Bangor held stolid Thanksgiving in wartime

BANGOR – Nearly a year after the United States entered World War II, Mainers were faced with doing their part, even as they prepared for as grateful a Thanksgiving as they could make. Images of cooked turkeys surrounded by happy families ready for a feast were replaced on the pages of local newspapers by dozens of stories about the war, interspersed with maps showing where the Red Army was meeting up with the Nazis.

Whipping cream was gone “for the duration,” promised one story in the Bangor Daily News that day, while another reported that home heating oil rations would be cut yet again. Local movie theaters would do their part by converting to coal, said C.J. Russell Sr., manager of M & P Theatres, which operated the Bijou, the Opera House and the Park Theatre.

“The three theatres used over 48,000 gallons of fuel last year,” Russell pointed out. “And we felt the people of Bangor are entitled to all the fuel for heating that they can possibly get.”

Fewer out-of-town visitors were anticipated, the NEWS said, but three pages were full of names of relatives and friends whom readers were preparing to entertain that day. One of the pages was ornamented with a poem by local writer Clarine Coffin Grenfell.

That week, there had been the usual Thanksgiving activities at schools, including a program at Milford Grammar School organized by Miss June Tedesco. Jeanne Helen Spruce and Albert Dunn each read a portion of “First Thanksgiving.” Then, by candlelight, pupils brought forward food and vegetables for a Thanksgiving basket, and said prayers for families in need and for “men in the armed forces.”

At Hammond Street Congregational Church, the Bangor-Brewer Council of Churches conducted a Thanksgiving community service Wednesday, and on Thanksgiving night the Hebrew Community Center would offer a harvest cabaret.

Then, too, there was all the dancing a person could want that week. On Thanksgiving Eve, some 2,500 people had attended the Firemen’s Ball at the Bangor Auditorium on Main Street. Thursday night, dancers chose among holiday balls at the Chateau in Bangor; in Levant “9 miles out Union Street;” and at the Roseland on Central Street, where admission was 27 cents plus tax 3 cents.

Thanksgiving night was just the start for the Chateau. The ballroom would follow up with a barn dance on Friday, and “modern dance” on Saturday.

Newspaper ads promised “Freese’s Merry Christmas Land” at the well-known department store on Main Street, but a “V for Victory” sign on the building indicated another holiday season shadowed by war.

It was a holiday season when waiting for mail was as important as receiving it, and many a parent, receiving a longed-for letter and picture of a son so far from home, would send it on to the newspaper for inclusion in the column, “That Old Gang of Mine …”

The note that ran above the front-page banner on Thanksgiving Day 1942 resonates 60 years later: “America has more than usual to be thankful for this Thanksgiving – more to be thankful for than the bountiful crops, the good health, the freedom of worship we usually stress. This year we are thankful for the things that will insure thankfulness in the future.”