Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, the U S presidents
Speaker 1: have a lot to say, but once a year they
Speaker 1: really talked turkey. At least that's what President Joe Biden
Speaker 1: said he was going to do on a fine November
Speaker 1: day in one when he had his first opportunity to
Speaker 1: stand in the White House rose Garden and pardon a
Speaker 1: turkey for Thanksgiving. As has become the norm, Biden actually
Speaker 1: pardoned two turkeys. Their names were peanut Butter and Jelly
Speaker 1: before they were sent off to Indiana University. The official
Speaker 1: pardoning of White House turkeys is now a familiar event
Speaker 1: that the press well eats up for the article. This
Speaker 1: episode is based on how Stuff Work. Spoke with Lena Mann,
Speaker 1: a historian at the White House Historical Association. She said,
Speaker 1: this is my absolute favorite White House tradition. It's just
Speaker 1: very fun, which I think is why it indoors. It's
Speaker 1: a way for the presidents to show off their sillier sides,
Speaker 1: and it's certainly is silly. Lest do you think peanut
Speaker 1: Butter and Jelly wear flukes of Prior turkey pairs have
Speaker 1: had names like Mac and cheese, tater and todd, cobbler
Speaker 1: and gobbler, and corn and cob All of this leads
Speaker 1: us to the question of when and how this compassionate
Speaker 1: we get odd tradition hatched. It's definitely a departure from
Speaker 1: the usual duties of a U. S. President. One theory
Speaker 1: about its origins is that it again when President Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln's son asked that the families Christmas turkey be spared.
Speaker 1: But the tradition developed in fits and starts. According to Man,
Speaker 1: in the latter half of the eighteen hundreds, citizens began
Speaker 1: sending turkeys to the president at the White House for
Speaker 1: the holidays. The Thanksgiving had become a national holiday in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, and by the eighteen seventies, a Rhode
Speaker 1: Island poultry man by the name of Horace Bows had
Speaker 1: begun getting fully dressed turkeys to the White House, of
Speaker 1: meaning they were cleaned and stuffed and ready to be
Speaker 1: not that they were wearing little bow ties. Those continued
Speaker 1: sending the turkeys every year, and newspapers started to report
Speaker 1: on his efforts, making him a well known purveyor of poultry.
Speaker 1: By the time Theodore Roosevelt was President, vose was still
Speaker 1: sending fully dressed turkeys to the White House. Then a
Speaker 1: newspaper published an article claiming that Roosevelt's children had terrorized
Speaker 1: the turkey that they received, a claim that was clearly
Speaker 1: made up, because remember, the turkeys vose sent were not alive.
Speaker 1: They were definitely deceased, they had shuffled off their mortal coil.
Speaker 1: They were ex turkeys. That does not mean that presidents
Speaker 1: never received live turkeys or other animals in those early days.
Speaker 1: In Nix, someone from Mississippi sent the Coolidges a live
Speaker 1: raccoon for the President's Thanksgiving table. But luckily for the raccoon,
Speaker 1: the first Lady, Grace Coolidge, took a shine to it
Speaker 1: and kept it as a family pet, naming it Rebecca Young.
Speaker 1: Rebecca proceeded to live a charmed life, earning press coverage
Speaker 1: and even attending the nineteen seven White House Easter egg roll,
Speaker 1: and then she retired to a zoo when Herbert Hoover
Speaker 1: took over in n I should put in here that
Speaker 1: raccoons should not be kept as pets beyond the fact
Speaker 1: that they are wild animals and can carry rabies. Believe
Speaker 1: me when I tell you that they have a smell
Speaker 1: and you want no part of it anyway. In the
Speaker 1: years following World War Two, food shortages led to an
Speaker 1: organization called the Citizens Food Committee, with support from the
Speaker 1: White House, requesting that Americans commit to meatless Tuesdays and
Speaker 1: poultry and egg free Thursdays. Many Americans were outraged by
Speaker 1: this idea, of especially as the holidays approached. In Thanksgiving, Christmas,
Speaker 1: and New Year's Day of ninety eight all fell on Thursdays.
Speaker 1: Of poultry farmers began sending chickens to the White House
Speaker 1: in protest. The campaign was called Hens for Harry, named
Speaker 1: for then President Harry Truman. The poll free free food
Speaker 1: conservation program quickly lost steam. In December of ninety seven,
Speaker 1: the Poultry and Egg National Board, in collaboration with the
Speaker 1: Turkey Federation, presented Truman with a turkey wearing a whopping
Speaker 1: forty seven pounds that's twenty one kilos, and a new
Speaker 1: annual tradition was born. The Truman White House Thanksgiving table
Speaker 1: did forego pumpkin pie that year in honor of going
Speaker 1: egg free. Since nine seven, the National Turkey Federation has
Speaker 1: presented a bird to the President each year, but letting
Speaker 1: the birds live past Thanksgiving Thursday occurred sporadically for the
Speaker 1: next few decades. In nineteen sixty three, just three days
Speaker 1: before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy pardoned the turkey
Speaker 1: Kennedy had received a bird wearing a sign good eating. Mr.
Speaker 1: President Kennedy chose instead not to find out, stating let's
Speaker 1: keep him going in night. First, Lady Rosalind Carter opted
Speaker 1: to send a turkey to live out its life in
Speaker 1: a mini zoo, and by the time Ronald Reagan took office,
Speaker 1: sending the pardon turkeys to farms had become the norm
Speaker 1: an informal fun event. The first official turkey pardoning ceremony
Speaker 1: took place during the presidency of George H. W. Bush
Speaker 1: on November seventeenth. Bush and others headed to the Rose
Speaker 1: Garden to save the life of one lucky bird. Bush said,
Speaker 1: let me assure you and this fine tom turkey that
Speaker 1: he will not end up on anyone's dinner table. Not
Speaker 1: this guy. He's presented a presidential pardon as of right now,
Speaker 1: and allow him to live out his days on a
Speaker 1: children's farm not far from here. All presidents after have
Speaker 1: maintained the tradition. Today they are sent from a different
Speaker 1: US far more farmer each year through the National Turkey Federation.
Speaker 1: More recently, the norm has been for two turkeys to arrive,
Speaker 1: the main turkey and an alternate think a sort of
Speaker 1: turkey understudy to step in and just in case the
Speaker 1: primary turkey behaves badly on stay age. Both turkeys received
Speaker 1: the pardon, though, and live out their days away from
Speaker 1: the dinner table. And just where the turkeys go after
Speaker 1: the ceremonies has changed throughout the years too. Kennedy sent
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty free turkey back to the farm that
Speaker 1: it came from, while Nixon sent his turkey to a
Speaker 1: petting zoo. During the Obama administration, turkeys named Courage and
Speaker 1: Carolina headed to Disneyland, Yes really. After Courage, the main
Speaker 1: turkey start in the Disneyland Thanksgiving Day parade, he and Carolina,
Speaker 1: the understudy, retired to the Big Thunder Ranch petting zoo.
Speaker 1: But you don't have to be a sitting president to
Speaker 1: make a turkey's day on Thanksgiving. You can take up
Speaker 1: the old call for a poultry free Thursday, but you
Speaker 1: can also adopt a turkey symbolically again wild animal. But
Speaker 1: organizations like Farm Sanctuary let you symbolically adopt a rescued
Speaker 1: spokes turkey for the holiday season for a relatively small donation.
Speaker 1: M Today's episode is based on the article why in
Speaker 1: the world do US President's partnering turkeys? On how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com, written by Kerry Whitney. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from My heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.