Introduction (revised March 23, 2006 )
The part of New York's Long Island that eventually became known as Brooklyn has historically been known for its eccentricities. Where else other than in Brooklyn did fanatically faithful baseball fans call their beloved National League home team, "Da Bums"? Nor would any self respecting film about World War II be complete without it's colorful Brooklyn character. The Brooklyn accent is known world wide. However, there was a custom that was practiced mostly in Brooklyn that is not very widely known. In fact, those who grew up practicing this custom would be, in latter years, eyed with the suspicion of fabricating a story when telling family and friends about this. This custom was something akin to trick and treating on Halloween, and is instantly recognizable by those who practiced it by the phrase, "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n?". At first, thought to be a custom specifically rooted in Brooklyn, there is ample evidence that this custom was practiced, for a time, in other parts of the New York metropolitan area as well. For example, Anna (Cavaliere) DiGiovanni recalls practicing this Thanksgiving custom in the Jamaica section of New York City's Queens Borough in the 1930's.
Is spite of these reports, it appears that the custom was not wide spread, but somewhat neighborhood specific. For example, I have interviewed many people who grew up in various sections of Brooklyn and other parts of New York City who have no recollection of the practice. But, to the best of the author's present knowledge and research, the custom was practiced in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn long after the custom died out everywhere else. The "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n?" tradition lived on in Greenpoint until the 1960's.
So, what was this all about? Well, on Thanksgiving morning, the children of Greenpoint would get dressed up in costumes and go from house to house yelling, "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n?". In return, and if they were lucky, they would be rewarded with coins, or a piece of fruit, or a piece of candy. In New York, this custom appears to go back to the 1920's and 1930's and perhaps earlier. Apparently in those days it was called, "Ragamuffin Day" and was practiced the day before Thanksgiving. For example, according to Eddie Mills, a former Greenpointer, states his father remembered practicing Ragamuffin Day by going door to door after school on the day before Thanksgiving. Children would dress in raggedy clothing and blacken their faces with a burnt piece of cork to resemble hobos. They would go door to door in groups, stand outside the houses and yell the refrain, "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n". The goal was to get people to open their windows and throw pennies down to the eagerly awaiting children.
Apparently, somewhere along the line this practice was moved to Thanksgiving morning, and instead of standing outside the houses, the children would ring bells and knock on doors yelling the refrain. In the later years of the custom as practiced in Greenpoint, children would dress in a variety of costumes very similar to the present day tradition of trick or treat on Halloween. Jim Tuite, editor of Greenpoint's weekly newspaper, "The Greenpoint Weekly Star" in the 1940's, recalls a peril the children faced on Thanksgiving morning. According to Tuite, some cantankerous individuals were known to hand over a child a penny that was heated to a very hot temperature on the old coal/wood fired cast iron cook stove. Then the perpetrator would watch sadistically as the child played a painful game of "hot potato" to hold on and keep the coin.
The origin of the Ragamuffin/Anything 'f Thanksgiv'n custom may be related to St. Martin Day which was widely practiced in both western and some eastern European countries. This was first brought to my attention in a recent e-mail from Renata Ann Blumberg of Columbia University. Renata stated, "..it is possible that that tradition might have originated from the St. Martins and St. Catherine's
day traditions which were historically popular throughout Europe. The idea of children going around 'begging' and dressing up is very similar to what children did for Thanksgiving in Greenpoint." Indeed, in researching this more, I have found that St. Martin's Day, that is still practiced today in Estonia, does closely resemble the Ragamuffin/Anything 'f Thanksgiv'n custom. If this is the origin of the Ragamuffin/Anything 'f Thanksgiving custom, its practice in the New York area may go back to the mid to late 19th century when immigration to the U.S. from other European counties became prominent.Since posting this page, and as you can see below, it is clear that the Ragamuffin/Anything 'f Thanksgiving tradition was pretty wide-spread across the New York Metropolitan area Joseph Walters, who was born in Brooklyn and now lives in Okalahoma City, Okalahoma states in an e-mail to the author that his mother practiced the tradition in the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn which also bordered Queens County. I also heard from someone who grew up in "Hell's Kitchen" in Manhattan, and later moved to Staten Island in the 1930's, who reported going out on Thanksgiving in both places. It was even practiced in some parts of New Jersey according to Joe De Pierro.
Since there is very little or no written history of this unique Thanksgiving custom, this web page has been created to document this apparently overlooked custom and part of Greenpoint's history. On this page you will find the stories and recollections of persons who practiced this custom. While many are from those who participated in the Thanksgiving custom while living in Greenpoint, the number of stories and recollections from people living in other parts of the New York Metropolitan area clearly supports the theory of the St. Martin's Day origins.
While this page was originally published during the Thanksgiving season of 1998, anyone, from anywhere, wishing to submit their own "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n?" story or recollection is free to do so at anytime. It is the author's hope that this page will grow over time with the rich history of a gone by era and one of its customs.
Stories and Recollections
Submitted by: Walt Horodyski
I found your "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n" posting on November 21, 2001. You have restored confidence in my memory! I lived in the Ridgewood section of Queens from 1945 to 1956, before the family moved up into the mid-Hudson Valley. We begged as ragamuffins every Thanksgiving, but Halloween was a non-event in that Ridgewood neighborhood. Even on those occasions when the meal was taken with relatives on Long Island or in Brooklyn, we begged before leaving. Our adventures never took us far from our own block; fruit and money were the big dividends of the day and burnt cork was used for makeup. By the way, church was also a staple of the day - it preceded the begging.
As a boy, I was aware of the Trick or Treat tradition because my Brooklyn cousins were from a T or T neighborhood that did not support begging on Thanksgiving. However, I always assumed that our Thanksgiving begging was the choice of America's majority. I learned otherwise after moving from Ridgewood. I have lived in many places across the country since 1956 and I have met many people but absolutely none of them had ever heard about "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n". From coast to coast, Trick or Treat is and was the norm. In recent years, I have been experiencing the barest essence of doubt over my powers of recollection. Could it be that after all this time I was believing in one of my childhood fantasies? NO! It was real.
Thank you for the page full of memories and especially for the much needed affirmation.
Submitted by: John Leahy
I just came across your article in Speak-out and was delighted to see I was not imagining things. I remember vividly going from house to house on 200th St. in St. Albans, Queens in late 40's and early 50's dressed in ragamuffin outfits. I recall getting mainly fruit. I found over the years that no one remembered doing it so I was questioning my sanity. Thanks for the having the site available. Perhaps someone could tell me what the rules of Post Office were. That's another game that no one I ask seems to know how it was played although the consequence was kissing the opposite sex if you lost or won. Not a bad consequence
Submitted by: Virginia Saporito
I grew up in The Bronx and in the late 40's and 50's and we would go around "begging" for Thanksgiving in a small group. Up the block from us was The Salvation Army and what fun it was to pick up a "costume" (usually a pretty nightgown), put makeup on and go in the streets "begging". We thought we collected a fortune and would immediately head to Ester's Candy Store for used comic books, egg creams and candy bars (or one cent jellies or hallavah. We were about 14 the last time we went begging and didn't do that well - we were no longer "cute and adorable". We collected about 35 cents and headed to Viebrocks, a sensational ice cream parlor on Tremont Avenue and had a banana split. Remembering the excitement and anticipation I felt at that time "begging" for Thanksgiving, I doubt the current trick or treaters could match it.
Submitted by: Joe De Pierro
Hi.. Just read your page for the first time ( saw it in the Speak Out section of Shoppers Guide.) and really enjoyed it.. I must relate that when I was a child in Hudson County, New Jersey me and my friends always went door to door for ANYTHING F THANKSGIVING. Trick of Treat hadn't been "known" of yet. This period was in the early forties. We had such a fun time. Regards and thank u Joe De Pierro n. Massapequa, NY mailto:WNYPD@aol.com
Submitted by: Bill
Thanks for giving me proof to use to so many that I didn't make up the "Anything for Thanksgiven" stories of my youth. Not only was it neighborhood specific but was block specific in my neighborhood (Long Island City and southern Astoria. If you went west of Steinway St. the residents had you committed to a nut house saying "Come back at Halloween you idiot". You know how the day after Thanksgiving is now considered the kickoff of the Christmas shopping fiasco? That probably started 'cause all the kids had a dollar from the "Anything for Thanksgiven" trek the day before. And I remember buying for my whole family of 9 and spent about 1.50 for all of them. Thanks again, Bill @ Middle Island, L. I.. mailto:Billme49@webtv.net
Submitted by: Arline Rotavera
Last week in the Wantagh/Seaford Pennysaver I saw a small "speakout" with your website listed. What a glorious surprise when I realized there are so many people out there who remember "begging" at Thanksgiving. I agree, it is a mostly-Brooklyn experience. I have never met a friend or acquaintance who has heard of it. Well no more doubtful looks! I now have proof! And, you can add Cypress Hills, Brooklyn (over the hill from Ridgewood) to the list of communities that observed this tradition.
Each Thanksgiving we would dress up in our parents clothes and go from door to door in the immediate neighborhood "begging" ......."anything f' Thanksgiving". We would be rewarded with fruit, nuts or coins. When we returned home with our treasures, the aroma of Turkey would be in the air and our parents would have most of the preparations completed. This took place in the mid-1950s on Euclid Avenue.
Submitted by: Ellen Trace Menor
A friend of mine just gave me the website. Now living in Oklahoma I was born and raised in Greenpoint 1941-late 1960's. As a child we always dressed up for Thanksgiving and went ringing doorbells and singing in yards. We had costumes made from our mom and dad's clothes. Over the years, as I have told people about this custom they look at me with disbelief as if I had come from another planet. It was fun to go with your friends begging and it took a couple of hours. By the time you got home, sometimes very cold , the turkey would be in the oven and the smell of Thanksgiving would be through the rooms of the cold water flats we lived in. In Greenpoint, on Halloween we would get socks full of flour and hit each other or use chalk and chalk each other clothes. Great fun!! The Thanksgiving story written by Eddie Mills brought back memories. He was a classmate of my brother's at St. Cecilia's school. My brother now resides in Albuq, New Mexico. I have told him of this website. Greenpoint will always be the "Garden Spot of the World" Ellen Trace Menor , Norman Oklahoma greenpointgal@aol.com
Pictured above is( l-r) Clara Klemme
and Ann Wendling in front of 156 Russell St. on Thanksgiving day, 1941Submitted by: Clara Klemme Schlueter
A friend sent me the enclosed info she secured through her computer. My "non-Greenpoint" family has long doubted my "Anything f' Thanksgiving" stories so this "made my day!".
We would (on Thanksgiving morning) solicit from neighbors for these treats, dressed in Mother's old clothes, and also the corner bars where pennies and an occasional nickel or dime were tossed out! A big purse - or big pockets carried the "loot".
Submitted by: Anna (Cavaliere) DiGiovanni
When I was growing up in the 1930's, we didn't go trick and treating on Halloween like the kids do today. We went out on Thanksgiving instead. Halloween was for doing mischief, like chalking up someones sidewalk or the back of someone's coat with big thick sticks of colored chalk. On Thanksgiving I remember me and my sister Helen going around the Jamicia, Queens neighboorhood we grew up in, knocking on the doors of houses and apartments yelling, "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n". We would take our mother's biggest pocketbooks and, boy, would we get them filled up. There was a big apartment building nearby. That was the best place to go.
Submitted by: Jim Tuite
Thanksgiving: The real villains were the people who would throw coins out the window to the ragmuffins--after heating them up on the stove!
Submitted by: Beatrice Tortorici Sheftel
Even though I am a Christian and don't celebrate witches and evil, I have always liked Halloween. It sounds contradictory but for me it isn't, and for thousands of other people it isn't. I liked the colors of Halloween, orange and black. The pumpkins were cheerful additions to home decorations. The costumes allowed me to be something I wasn't, whether it was a beautiful princess or a bride. I never wore witch costumes, though once I was a mummy, wrapped in white cloth strips for a movie costume party.
We had a movie theater in Greenpoint called the Meserole. Every Halloween it offered a costume party for kids. My cousin Jim, me and my brother and sister would go. We all had costumes, usually homemade. My brother and sister were dressed as Mr. and Mrs. North from a popular husband and wife detective movie. My mother put her hat on my little sister, who was probably 4 or 5 at the time, and my brother a year older. The hat had a veil which went over the face. She put rouge on Ginny's cheeks and lipstick on her lips. I don't remember the rest of the outfit, but Ginny looked very cute. Then she dressed Ricky up in a little boy's suit and put a fedora hat on him. I was wrapped up like a mummy and my cousin Jim was our big brother who took us to the movies. He didn't have a costume, but he wanted one. I don't think his mother could afford one. Anyway, Jim was always very creative. He took paper cups with pointed bottoms and stuck them in his ears. He put one in his mouth. The first costume contest was for the little ones. My brother and sister won and every one clapped at their clever costumes. They won a game. I won nothing because I didn't want my face painted to match my costume so I wore a mask, but the mask didn't go with the outfit. Then Jim went up in his age category. He was the "thing". He actually won for most creative and got a prize. We were all happy at the show because we had free popcorn and something like 50 cartoons. We spent the afternoon at the movie theater. This contest was run every year in the heyday of the Meserole theater during the 1950's to the early 1960's. It was a very popular event and most of the kids in the neighborhood participated.
You see, in Greenpoint, we didn't go trick or treating on Halloween. In fact, we had never heard of such a thing. It was on Thanksgiving that all the kids got dressed up and went around to houses and asked, "Anything for Thanksgiving?" Jim taught us sons so we'd get more money. Where ever we went, he have us sing and people would give us rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes, and even sometimes quarters. Jim would divide the money up and we'd all go home with a dollar or so each. Again, it would be Jim, me, Ginny and Rick and usually Jim was in charge of the homemade costumes. So maybe that explains why I like Halloween. It brings back happy childhood memories.
Submitted by: Ed Mills
There was a Thanksgivin that Tommy Higgins, Peter McCullagh & Me were out & about with the "anythingferthankesgivving "routine. Whereupon we decided to go bigtime. Forget that door to door stuff,let's do Store's! There the ones with all the things we want & they had all the money. First store we try a Butcher Shop (Zack Brothers) on Nassua between Monitor & N.Henry. In the window he had what I now know was a Fall decoration, one BIG UGLY SQUASH. We give out with the "annythingferThanksgivvin" and he say's "take that"& points to the THING in the window. We grab it and go. Outside, nobody knows what it is or what you do with it, all we know is it's the biggest thing any of us has ever gotten for free. What happens next's is a little blurrier, I do not remember who's idea it was but-- let's say all of us decided to have a laugh was better then totten that THING or trying to eat it. As you may remember Nassua had Trollys then Trolly/Buses, the latter were huge with huge rear weels.Well we always liked to harass the Busdrivers so at the stop on Nassua & Monitor as the Big Bus was pullin out,. under the back weels goes the SQUASH & it lived up to it's name. Then we all let out with YOU KILLED HIM !!! MY BROTHER !!! YOU RUN OVER LITTLE JIMMY!!! The Bus driver slam's on the brakes, stops, & out comes white as a sheet & shaken like a leaf. All he sees is the SQUASH and the back's of our heads, fallen off our necks from hysteria. Do not try this Today..It was 1957-58 In a place where you always had a good time, Greenpernt.
Submitted by: Raymond Neff
This was definitly in effect in the early 40's. Not door to door but, Walking down the avenue and......kids going into the saloons. Didn't dress up either. Remember going into the Knights of Columbus, the little bar under the second floor chinese restuarant at the corner of meserole and the ave., and all along the ave. A bar (or more) a block
Submitted by: Tom and Maureen (Berkery) McNeill
How the memories flowed when I read your "Anything F' Thanksgiving?" request. This is Maureen Berkery McNeill from Noble St. and Manhattan Ave., e-mailing from Dunedin, Florida. For as many years as I can remember when we were kids in Greenpoint, we went "begging" on Thanskgiving, dressed in old clothes and carrying a sock with flour. I probaby did this from about 1948 (with my brother Pat who had to take me) to around 1956 (when I had to take my sister Bobbie, even though I was an "8th grader and thought I was too old for kid's games). Aside from donuts from Burtell's Bakery, we received pennies and nickels from neighbors. We always put this aside for our Christmas presents. (I still remember buying my mother a jewelry pin for $.25 in Newberry's and my mother acting as if she had never before received such a beautiful gift.)
My husband, Tom McNeill from India St. also remembers going "begging" as a kid and having a great time. He also had to drag his sister Peggy and brother Jack around. Of course, now that we're older, we can appreciate what great familes we had. Our five kids, Maureen, Kathleen, Kerry, Tommy & Eileen, were all raised on Milton St. and went to St. Anthony's school. By the time they started school in 1972, Greenpoint was into "Trick Or Treat". We'd tell them how we went "begging" all Thanksgiving Day and then went home for dinner. They thought it didn't sound as much fun as Halloween, but we know better, don't we?
Submitted by: Jo Ann Aragona
I don't have anything really out of the ordinary, but I well remember Anything f Thanksgiving.
On Thanksgiving morning, while my mother was busy with all the dinner preparations, I would get dressed up and go from door to door, ringing the bell, and asking "Anything for Thanksgiving". One time I remember getting this rubber "Tinkerbell" mask. I couldn't wait to wear it. When I actually did, it was so hot and I could hardly see out of the eyes. That didn't stop me though from going out. Most people would give me a nickel. Some would give pennies. A few times I would get a quarter! That was a real treat, being able to buy 25 penny candies! I would go up and down most of Kingsland Avenue and get home in time for our delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I realize now that this must have been a Greenpoint tradition, because a lot of people I have mentioned it to over the years have never heard of it. It's just another one of those special memories that comes from having the privilege of growing up in Greenpoint.
Submitted by: Francis John Gunshanan
Thank you for the Greenpoint hat. My Dad was dumbfounded when I gave it to him for Christmas. "Holy Jeez," he said (I mean he "says"), "Where the hell ja get this?" As you might imagine from his response, my father is, as they say in New York, "a real characta." His stories about Greenpoint have enlivened many Thanksgiving, wedding, and confirmation dinners--so much so that growing up, I hardly could believe that such a mythic land as Greenpoint ever existed. But, your website has proven me (thankfully) wrong. One of his yarns, as you know by now, did include what you call "Ragamuffin Day." He says that, although it parallels Halloween, it was held on Thanksgiving. He and the neighborhood kids would make the rounds shouting, "What'll ya give us for Thanksgiv'n!" and "Hey, lady, want us to sing ya some Christmas carols?" Usually, the good people of Greenpoint were happy to oblige--tossing out candy and / or pennies to the not-quite Dickensian scene below. However, Brooklyn, it seems, had its share of Scrooges. These would place their pennies in a hot skillet before dispensing them out of their "lookinout" windows, adding, "Now get the hell outta here!"
Submitted by: Larry Groff
Pictured above is Pat Groff in her
"Anything f' Thanksgiv'n" outfitIn the late 40's and early 50's my sister Pat and I dressed in old clothes and went from tenement building to tenement building chanting "Anythingfathanksgiving?" One of my favorite pictures of Pat,who was two years younger than I, is of her being dressed in old clothes and standing in front of the empty, mammoth McCarren Park pool. It was one of our favorite places to go, since it had wide, open spaces and was good for taking pictures. McCarren Park was our country place, with trees, benches, swings, monkey bars,stickball fields, bocce ball courts, baseball fields and a variety of other things. You could play handball, roller skate, play basketball. Pat joined the park's recreation team, in which girls could dress up as Scottish lassies, or Irish dancers, and go to a competition between city parks held in Central Park, Manhattan. Some of her friends and fellow dancers were Josephine and Sylvia Bell and Claudette, whose last name I cannot remember. McCarren Park had different sections divided by the streets of Greenpoint and each section had its own distinct character. I remember asphalt courts next to Automotive High School which were used for flying model airplanes in spring and summer and flooded for ice skating in winter. We were looking ahead to our future, gazing over the East River under a powder blue and white sky to the skyscrapers in Manhattan, which were our mountains. Pat joined the Faith Gospel Church on Norman Avenue while first visiting there for "released times" on Wednesdays from PS 34. She went on to Nyack Missionary College and realized her lifetime ambition in January 1967 when she left Kennedy airport to serve as a missionary teacher in Bandung, Indonesia at 25 years of age. Sixty days later she was slain by an intruder trying to rape her and burglarize her small apartment. As I look back on those days in Greenpoint, the Thanksgivings have a special glow, with the crisp air, the morning Thanksgiving "begging" and the wonderful family turkey dinner in our railroad tenement apartment at 279 Driggs Avenue. Also, around 1949 the first sounds of Gene Autry singing "Ruldolph" in the five and dime store on Manhattan Avenue came to our ears, and it was played over and over. And we never tired of it. I think back on those times now at 59 and realize that Pat would have been 57 this year. I also now know that what we were looking for in the future over the East River was right there in Greenpoint at that time, a family together with hope and love in their hearts for a better tomorrow. What we were looking for was what we were living at the moment and it took the crucible of time to make it glow in memory.
Submitted by: Frank J. Dmuchowski
My first memory of the "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n?" custom was when I was around 5 years old. I remember my older brothers getting dressed up in old clothes, tying rope around their pants for a belt, and putting black stuff all over their faces. It was probably a couple of years later that I understood why they did this. They would come home with a bag full of pennies, candy and fruit. By this time I had an understanding of what the pennies meant, and could not wait my turn to get out in the streets and collect my bag full 'O goodies.
Then one year (1954), when I was 8, as Thanksgiving approached, when I asked my mother if I could go out for Thankgiving, she finally said yes. I was so excited. Then came Thanksgiving morning, my brothers helped me to get dressed up like a hobo and took me with them. I don't remember much more of that first time, but I'm sure that it didn't take me very long to learn the refrain, "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n mistah?".
For the next several years, the anticipation of Thanksgiving was more than the prospect of a great meal of turkey and all the fixin's, but also, "going out for Thanksgiving". This was the hot topic of discussion on the day before Thanksgiving in the hallowed halls of St.Stan's. "Are ya goin' out f' Thanksgivi'n?". Whatcha goin' out as this yeah?". "How'd ya do last yeah?".
We lived on Russell St. between Nassau and Driggs Avenues. At first, my begging was confined to that portion of Russell St. Since I wasn't allowed to cross the street by myself, I eventually learned that I could go around the corner to Driggs Avenue, then around the corner to Humbolt Street and around the corner again to Nassau Avenue and, finally, around the corner back to Russell Street without having to cross one street! My Thanksgiving morning "take" grew enormously with this discovery! And it grew even more when I was finally allowed to cross streets. By the time I got home to sit down to my mom's Thanksgiving table, I felt like a millionaire, for at the end of the meal not only was my tummy full, but so were my pockets, jingling with the sound of pennies, nickles, and the occasional dime or quarter.
It seems like it was only last year when I last went door to door shouting, "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n?". I can still remember hoping that maybe I'll get a dime or a quarter at the next house, and the various smells of Thanksgiving dinner preparations, and hearing Ed O'Hearlihy on the TV's doing his annual Thanksgiving morning program or sounds of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. But most importantly, I remember the wonderful people of Greenpoint who opened up their doors and their hearts to the neighborhood children.
The editor of "To The Point!" is grateful to all the above contributors of this page. Thanks for taking the time to share your "Anything f' Thanksgiv'n" experience. - Frank J. Dmuchowski
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