Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
In the early 1900s, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction published special day programs for holidays, ranging from Arbor and Bird Day to July Fourth and, relevant to us today, Thanksgiving. Presenting these programs had educational value, sponsored “a spirit of cooperation between home and school,” and “inspired the pupil with the spirit of the day, thereby inculcating in his life corresponding principles.”
In 1909, the Thanksgiving Day program included hymns, poems, and themed facts for students to recite. One poem was an ode to the pumpkin:
"A fairy seed I planted,
So dry and white and old;
There sprang a vine enchanted
With magic flowers of gold.
I watched it, I tended it,
And truly by and byI
t bore a Jack-o'-lantern
And a great Thanksgiving pie."
Another poem issued this proclamation:
"He who thanks but with the lips
Thanks but in part;
The full, the true thanksgiving
Comes from the heart."
The 1921 program featured “A Cat’s Thanksgiving Soliloquy,” in which a cat yearns for its “Thanksgiving treat” but must wait until after dessert:
"Ah, there’s gentle little Ethel.
She’s so loving and so kind.
She’s bringing me some turkey bones.
And a grateful cat she’ll find."
The program also included a poem by Edmund Vance Cooke, in which he expressed gratitude for “The many things I haven’t got; (A valet, hookworms, cotton ‘short,’ And other troubles of the sort.)”
The 1924 program introduced a Thanksgiving acrostic poem. Of the many letters, the “s” stood...
“for Sunshine and for Storm,
That made the flowers open wide
And ripened all the grain.”
Children could also perform the play “A Merry Thanksgiving,” with lines like:
"When the feast is over—when the story’s done,
When you’re ready for an hour of play,
Jack Frost will be waiting, ready for the fun."
The program further included a brief essay on gratitude: “One of the most beautiful links in the golden chain that connects man with heaven is Gratitude.”
Like these programs expressed, may you be thankful for a bit of food, family, and fun this Thanksgiving Day.
Dakota Datebook by Cody Goehring
