This year our Thanksgiving celebrations will likely look different from those in the past. We will have to make adjustments to our usual traditions due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.
In 1917, the soldiers of Camp Gordon were having a Thanksgiving different than any other they ever experienced. Camp Gordon was a World War I encampment built earlier that year in Chamblee, Georgia. The soldiers missed their family and friends, but the camp made it a special occasion by planning a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast and printing a program with the menu. Thanksgiving in 1917 was the fifth Thursday of the month, November 29th, as proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson.
The program began with this heading:
Camp Quartermaster Corps
Enlisted Men Detachment, Thanksgiving Day Dinner
November 29, 1917
Camp Gordon, Georgia
The first item on the menu was Swamp Gumbo, followed by baked turkey with oyster stuffing, and two kinds of potatoes. There were rolls, butter, peas, and cranberry sauce. Dessert was coconut cake, banana cake, chocolate cake, mincemeat pie, lemon pie, and custard pie.
Coca-Cola is listed specifically on the menu as an available beverage, which seems appropriate for the Atlanta area. Another option for a beverage was root beer. Following the meal, cigars and cigarettes were available-also listed on the menu.
Major C. O. Thomas Jr., Camp Quartermaster is listed on the program as well as the Mess Officer, Supply Officer, several sergeants, corporals and cooks. The official transfer of authority from Construction Quartermaster, Major J. Norman Pease to Major Thomas didn’t take place until after Thanksgiving on December 4, 1917.
This Thanksgiving program and menu for Camp Gordon is available thanks to James Knettel, his collection of Camp Gordon memorabilia, and his book Atlanta’s Camp Gordon.
According to the November 27, 1918 issue of the Atlanta Constitution, Thanksgiving following the end of World War I was much less structured. Visitors were allowed at the camp and soldiers were able to go into the city of Atlanta to enjoy the festivities. A football game between the non-commissioned Camp Gordon team and Oglethorpe University was held at 10:00 a.m.
After Thanksgiving dinners in their barracks, probably less elaborate than in 1917, many soldiers went to downtown Atlanta. According to the Constitution, “And after this (dinner) followed another rush that swamped all transportation facilities for several hours. In the afternoon the streets of the city were literally sotted with khaki.”
