Thanksgiving in Lorain – 1955

Thanksgiving 1955 was celebrated against the backdrop of President Dwight D. Eisenhower making a comeback from a heart attack suffered on September 24th. Here's the front page of the Thanksgiving edition of the Lorain Journal of Nov. 24, 1955.

In Lorain, preparations were being made for the annual Mary Lee Tucker Christmas benefit show on Dec. 7th. Thanksgiving was observed in the Lorain City Schools with a re-enactment of the Pilgrim Thanksgiving by students at Fairhome School.

The November 21st edition of the Lorain Journal was stuffed with grocery ads. Below are the ads for Food Center Super Markets, Food Fair, Homewood Shopping Center, Meyer Goldberg and A&P so you can compare prices. Most of the ads have great Thanksgiving illustrations.

For those who wished to dine out that day, there were a few restaurant ads, including Gartner's Supper Club in Elyria and the Charcoal Pit in South Lorain.

There weren't too many ads in the paper with a Thanksgiving theme. Then – as now – the transition to Christmas was already taking place even as the turkey was being stuffed, so ads were more likely to feature Santa Claus. But I found a few Thanksgiving ads (in this case, one national, and one local).

The Editorial Page was graced with a insightful column reflecting on whether past Thanksgivings could really be described as taking place in the "good old days."

And lastly, only a few comic strips acknowledged the holiday – Dennis The Menace, and the always hilarious The Ryatts (which had only been launched the year before, according to this great article).