Ready to give thanks for Tom Hanks this T.Hanksgiving?
Why not give thanks at T.Hanksgiving?
“It started as kind of a joke. But everybody seems to love it, and everybody seems to love Tom Hanks,” said Emily Teachout, who works as an archivist with historic records for the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio.
T Hanksgiving is a virtual event on Facebook, starting each Nov. 1 and ending on that better-known but certainly less goofy holiday, Thanksgiving.
There will be no parades or daylong schedule of football games, but there will be memes. Many, many silly memes.
Miss Teachout, a lifelong resident of Wheeling, W.Va., said she was sitting around the dorm at Wheeling Jesuit University about eight years ago when she and her roommate, Andrea Oliver, were having “this random in-depth conversation” about the twotime Oscar-winning actor.
“At some point we realized his name was ‘T’ and ‘Hanks,’ — T.Hanks — and it just kind of spiraled from there,” Miss Teachout said. “It just seemed kind of funny, and we said, ‘We should make it an event on Facebook, just for our friends.’”
The little group began posting crazy Tom Hanks-related memes, listicles noting how awesome he is (“He dated a mermaid!”) and nothing but love for the actor. Given that a monthlong film shoot in Pittsburgh has just ended for an untitled project about Fred Rogers, where Mr. Hanks plays the beloved title character, the proximity makes the upcoming “holiday” all the more special, she said.
Over the years, the event became, as Miss Teachout described it, “grander.” It opened up so Facebook friends could invite other friends. Last year, 1,600 invitations were sent out and about 360 participated.
“So all these people I didn’t even know started attending,”
she said.
Miss Teachout, who has a master’s degree in library and information sciences from Kent State University, said she became charmed by the actor as a child, when her older sisters introduced her to “Sleepless In Seattle,” “Turner and Hooch” and “You’ve Got Mail.”
And, of course, “Splash” (that mermaid fantasy), “A League of Their Own” and the “Toy Story” animated films.
“I’ve always loved Tom Hanks, who doesn’t?” she said, adding she is not obsessed — no shrine in the basement or anything — but certainly impressed.
In addition to his professional career, there is the general consensus that Mr. Hanks seems to be a very nice guy.
“He’s almost like a Cary Grant,” she said, noting that “Sleepless,” a remake of Grant’s “An Affair to Remember,” is possibly her favorite Hanks movie.
There’s been talk of taking the celebration into the real world. Miss Teachout, who said she has since discovered there are others out there who celebrate T.Hanksgiving (“So I’m not the only one who kind of figured that out”), read about one office that celebrated with party food such as “Sleepless in Sea-Apple Pie.”
Indeed, New York Magazine’s “Vulture” pages had a whole page of recipes in 2013 (“Bosom Birdies,” “You’ve Got Kale”).
Holidays can be stressful, but T.Hanksgiving is all about the joy that is Tom Hanks. “It’s just funny when you blow things out of proportion, sometimes.”
For the record, T Hanksgiving will not be immediately followed by Jack Black Friday.