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About:
Established in 1982 at LaGuardia Community College/ CUNY with a mission to collect, preserve, and make available primary materials documenting the social and political history of New York City. We hold nearly 5,000 cubic feet of archival records and 3,200 reels of microfilm with almost 100,000 photographs and 2,000,000 documents available on our website.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Mayor La Guardia, Thanksgiving, 1942

Steven A. Levine

Coordinator for Educational Programs



On November 29, 1942, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia described a Daily News cartoon by George Clark over WNYC radio about the feelings of Americans whose loved ones were overseas during World War II on Thanksgiving. (See below)  La Guardia read the caption of the cartoon.  As the mother prepares the Thanksgiving meal, she says to her husband, "He's a thousand miles from us today, but I cooked his favorite desserts anyway.  An American soldier can turn up mighty sudden and unexpected nowadays."  La Guardia told his audience that "Those were the thoughts of hundreds of thousands of fathers and mothers in our country on Thanksgiving Day.  May the boys soon come home, safe and victorious."  More than 65 years later, the feelings are the same for families with service men and women overseas as they await their return home.
Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving.




Excerpt from La Guardia Radio Speech, November, 29, 1942

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