According to the November 29, 1900 issue of the
Sandusky Daily Star, on Thanksgiving Day
in 1900,
George A. Boeckling invited
one hundred youngsters to have dinner at the Opera House Cafe. Mr. Boeckling
asked
Truant Officer Ulrich Zuercher to
pass out the dinner invitations to needy children in
Sandusky.
The Opera House Cafe was
located on Water Street,
next to the Nielsen Opera House, seen at the far right in the picture above. G.A.
Boeckling and Ulrich Zuercher met the crowd of hungry youngsters at the cafe at
11:00 on November 29, 1900. Waiters and waitresses served the children a
traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. The Star article reported that the children had their appetites with
them and they gave “an exhibition of knife and fork play that has never been
rivaled in the cafe.” Mr. Boeckling was making plans to have Santa Claus make
an appearance at the lobby of the Nielsen Opera House on Christmas Eve, at
which time he planned to pass out one thousand complimentary tickets.
Thanks for continuing to post interesting tidbits from Sandusky's past. I've been a lurker, and have enjoyed many of the articles. I'll continue to lurk, but wanted you to know that at least one of your readers is enjoying your posts!
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