PRE-THANKSGIVING

 This week, instead of my usual drivel, I offer an interesting Thanksgiving story I read recently.  It has become ritual for the President of the United States to "pardon" a turkey before this holiday - one turkey that will not be eaten.  President Lincoln declared this a national holiday in 1863.  This tradition of the pardoning has been consistent since 1989 when President George HW Bush preformed the ritual.

One of the strange events happened somewhere in between those years.  In 1926, President Calvin Coolidge and his wife Lady Grace, really got into the Thanksgiving spirit.  As the story goes, many farmers were intent on offering a turkey to the First Couple for their dinner; a lot of notoriety would come with it.  Turkeys were coming into the White House right and left.  One industrious farmer from Mississippi tried to go everyone one better.  He sent a raccoon.  Yes!  A racoon to be eaten on Thanksgiving.  He sent along a note swearing that these creatures were good eating.  

Well, the Coolidges were having none of that.  They not only wouldn't eat it but they pardoned the racoon and kept it as a pet.  They named it Rebecca.  Lady Grace allowed the 'coon' to walk freely in the white house and was taken on a leash outside on the property. The following Christmas they gave it a collar inscribed "White House Raccoon".   It even took part in the Easter egg roll the following year.   

The pampered raccoon was gifted with a male friend in the Spring of '27  -  they named him Rueben.  Rebecca didn't like him one bit.  Rueben had to go.  

The finicky female led a good life in the White House and vacationed with the First Couple.  After Coolidge's term, in 1929, Rebecca was donated to the Washington DC Zoo where she lived out her life.