Fun Thanksgiving Trivia

At the Tutoring Club of Jacksonville, we try not to miss any opportunity to learn something new!  Here are some fun trivia bits about Thanksgiving:

• In 2013 it is reckoned that nearly 320 million turkeys have been reared for Thanksgiving celebrations.  In the UK approximately 13 million turkeys are reared for Christmas Day.
• There appear to be three places in the USA named after this traditional meal: Turkey in Texas [population 491]; Turkey Creek, Louisiana [population 364]; and Turkey, North Carolina [population 267]. Three towns in Kansas also have the name Turkey. Do you know of any others?  
• Following this discovery we have found that there are a number of places named Cranberry - perhaps after the sauce often eaten with turkey. The biggest appears to be Cranberry in Butler County, Pennsylvania with 28,000 inhabitants.
• Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrim Father's landed, is celebrated by 28 sites in the US.  Of course, England have the original Plymouth in Devon city, and this is where the Pilgrims set sail. Minnesota and Massachusetts have the biggest conurbations of Plymouth.
• There is Pilgrim in Dade County, Missouri with a population of some 133 good folks!
• Pilgrims, or Romans? The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days.
• Talk'n Turkey about turkey... Turkeys are called turkeys because hundreds of years ago, Turkish merchants imported similar fowls to Europe. The Europeans called them turkey birds. The name just seemed to fit the fowls they later found in America.
• FDR would be proud. Hoping to stimulate an urge to shop, in 1939 President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving one week closer to Christmas. It didn't work, so it was changed back a couple of years later years later. No need to worry now. Last year shoppers spent a record $59.1 billion over the four-day weekend.
• Green Bean Overload: Campbells sells $20 million in mushroom soup on Thanksgiving.
• They girlble, maybe? Female turkeys don't gobble.

Pawsitive Reading Program at The Humane Society

The Tutoring Club of Jacksonville found this amazing program available to kids! 

The Pawsitive Reading Program is designed to provide enrichment for humans, canines and felines.  This program is for children ages 8 – 13 to visit the shelter for 45 minute time periods on Wednesday afternoons to read to our shelter animals. 

Children may read to either dogs or cats, and should bring suitable fiction or non-fiction reading materials including school books.  Parents MUST attend, and stay with their child throughout the 45 minute block(s) of time.

For all the details, visit www.jaxhumane.org

School Supplies - longing for the good old days!

In honor of Throw Back Thursday (#TBT) we have been contemplating the many things that are different about being an elementary school student now versus the late 60's/early 70's.

Who remembers this?

The school supply box was filled with pencils, crayons, an eraser, scissors, and ruler that the individual student would use. That was just about it!  Parents and students were responsible for keeping up with their supplies and this box was kept in the desk.

Today we have to buy the aforementioned supplies, plus hand sanitizer, white board markers, Deskjet ink, batteries, Kleenex, copy paper, colored pens, glue sticks, and the list goes on and on. Not to mention the specific binder sizes, specific folder colors (with and without prongs), college rule vs. wide rule notebook paper, etc.

We just yearn for a little more simplicity!  Yay for #TBT and fun memories.  And hold on - one day these will be the good old days!