Thanksgiving Trivia!

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Posted: November 15, 2016 - Homebuyer's Blog

Thanksgiving is traditionally a home-oriented holiday. Families gather around the dining table, give thanks, and enjoy a delicious feast.  Hartz Homes values this holiday, and is thankful for the opportunity to have built so many homes that will host these festivities.  In the spirit of the holiday, Hartz would like to share a few nuggets of Thanksgiving trivia that perhaps you would like to share during this wonderful season.

Leftover Thanksgiving turkey led to the “Invention” of the TV dinner.
In late November 1953, the food company C.A. Swanson & Sons had a problem: They’d completely overstocked on turkey meat and Thanksgiving had already passed. With 260 tons of turkey, the company’s founders presented their employees with a challenge: Could anyone figure out what to do with the nearly quarter million pounds of bird?

Well, Gerry Thomas, a Swanson & Sons salesman, had a client Pan American Airways.  And, at the time, Pan Am was testing single-compartment foil trays used to serve warm in-flight meals to passengers. Thomas “borrowed” one of the trays (conveniently slipping it into his coat pocket) and spent his return trip drawing up plans for a three-compartment version that would ensure that peas and gravy would never touch each other.

Thomas helped devise a marketing strategy that focused on the new American obsession with television, so that no one would notice the meals were simply leftover Thanksgiving foods in a futuristic-looking box. And within a year, the company had sold 10 million meals.

How many turkeys are consumed on Thanksgiving?
An estimated 46 million turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving (the birds weigh, on average, 16 pounds). That is more than double the amount eaten on Christmas (22 million) and Easter (19 million).

Macy’s was not the first department store to sponsor a Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Gimbel’s, a Philadelphia department store, was the first to sponsor a Thanksgiving parade in 1920. However, the Macy’s parade which was launched four years later, soon became a Thanksgiving tradition and the standard kickoff to the holiday shopping season. The parade became ever more well-known after it featured prominently in the hit film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which shows actual footage of the 1946 parade. In addition to its famous giant balloons and floats, the Macy’s parade features live music and other performances, including by the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes and cast members of well-known Broadway shows.

It’s not the turkey that makes you sleepy – it’s the potatoes
Yes, tryptophan, the amino acid found in turkey can make us sleepy because our bodies convert it into melatonin, a neurochemical that helps us fall asleep. But, in reality, the urge to take a post-meal nap is more likely the result of the sugar crash resulting from a plate full of simple carbs combined with a bit of alcohol, as reported by the Huffington Post.

No, you are probably not eating yams.
It’s most likely a sweet potato. Americans refer to the orange-fleshed variety of tubers as yams and the paler versions as sweet potatoes, but the truth is that they’re all sweet potatoes. Yams are tropical tubers that typically have a black, bark-like skin and pale flesh. Unless you’re going to a specialty store, chances are there are no yams in your casserole.

Please check out these new home communities from Hartz Homes:
Armitage Pointe of Addison, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Bella Vista Townhomes of Bolingbrook, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Heather Glen of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Hibernia of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Leigh Creek of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Manchester Cove of Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Marquis Pointe of Montgomery, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Marywood Meadows of Montgomery, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Nantucket Lakes of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Oliviabrook of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Park West of Manteno, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Playa Vista of Plainfield, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Sky Harbor of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Whisper Creek of Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)

Hartz Homes has new home communities in:
Addison, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Aurora, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Bolingbrook, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Lockport, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
New Lenox (Chicago area new home construction)
Manteno, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Montgomery, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Plainfield, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Oakbrook Terrace (Chicago area new home construction)