and gave it to Tad, who showed it to the head chef, thus granting a reprieve for the beloved pet.
Jack was commemorated by an insurance company in a granite statue at Riverside Park in Hartford. Pictures at the link.
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/pardoning-the-thanksgiving-turkey
More information on this interesting subject.
** During the latter years of the Nixon presidency, Patricia Nixon accepted the turkeys on behalf of the President and in 1973 sent the bird to the Oxon Hill Children’s Farm. The 1978 turkey, presented to First Lady Rosalynn Carter, met a similar fate when it was sent to Evans Farm Inn to live in a mini zoo.
After 1981, the practice of sending the presentation turkey to a farm became the norm under President Ronald Reagan. The turkey ceremony also became a source of satire and humor for reporters. The formalities of pardoning a turkey gelled by 1989, when President George H. W. Bush, with animal rights activists picketing nearby, quipped, "But let me assure you, and this fine tom turkey, that he will not end up on anyone's dinner table, not this guy -- he's granted a Presidential pardon as of right now -- and allow him to live out his days on a children's farm not far from here.” **
Good morning, Thanksgiving survivors! I need more coffee before I'm ready to empty the dishwasher and wash up whatever else is around.
My husband and I and Daughter D are going to see "Wicked" later this morning.