"The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"

      "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" is a 1966 American comedy-drama film starring Don Knotts as Luther Heggs, a newspaper typesetter who spends a night in a haunted house, which is located in the fictitious community of Rachel, Kansas. The working title was Running Scared.

Theatrical Release Poster

      Luther Heggs is a typesetter at the newspaper in Rachel, Kansas, but aspires to be a reporter. One night, observing what he believes to be a murder outside of an old, supposedly haunted house, Heggs rushes to the police station with his scoop. Unfortunately, as he relates the details of his story to the Chief of Police, the murder "victim" walks into the room. The next morning, Heggs walks downstairs to the dining room at the Natalie Miller boarding house and overhears Ollie Weaver (Homeier), a full-time reporter at the newspaper, mocking his mistakes of the night before. According to a legend noted in the film, the Simmons mansion was a "murder house" 20 years earlier, when Mr. Simmons murdered his wife, then jumped from the organ loft to his death. Legend says that you can hear the ghost of Mr. Simmons playing the organ at night.

      To increase newspaper sales, Luther is assigned to spend the night in the house on the 20th anniversary of the murders. At midnight, Heggs sees the old organ begin to play by itself, as well as other ghostly happenings. His story gets the town abuzz and Nicholas Simmons (Philip Ober), nephew of the deceased couple, sues Heggs for libel.

      In the courtroom, Heggs is made out to be a fool, but the judge orders the courtroom to the Simmons house at midnight to allow Heggs to prove his story. Nothing happens, and everyone leaves except for Heggs. Soon after, when he notices the old organ playing again, Heggs discovers Mr. Kelsey, the newspaper's janitor, producing the creepy tune from an additional keyboard located under the pipes. The typesetter and janitor then confront Nicholas Simmons, who killed his aunt and uncle and has been trying to cover up the story all this time. A secret passage from the study up to the organ loft had been Simmons' alibi, and Mr. Kelsey was the last one who knew the secret. Luther knocks Simmons out with a body slam, and the case is closed. At the end of the film, Heggs marries his sweetheart, Alma Parker (Joan Staley) and the church organ begins to play the same spooky tune that came from the Simmons house, with the keys moving, but no one there.

^{More Related Content:} 

• The Ghost and Mr. Chicken at the Internet Movie Database
• The Ghost and Mr. Chicken at AllRovi
• DVD review and production history
• The Ghost and Mr. Chicken at kiddiematinee.com

Around The Apple Tub

      No Halloween party is complete without the large tub filled with cold water, its surface crowded with the reddest of rosy checked apples. Some one should be selected as manager of the sports, as guests, in their excitement, need to be regulated and controlled, or they may tumble headlong into the tub!

      A line should be formed, and each should kneel in turn and bob or duck their heads down into the water, trying to secure an apple with the teeth. Frequently the persisting apple has to be pursued to the very bottom of the tub, but this makes the game all the more exciting, although the clothes are apt to get utterly soaked.

      To prevent this, the wise hostess will lay in a stock of water-proof bibs for the girls, while the men should remove collars, ties and coats.

Even horses love to bob for apples!

Bobbing For More Apples:

• Bobbing for apples game with champion Tony... - baby very jealous.
• Huskies try bobbing for apples too! and blue berries and bananas with and without skin em.

Over 100 Riddles for Trick-Or-Treaters

I've included here a variety of riddles that your little ones may wish to memorize before trick-or-treating. In St. Louis, trick-or-treaters must either ask a riddle, perform a magic trick or deliver some sort of stunt before expecting to be given candy. My children when they were young always memorized little jokes before trick-or-treating. They were so sweet, who could ever have resisted them?

1. Why are weary people like carriage-wheels?—Answer: Because they are tired.
2. An old woman in a red cloak was passing a field in which a goat was feeding. What strange transformation suddenly took place?—Answer: The goat turned to butter (butt her), and the woman into a scarlet runner.
3. Why does a duck go into the water?—Answer: For divers reasons.
4. Spell "blind pig" in two letters?—Answer: P G; a pig without an I.
5. Which bird can lift the heaviest weights?—Answer: The crane.
6. Why is a wise man like a pin?—Answer: He has a head and comes to a point.
7. Why may carpenters reasonably believe there is no such thing as stone?—Answer: Because they never saw it.
8. What is that which is put on the table and cut, but never eaten?—Answer: A pack of cards.
9. Why does a sculptor die horribly?—Answer: Because he makes faces and busts.
10. When does a farmer double up a sheep without hurting it?—Answer: When he folds it.
11. What lives upon its own substance and dies when it has devoured itself?—Answer: A candle.
12. Why is a dog biting his tail a good manager?—Answer: Because he makes both ends meet.
13. What thing is it that is lower with a head than without one?—Answer: A pillow.
14. Which is the left side of a plum-pudding?—Answer: That which is not eaten.
15. What letter of the alphabet is necessary to make a shoe?—Answer: The last.
16. Why is it certain that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was not written by the hand of its reputed author?—Answer: Because it was written by Mrs. Beecher's toe (Stowe).
17. If all the seas were dried up, what would everybody say?—Answer: We haven't a notion (an ocean).
18. Why is a fishmonger never generous?—Answer: Because his business makes him sell fish (selfish).
19. What is that which works when it plays and plays when it works?—Answer: A fountain.
20. What is that from which you may take away the whole and yet there will be some remaining?—Answer: The word wholesome.
21. Why are fowls the most economical things a farmer can keep?—Answer: Because for every grain they give a peck.
22. What coin doubles its value by taking away a half of it?—Answer: Halfpenny.
23. Why is it dangerous to walk in the meadows in springtime?—Answer: Because the trees are shooting and the bulrush is out (bull rushes out).
24. Why is a vine like a soldier?—Answer: Because it is listed and has ten drills (ten-drils) and shoots.
25. Why is an opera-singer like a confectioner?—Answer: Because she deals in ice- creams (high screams).
26. If a man who is carrying a dozen glass lamps drops one, what does he become?—Answer: A lamp lighter.
27. What belongs to yourself, but is used more by your friends than by yourself?—Answer: Your name.
28. Why is a spider a good correspondent?—Answer: Because he drops a line at every post.
29. When is the clock on the stairs dangerous?—Answer: When it runs down.
30. Why is the letter "k" like a pig's tail?—Answer: Because it comes at the end of pork.
31. What is the keynote to good manners?—Answer: B natural.
32. Why is a five-pound bank-note much more profitable than five sovereigns?—Answer: Because when you put it in your pocket you double it, and when you take it out you will find it increases.
33. Why is a watch like a river?—Answer: Because it doesn't run long without winding.
34. What is that which flies high, flies low, has no feet, and yet wears shoes?—Answer: Dust.
35. When has a man four hands?—Answer: When he doubles his fists.
36. What trees has fire no effect upon?—Answer: Ashtrees; because when they are burned, they are ashes still.
37. What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver?—Answer:
    One minds the train and the other trains the mind.
    
38. A man had twenty sick (six) sheep, and one died; how many were left?—Answer: 19.
39. What is that which everybody has seen but will never see again?—Answer:
    Yesterday.
    
40. Which is the best day for making a pancake?—Answer: Friday.
41. Which is the smallest bridge in the world?—Answer: The bridge of your nose.
42. What four letters would frighten a thief?—Answer: O I C U.
43. What is that which goes from London to York without moving?—Answer: The road.
44. Which is easier to spell—fiddle-de-dee or fiddle-de-dum?—Answer: Fiddle-de- dee, because it is spelt with more "e's."
45. When may a chair be said to dislike you?—Answer: When it can't bear you.
46. What animal took most luggage into the Ark, and which two took the least?—Answer: The elephant, who took his trunk, while the fox and the cock had only a brush and a comb between them.
47. Which of the English kings has most reason to complain of his washer- woman?—Answer: King John, when he lost his baggage in the Wash.
48. If a bear were to go into a linen-draper's shop, what would he want?—Answer:
    He would want muzzlin'.
    
49. Why is B like a hot fire?—Answer: Because it makes oil Boil.
50. If an egg were found on a music-stool, what poem would it remind you of?—Answer: "The Lay of the Last Minstrel."
51. Why is a schoolmaster like a shoe-black?—Answer: Because he polishes the understanding of the people.
52. Why was the first day of Adam's life the longest?—Answer: Because it had no
    Eve.
    
53. Why is a washerwoman like a navigator?—Answer: Because she spreads her sheets, crosses the line, and goes from pole to pole.
54. Why is an author the queerest animal in the world?—Answer: Because his tale comes out of his head.
55. Why is it that a tailor won't attend to business?—Answer: Because he is always cutting out.
56. When can a horse be sea-green in color?—Answer: When it's a bay.
57. Why were gloves never meant to sell?—Answer: Because they were made to be kept on hand.
58. When are we all artists?—Answer: When we draw a long face.
59. Why are watch-dogs bigger by night than by day?—Answer: Because they are let out at night and taken in in the morning.
60. When is a tradesman always above his business?—Answer: When he lives over his shop.
61. Which is the liveliest city in the world?—Answer: Berlin; because it's always on the Spree.
62. Why is a water-lily like a whale?—Answer: Because they both come to the surface to blow.
63. Why is a shoemaker the most industrious of men?—Answer: Because he works to the last.
64. What is book-keeping?—Answer: Forgetting to return borrowed volumes.
65. Why is scooping out a turnip a noisy process?—Answer: Because it makes it hollow.
66. Why are teeth like verbs?—Answer: Because they are regular, irregular, and defective.
67. What ships hardly ever sail out of sight?—Answer: Hardships.
68. When is an artist a dangerous person?—Answer: When his designs are bad.
    
69. Why are tortoiseshell-combs like citadels?—Answer: They are for-tresses.
70. Why is the Isthmus of Suez like the first "u" in cucumber?—Answer: Because it is between two "c's" (seas).
71. What motive led to the invention of railroads?—Answer: The locomotive.
72. When is the best time to get a fresh egg at sea?—Answer: When the ship lays to.
73. Who was the first whistler?—Answer: The wind. and What tune did he whistle?—Answer: Over the hills and far away.
    
74. Why need a traveler never starve in the desert?—Answer: Because of the sand which is (sandwiches) there.
75. Why is sympathy like blindman's buff?—Answer: Because it is a fellow feeling for a fellow creature.
76. If a Frenchman were to fall into a tub of tallow, in what word would he express his situation?—Answer: In-de-fat-i-gabble. (Indefatigable.)
77. Why is a diner on board a steam-boat like Easter Day?—Answer: Because it is a movable feast.
78. Why is a little man like a good book?—Answer: Because he is often looked over.
79. Why is a pig in a parlor like a house on fire?—Answer: Because the sooner it is put out the better.
80. What is the difference between a soldier and a bombshell?—Answer: One goes to war, the other goes to pieces.
81. Why is it dangerous to sleep in a train?—Answer: Because every train runs over all the sleepers on the line.
82. Spell "enemy" in three letters?— Answer: F O E.
83. Which is the only way that a leopard can change his spots?—Answer: By going from one spot to another.
84. Why did Eve never fear the measles?—Answer: Because she'd Adam.
85. When is a tall man a little short?—Answer: When he hasn't got quite enough cash.
86. What houses are the easiest to break into?—Answer: The houses of bald people; because their locks are few.
87. Why is a watch the most difficult thing to steal?—Answer: Because it must be taken off its guard.
88. Why is there never anybody at home in a convent?—Answer: Because it is an (n)uninhabited place.
89. Why does a person who is not good-looking make a better carpenter than one who is?—Answer: Because he is a deal plainer.
90. What plant stands for No. 4?—Answer: IV.
91. What is the best tree for preserving order?—Answer: The birch.
92. Why is shoemaking the easiest of trades?—Answer: Because the boots are always soled before they are made.
93. How can a gardener become thrifty?—Answer: By making the most of his thyme, and by always putting some celery in the bank.
94. Why is it probable that beer was made in the Ark?—Answer: Because the kangaroo went in with hops, and the bear was always bruin.
95. "What was the biggest thing you saw at the World's Fair?" asked a wife of her husband.—Answer: "My hotel bill!" said he.
96. Why is C like a schoolmistress?—Answer: Because it forms lasses into classes.
97. What is that which never asks any questions and yet requires many answers?—Answer: The street-door.
98. If a man bumped his head against the top of a room, what article of stationery would he be supplied with?—Answer: Ceiling whacks. (Sealing-wax.)
99. Which is the longest word in the English language?—Answer: Smiles; because there is a mile between the first and last letters.
100. Which is the oldest tree in England?—Answer: The Elder Tree.
101. What is that which happens twice in a moment and not once in a thousand years?—Answer: The letter M.

"The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, 

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, 

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 

"'T is some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door— 

Only this, and nothing more."

 

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow:—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.
 

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'T is some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;—  
This it is, and nothing more."
 

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"—here I opened wide the door;—
Darkness there, and nothing more.
 

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"
Merely this and nothing more.
 

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping, somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore—
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—  
'T is the wind and nothing more!"
 

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
 

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,  
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,  
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore,—
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
 

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;  
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—  
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,  
With such name as "Nevermore."
 

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.  
Nothing further then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered—
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "Other friends have flown before—
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."  
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."
 

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful 
Disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—  
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore  
Of 'Never—nevermore.'"
 

But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore  
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
 

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;  
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er  
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
 

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee  
Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!  
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
 

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,  
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
 

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil—prophet still, if bird or devil!  
By that Heaven that bends above, us—by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."  
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
 

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—  
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!  
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"  
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
 

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;  
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,  
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;  
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor  
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

for further study 

How to make caramel apples, yum!

Sam and Louis teach kids how to make caramel apples!

      Caramel apples or taffy apples (not to be confused with candy apples) are created by dipping or rolling apples-on-a-stick in hot caramel, sometimes then rolling them in nuts or other small savories or confections, and allowing them to cool. Generally, they are called caramel apples when only caramel is applied and taffy apples for when there are further ingredients such as peanuts applied.

       For high-volume production of caramel apples, a sheet of caramel can be wrapped around the apple, followed by heating of the apple to melt the caramel evenly onto it. This creates a harder caramel that is easier to transport but more difficult to eat. Caramel apple production at home usually involves melting pre-purchased caramel candies for dipping, or making a homemade caramel from ingredients like brown sugar, butter, and vanilla. Homemade caramel generally results in a softer, creamier coating.

      In recent years, it has become increasingly popular to decorate caramel apples for holidays like Halloween. Methods used to do this include applying sugar or salt to softened caramel, dipping cooled, hardened apples in white or milk chocolate, or painting designs onto finished caramel apples with white chocolate colored with food coloring.

      Classically, the preferred apples for use in caramel apples are tart, crisp apples such as Granny Smith or Fuji apples. Softer, grainy-textured apples can also be used, but are not preferred.

More Related Content:

• The Ultimate Caramel Apple Pie
• Caramel Apple Cake

Knock, Knock Links

      This little guy is sooooo cute! He reminds me of Fozzie Bear. I just love it when children find uninteresting things funny; what must be going through their little tangled brains? When my kids were young, they used to lay in their beds at night and giggle riotously at nothing.

      I'll post links here to Knock, Knock Jokes for those little tikes who would prefer to recite them in exchange for Halloween treats whilst they venture forth on a spooky fall evening.

• Knock Knock Jokes from Funology
• knock knick jokes from essentialkids.com

The History of Knock Knock Jokes.

      The exact date of the joke formula attaining popularity is unknown, but was likely 1936. Fred Allen's December 30, 1936 radio broadcast included a humorous wrapup of the year's least important events, including a supposed interview with the man who "invented a negative craze" on April 1st: "Ramrod Dank... the first man to coin a Knock Knock."

      "Knock knock" was the catchphrase of music hall performer Wee Georgie Wood, who was recorded in 1936 saying it in a radio play, but he simply used the words as a reference to his surname and did not use it as part of the well-known joke formula. The format was well known in the UK and US in the 1950s and early 1960s before falling out of favor. It then enjoyed a renaissance after the jokes became a regular part of the badinage on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.

      In 2010, a letter from a steward (thought to be Jim Richardson) on the Nahlin steam yacht was discovered. The 16-page letter to his mother detailed life on the yacht during a 1936 Mediterranean cruise on which King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson were passengers. The steward repeated a popular joke of the time: "Knock knock. Who's there? Edward Rex. Edward Rex who? Edward wrecks the Coronation."

In France, the punchline is sometimes a pun on the title of a popular song, allowing the last answer to be sung :

Toc Toc! (Knock knock!)
Qui est là? (Who's there?)
Sheila.
Sheila qui? (Sheila who?)
Sheila lutte finale... . (a pun on "c'est la lutte finale" (It's the final struggle), the first line of the chorus of The Internationale)

      In Shakespeare's play Macbeth a comic relief character delivers a twenty-line monologue and satire that makes reference to events of that time. It follows the pattern of "knock knock who's there?" but it is done entirely by the character and knocks from off stage. The character is a hung over porter (in most performances drunk, but in the original he was hung over) who pretends he is the porter to the gates of hell welcoming sinners of different professions:

(Macbeth ActII, sciii)

Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' th' name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty. Come in time, have napkins enough about you, here you'll sweat for 't.

(this is a joke referring to a price drop in crops, as well as a joke about the heat in hell)

Knock, knock! Who's there, in th' other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, come in, equivocator.

(this passage is believed to be a reference to a trial of the Jesuits who were charged with equivocation speaking unclearly or speaking with double meaning)

Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither for stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor. Here you may roast your goose.

(the tailor is accused of stealing cloth while making breeches, this is a joke about a fashion trend in Shakespearian times, also a pun for roasting the tailor's iron with the heat of hell)

Find The Acorns

How many nuts has this wise squirrel put away for winter? Take your pencil and see if you can find the nuts in the maze of lines above. You will find that the nuts are represented by ovals. See how many you can find. One of the ovals is shown with a heavy outline as a start.

How did the turkey reach safety?

      Here are two puzzles in one. In the first place, you will see that the turkey is safe for this Thanksgiving at any rate. The question is, How did he reach "safety?"

      You will see six paths, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. He had his choice of these paths, and luckily he chose the right one, the one in which there are no obstacles in his path to "safety." See if you can find the path he chose. Of course, you will see that he could not pass a carving knife or a hatchet or a cook, or any of his other enemies. Find the path which is free of any of these enemies, and tell which path it is, by giving the number of the path.

      When you have found the right path you will also find that it contains a number of letters. Using all the letters, see if you can combine them in such a way as to give one of the principal requirements of a successful Thanksgiving dinner. Write these letters in the order that they appear, and then, below, write them transposed so as to spell the word or words you want. You do not need to use all of the letters, but, the person who can use the most wins.

Picture Puzzle: find the pilgrim

December 21, 1620, The pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Find a second pilgrim hidden within the picture.

Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving: A Curious History

      Thanksgiving Day has a long and curious history and did not originate entirely with the Pilgrims at Plymouth, for Thanksgiving days are mentioned in the Bible ---days set apart for giving thanks to God for some special mercy. These days of fast and prayer were customary in England before the Reformation, and later the Protestants appointed certain days of praise and thanks for various blessings. The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 in London brought the common sentiment of Thanksgiving. A scheme had been formed to blow up parliament house on the 5th of November, the first day of the session. Great quantities of gunpowder and inflammable material were found concealed in the vaults underneath the building. The plot was discovered and the traitors were executed. In consequences of this deliverance the day was ordered to be kept as "a public thanksgiving to Almighty God" every year that unfeigned thankfulness may never be forgotten, and that all ages to come may yield praises to God's divine majesty for the same." All ministers were ordered to say prepars thereon, for which special forms were provided. This annual thanksgiving, together with one established later on May 29, was abolished in 1833 in England, for both had fallen into disuse. For several years afterwards, however, these days were recognized in New England by the Episcopal church on account of its place in their church calendars. England continued to have special days appointed for giving thanks. For example, in 1872 there was a day selected for the public to offer prayers of thanksgiving for the recovery of the former King Edward, then prince of Wales, from typhoid fever.

Protestant pilgrims are shown on the deck of the ship Speedwell before their departure for the New World from Delft Haven, Holland, on July 22, 1620. William Brewster, holding the Bible, and pastor John Robinson lead Governor Carver, William Bradford, Miles Standish, and their families in prayer. The prominence of women and children suggests the importance of the family in the community. At the left side of the painting is a rainbow, which symbolizes hope and divine protection. Weir (1803–1890) had studied art in Italy and taught art at the military academy at West Point.
The dimensions of this oil painting on canvas are 548 cm x 365 cm (216 inches x 144 inches; 18 feet x 12 feet), 1844.

      The first thanksgiving on the American continent was held by an English minister named Wolfall, and was celebrated off the coast of Newfoundland. This pious man accompanied the Frobisher expedition which brought the first English colony to North America. The log of the ship gives the record of the day's observances and tells how on Monday, May 28, 1578, aboard the Ayde, the men received communion, and how Minister Wolfall in a sermon gave humble and hearty thanks to God for his miraculous deliverance in these dangerous places. This was the first Christian sermon preached in North American waters. Again in 1607 there was a similar service held at Sagadahoc--a little village on the coast of Maine. There is little record of this thanksgiving except that it consumed only a few hours of the day, after which the people returned to their labors.

      The great American Thanksgiving day had its origin in the Massachusetts colony in 1621, and Gov. William Bradford, the first governor of that little band of sturdy pilgrims, sent out the first Thanksgiving proclamation, setting apart a day for prayer and rejoicing over the plenteous harvest of that year. the Englishmen recalled their Gay Fawkes thanksgiving, and the Dutch remembered hearing their their ancestors speak of the great day of praise and prayer held at Leyden, Holland, in 1578, when that city was delivered from a siege. So, the entire colony began their pious preparation for what proved to be the most joyful Thanksgiving the colony ever knew, for after the first one, which lasted several days, the Puritan Thanksgiving ment long sermons, long prayers and tired countenances. Governor Bradford determined that the initial Thanksgiving should be celebrated with no little ceremony and that feasting should play a part in the occasion. History tells us that he sent out four men, who were to search for game for the feast. Many fowls were shot--in fact, enough to meet the wants of the colony for a week. Wild turkeys predominated so it seems that the turkey made it's appearance early in the history of Thanksgiving. The day selected was December 13 (old style). At the dawn of that day a small cannon was fired from the hill and a procession was formed near the beach, close to where the Plymouth Rock now rests. Elder Brewster, wearing his ministerial garb and carrying the Bible, led the procession as it moved solemnly along the street. The men walked three abreast, with Governor Bradford in the rear. There was a long service in the meeting house, and after it was over there was a dinner--and such a dinner had never been known in the colony, for, apart from the savory turkey and other wild fowl, the women had done their share in providing good things from the limited supply at their command. The most dramatic incident occurred when the dinner was in progress, for as if by magic 90 friendly indigenous men, under King Massasoit, appeared, carrying haunches of venison as an addition to the feast. Thanksgiving day soon lengthened into days for the psalm saying and feasting, interspersed with war dances, were continued several days.

Pilgrim Hall Museum, the oldest public
museum in the United States.

      After that Thanksgiving, holidays took on a different aspect, and occurred at any season: sometimes twice a year, or sometimes a year or two were skipped, just as it pleased the governor of the colony, until 1664, when the day became a formal one in Massachusetts. Other colonies followed the example, and pretty soon all New England joined in giving thanks on the same day.

      During the Revolutionary war Thanksgiving days became a fashion, and the continental congress set apart at least eight days during one year for that purpose. On December 18, 1777, General Washington issued a proclamation for a general Thanksgiving by the soldiers of the Continental army. In 1789 congress decided to ask the president to issue a proclamation asking the people to suspend work and give thanks on a certain day of the year. There had been considerable opposition to the passage of the bill, some of the reasons given being more humorous then serious.  President Washington acquiesced in the wishes of congress and issued a proclamation appointing November 26 of that year as the day for the American people to join in thanksgiving to God for the care and protection he had given them in their plentiful harvest and freedom from epidemics.

      From time to time American presidents issued proclamations in our past, but these were generally left to the governors of the states to determine on what day Thanksgiving should occur. Under the administration of John Adams two national fast days were observed, but no real Thanksgiving. It was not until 1815, after three national fast on account of the war, that another national Thanksgiving was appointed by the president, James Madison. This was due to peace with Great Britain. After this there was another lull in proclamations as far as presidents were concerned until 1849, when President Taylor set a day of fast on August the third on account of the cholera. Meanwhile the national Thanksgiving day seemed to be dying out, except in the New England states. Then came the Civil war, and the nation was again summoned to fasting, and two such days were kept in 1861--January 4 and September 26--but it was not until 1863 that the horizon had so brightened as to warrant the appointment of a national Thanksgiving. Immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, a Boston woman, wrote to President Lincoln suggesting a national thanksgiving, and following her advice, the president set apart Thursday, August 6, as a day of "praise and prayer." On November 26 of the same year another Thanksgiving was kept, and this was really a great festival and observed in every northern state. In 1864 the 24th of November was kept. After this, with one exception, our great national day of thanks has been celebrated on the last Thursday in November. 

      The presidential proclamations contain very little that is new or original and usually take the form of an essay. In 1898, after the Spanish American war, President McKinley had a chance to very the conventional form by "giving special thanks for the restoration of peace." This was just 100 years after Washington's proclamation. President Roosevelt, who always did original things, declared "that a Thanksgiving proclamation could not be made a brilliant epigrammatical." The proclamation of the president stamps the feast with a sort of official character--something possessed by no other holiday. This proclamation does not make it a legal holiday--it merely recommends that the people suspend business for the day. A special statute in each state is required to make the day a legal holiday and this has not been enacted in every state.

Traditional foods of Thanksgiving.

      The day was originally set apart for thanksgiving fasting, prayer and religious devotions, but the modern Thanksgiving has become a day of feasting and jollity and is made the occasion of all sorts of sports and festivities. The craze for outdoor life keeps many from the churches, although the places of worship continue to be filled with "a goodly company, " who gather to give thanks to him "from whom cometh every good and every perfect gift."
      The turkey is still king of the Thanksgiving feast and as an addition the good things of the field and vineyard have been added. the famous pigeon pie, which was a popular Thanksgiving dish in the early part of the nineteenth century, is rarely seen in these days. the wild pigeons, which alighted in great numbers on the buckwheat fields, were enticed by a decoy duck within a spring net and caught by the hundred. They were kept alive and fattened on grain until the day before Thanksgiving, when they were killed and made into a pie for the Thanksgiving table. 
      Most of the old customs of the day have passed out of existence. The turkey raffle with dice was still a custom in some parts of the country during the early 1900s. Usually the turkey was a tough bird, which was purchased cheap by the proprietor of the saloon (for the raffle usually took place there). The raffle, of course, drew a crowd of men, who incidentally patronized the bar during the proceedings. Another sportive feature of Thanksgiving that is no longer in vogue was the shooting match, where live turkeys tied to sticks were used. This cruel practice was abandoned because the New England clergy objected, not on the account of its cruelty, but because it kept the men away from the church services. 
      New York city was also responsible for some of the strangest Thanksgiving customs. Young men and boys used to dress themselves in fantastic garb and parade the streets--hundreds of the boys wearing their sisters' old clothes, their faces smeared with paint and their heads covered with wigs during the 1800s. As late as 1885 they held parades and made the street hideous with their thumping drums and blaring trumpets. In 1870 this queer performance took on the dignity of a political parade and prizes were distributed to the companies wearing the most unique clothing.  Senator William M. Tweed, the famous political boss of that period, was the donor of a prize of $500 in gold. This custom was undoubtedly a survival of Guy Fawkes days, carried out on a later day in the year: for some unknown reason it was practiced only in New York city.
      Thanksgiving has always been a day of charity, and in the old days it was considered bad luck to turn even a tramp from the door, and today our friendly inns, soup kitchens and numerous charitable institutions have their turkey dinners, usually gifts from charitable people. Even prisons serve their inmates with a hearty meal and have some sort of service of praise. The customs of the great national holiday may have changed somewhat, yet the spirit of the first Thanksgiving, which was held at Plymouth, in 1621, still hovers about the national day of prayer and praise of the twenty first century-- a spirit of thankfulness to God for his mercy and kindness to the people of our great American republic.  (Edited by Grimm)

Make Your Own Mardi Gras Parade

These little students participated in an art camp Marti Gras parade. I love the idea of making the child the parade float himself!

      "Mardi Gras" or "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi gras is French for Fat Tuesday, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday. The day is sometimes referred to as Shrove Tuesday, from the word shrive, meaning "confess." Related popular practices are associated with celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent.

Paper Circus Performers For Little Ones

Color the following circus performers for big top fun!

Color and cut-out this paper lion tamer.

Color and cut-out this paper clown and elephant.

Color and cut-out this performing horseback rider.

More Circus Paper Projects:

• Balloon Nose Clown Craft - Circus/Carnival
• Altered Art Circus
• Take me to the circus
• Circus fold-out book

Silhouettes by Artists Unknown

Occasionally I find a silhouette pattern by an unknown artist. These I will file under the category heading with the same title.

A silhouette of a small child, her doll and a child's table set for a tea party.

How to Draw: A Pelican

Draw a pelican from a rhomboid.

Draw An Animal Hospital

      Doodling an animal hospital will be tricky if you don't know how to draw particular medical equipment. I've included, at the bottom of this post, some basic visual depictions of those things found in a human hospital for this drawing project. The Betty Boop video above portrays animals with human characteristics. This idea is called anthropomorphism.

      According to Wikipedia, "Anthropomorphism or personification is any attribution of human characteristics (or characteristics assumed to belong only to humans) to other animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s. Examples include animals and plants and forces of nature such as winds, rain or the sun depicted as creatures with human motivations, and/or the abilities to reason and converse. The term derives from the combination of the Greek ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos), "human" and μορφή (morphē), "shape" or "form"

      This doodle exercise should depict animals as patients inside of a hospital of sorts. You can also include humans or animals as the doctors and nurses.

Think about the uniforms your doctors and nurses will need to be wearing.

Things seen inside of a hospital.

A Treehouse Collage

On the left, a treehouse collage by my youngest child made way back when...
On the right, one of my favorite children's books by Doris Burn.
A project designed around these two ideas would be perfect.

      Doris "Doe" Wernstedt Burn (April 24, 1923 – March 9, 2011) was an American children's book author and illustrator. She lived most of her life on Waldron Island in the San Juan Islands archipelago of Washington. Her book illustrations, mostly done between 1965 and 1971, consist of absorbingly detailed line drawings, often of children matter-of-factly doing extraordinary things.

      Burn was born in Portland, Oregon to explorer, mountaineer and United States Forest Service worker Lage Wernstedt and his wife Adele. The family resided on Guemes Island near Anacortes. After being interviewed by writer June Burn for the Bellingham Herald, Mr. Wernstedt and his family became friends of the Burns and built a summer cabin near theirs on Waldron, a small island without ferry service.

Doris Burn at her home in
Guemes Island, WA

      Burn attended the University of Oregon and the University of Hawaii, and graduated from the University of Washington. She married South (Bob) Burn after World War II and the couple made their home on Waldron Island. She had four children, whom she taught for one year on Guemes Island's one-room schoolhouse. Burn separated from her husband, but they remained lifelong friends and neighbors.

      Burn worked on her meticulous illustrations in the evenings, in "a small cabin where she spends the day at work after chopping enough wood to keep the fire going through the day, hauling two buckets of water from the pump for washing brushes and pens and brewing 'a perpetual pot of tea'". Waldron Island was without electricity, telephone service, running water or merchants. All of her goods and supplies were brought by boat from the mainland.

      In 1956 Burn took a portfolio of illustrations to publishers in New York and was encouraged to continue working. Her children remember her working late nights by lantern-light with the fireplace burning down to embers.

      Doe's oldest son, Mark Nathaniel Burn, was the inspiration for her first book, Andrew Henry's Meadow (1965), the story of a boy who, ignored by his family, builds a retreat for himself in a nearby meadow. He is soon joined by other children for whom he also builds houses, tailored to their interests and hobbies. Andrew Henry's Meadow won the Washington Governor's Art Award and was a Weekly Reader book club selection. It was reissued in a 40th anniversary edition by San Juan Publishing in 2005. She went on to write two other works, The Summerfolk and The Tale of Lazy Lizard Canyon, and illustrated eight others.

More Related Content:

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• Tree House Project: Tree Houses capture the imagination of the child in all of us!

A similar watercolor assignment exploring the treehouse theme.

Crayon Resist Parrots

      A crayon resist, parrot project is perfect for teaching first and second graders how to work with their crayons and watercolor paints. Just have them color first with heavy layers of bright crayon and then wash over these with colorful washes of watercolor paints. The effects are stunning!

More Related Content:

• We Couldn't Resist
• Palm Sunday Crayon Resist

   
Your students can view parrots and exotic birds interacting online even if they can't make a field trip to the zoo.

The School Lunch

      The school lunch is the problem. It is a subject over which mothers are waxing warm in the mothers' clubs, over which doctors are theorizing, over which teachers are fretting. It is the question of the hour in hygienic circles; and all the while the innocent little tummy accepts what is offered it, never realizing that the school lunch is disturbing grown-up heads.

      What shall young America carry in the school lunch basket?

      In the first place, doctors have firmly agreed that it shall not carry the lunch basket at all if it is a possible thing to reach home in time for a warm lunch. The cold lunch is an indigestible affair at best compared with a bowl of hot soup or a plate of steaming stew or rare steak. But what can't be made of a bad thing is worth while.

      There seems to be a vast difference between the cold lunch that is and the cold lunch that ought to be.

      Pickles and ice cream make a popular combination. You can get 5 cents' worth of pickles, chemically vinegared. You can get 5 cents' worth of ice cream at the little store next door, where they sell candy and prize packages and chewing gum and striped lead pencils. You can buy all of these if your money holds out.

      Miss Casey, principal of the Lafayette Primary School, says that she has seen this sort of thing happen many a time, sometimes in her own school and more often she has known of it in other schools when the bakeries and the candy shops were nearer. Children are started off to school without a lunch. It is too far to go home. So paper or mamma hands out a little money and says, "Buy your lunch."

Twelve o'clock has come at Redding Primary,
by Stanford

      Perhaps the amount is only a nickel or perhaps it is much larger. The more the worse in many cases. As soon as the bell has rung and the lines have passed out the proud possessor of the cost races down the street to the nearest attractive shop.

      Maybe there is a beautiful pink cake in the window with little shells of frosting all around the edge and jelly in the cracks. Maybe the loaf costs two bits and maybe the luncher has just that amount. It takes less then two minutes to own the cake and not much longer to shove it down. Here endeth the lunch and likewise here beginneth the dyspepsia.

      Or maybe it is a pie that tempts, a lemon pie, brave with billows of meringue. Heaven help young American when this is the sum total of its lunch.

      Miss Casey says that she has seen a little tot that possessed just one nickel spend it for candy and make an entire meal on the purchase. It is like the things that little girls and boys wish for in day dreams, but it is not hygienic.

      Mrs. Walker, principal of the Marshall Primary School, says: "I wish we could see the school lunch basket containing bread and jelly and good, sensible sandwiches made of lamb, roast beef or corned beef. It ought to have a bottle of milk instead of coffee. Plenty of fruit should be in it. And no cakes--none whatever. This matter of the school lunch is worth thinking about."

      All the principals and the doctors seem to say the same thing about coffee and milk. Off with the former, on with the latter. Although Miss Deane of the Redding Primary finds that her flock is inclined to the milk tipple for the most part. "On the whole they seem to bring sensible things," she says. "Sandwiches, milk and fruit are the chief articles."

      Mrs. M. M. Murphy of the Irving Scott Primary School says: "It isn't so much what is put up for the children as how it is put up that I want to find fault with. For instance, they have meat sandwiches, which sounds well enough, but some of them are enough to frighten any appetite just to look at them. Great chunks of bread on each side of an ungainly chunk of meat. Ugh! I don't see how the poor little things eat them. I know I couldn't touch a crumb of them."

      Dr. Mary Page Campbell was asked to discuss the ideal school lunch from the physician's standpoint and this is what she said:

      "It's hard to talk about the ideal basket lunch when there is nothing ideal about such a meal. Every child should go home to lunch. This is the sort of thing, however, that is a waste of breath to talk about and I am practical enough to realize that. Many children live so far from home that they cannot possibly get home, eat and return in the time allowed. Or if they do they will have to bolt the meal so rapidly that it is worse than a cold lunch.

     "In Boston the problem has been solved, or partially so, by the little lunch stations near the school buildings where soup is sold to the children for so small a sum that it is possible to all. It is good, wholesome, steaming hot soup that does the little bodies good from top to toe. This furnishes the heat which nature craves in a meal, and cold adjuncts can be carried in a basket.

      "Some day I hope to see a kettle of good soup raising a hearty steam within sight of every San Francisco school. But until that comes about we must face the problem as it stands. Hundreds of our children carry a cold lunch to school.

      "What shall the basket contain?

      "In the first place, there should be something to drink with the meal, and this something should be milk. A bottle of fresh milk can easily be put up in the morning. It is far less trouble than coffee because there is no cooking about it. Let the bottle of cold coffee be tabooed. It is absolutely unwholesome. If the child has acquired a liking for it, then the taste is unwholesome and should be overcome.

       "Let the basis of the lunch be bread and butter and sandwiches. Cut the bread thin and spread it thinly. There is a great deal in putting up a lunch daintily. Perhaps it does seem as if children are willing to eat anything, they are so much more the gourmand and less the gourmet than their parents. But nevertheless they are affected by the way their food is prepared. Their appetite will be keener and the benefit from the food greater if it is tempting instead of mussy.

      "The sandwiches may be made of good, tender meat; of cheese, or of nuts. Cheese and nuts contain an immense amount of condensed nourishment. If the little folks care for it there is not the least harm in letting them have a pickle, but it must be a good pickle; not one of the ordinary grocery store kind, put up in some kind of chemical vinegar, but one that you know is to be seasoned with pure spices and pure vinegar.

      "Now for the lunch basket cup. This cup (or, better yet a jelly glass with a tightly fitted cover) may be made the charm of the basket, for it may reveal a delightful surprise every day to tempt the young appetite. Don't say that it is too much bother to think up new dainties. Set your wits to work. The result will pay.

      "Different forms of sage, rice and tapioca can be put into the little glass jar. These may be the simplest and wholesomest puddings, slightly sweetened. They are full of nourishment and palatable as well.

      "Macaroni is another idea for your cup. It may be cooked with either tomatoes or cheese.

      A little meat pie, with a light, flaky crust, is delicious and wholesome, too. When the youngster carries this he won't need meat sandwiches. Bread and butter is enough. Try to make the parts of the lunch harmonize in this way, just as much as if you were preparing a menu for guests.
      "Mayonnaise is an article that I sometimes hear people speaking of as too rich for children. It is nothing of the kind. What could be more valuable than eggs and olive oil? Don't be so afraid of foods of this kind-- the children are not inclined to eat any great amount of them if left to their own devices. Mayonnaise is good on many kinds of sandwiches, but it is better to let the child carry it in a little cup and spread it when noon arrives, as it soaks into the bread if it stands long, becoming unpalatable.
      "Children need sweets for fuel. Remember that every morning when you pack the basket. The sweets should be furnished in very moderate quantities, but they should not be forgotten or condemned. A slice of light sponge cake or a few simple cookies are best. With the cake should be plenty of fruit, and so you have a good dessert.
      Bear in mind the value of a varied bill of fare. This involves much thought, but it is entirely possible. A cold lunch is at best, less cheerful than a meal at a table. Do your best to brighten the basket by frequent novelties. And wrap each article separately so that flavors won't mix and make an unappetizing mess of the whole." San Francisco Call, April 19, 1903

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