Every year Susquehanna students look forward to convening in the cafeteria to enjoy the annual Thanksgiving dinner. This longstanding tradition features everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving foods that are served by SU faculty and staff. With the event scheduled for this week, we thought we’d take you on a trip down memory lane, highlighting our favorite moments in the history of Thanksgiving at SU.
The first Thanksgiving dinner was believed to be held in 1978, but records show an annual Thanksgiving dinner appearing on campus calendars as far back as 1968. The tradition was created by the first Aramark food director, Bill Bowman, as a way to better foster a sense of community within the school. During one of the first dinners in 1979, dining services reported using 150 turkeys, 1920 stuffing balls, 50 gallons of green beans and corn, 100 pounds of mashed potatoes, 75 gallons of sweet potatoes, 150 pumpkin pies, 120 mince meat pies, and 2000 individual rolls. All of this was manned by a volunteer brigade of about 30 members of the SU faculty and staff.
As the years passed, students began to see the feast as a time to reflect on all their favorite things about the university and by thankful for their faculty and staff. Some SU employees even garnered campus fame from their participation in the tradition. For instance, chemistry professor Dr. Neil Potter became known as the turkey master in the early 2000s by hosting his infamous turkey carving demonstrations for all the faculty and staff volunteers.
In times of distress, the Thanksgiving dinner became a beacon of hope for the student body. In 2001, following the attacks on the World Trade Center, campus chaplain Rev. Mark Radecke gave a powerful blessing before the meal touching on the fact that students should give thanks during moments of political turmoil.
Eventually some students began to prefer SU Thanksgiving over their own family dinners. One Crusader editorial in 2012 made this claim writing, “There are no family drunks, no surprise pregnancy announcements and no one has been forced to sit next to crazy Great Aunt Patty. For the two hours we dined, we feasted.”
Everyone at the Blough-Weis Library hopes that each and every SU student enjoys this year’s Thanksgiving dinner and those in years to come.
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