In 1939, many residents of Ridgeway celebrated Thanksgiving twice: first on the official holiday scheduled for November 23 and then again on the traditional date of November 30. This double celebration was the result of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to move the day for Thanksgiving from the fourth Thursday of the month to the third Thursday. This move was due to the lobbying of retailers who hoped for a economic boom with the extra week added to the Christmas shopping season.
Many people were outraged and only about half the states followed suit. Missouri’s Governor Lloyd C. Stark agreed with President Roosevelt and declared November 23 to be the state’s official Thanksgiving Day. In Ridgeway, the school closed for 23rd but not the 30th and the City of Ridgeway also observed the national holiday, but many people continued to have their celebrations on the fourth Thursday as they always did. They were helped by the ladies of the Christian church who served “a real old-fashioned turkey dinner in the evening”. (Ridgeway News, Nov 23, 1939).
The longer Christmas shopping season didn’t produced the expected economic boom and, in 1941, Roosevelt signed a bill officially proclaiming the fourth Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving, returning the holiday back to its traditional date in 1942. (“FDR Moved Thanksgiving to Give People More Time to Shop”, Lily Rothman, Time.com, Nov 28, 2014).
