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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


My childhood Thanksgivings were always spent at my Grandmother’s house, small rooms crowded with her ten children (including my Mother), their spouses, her many grandchildren, and assorted extended family. The days were long: filled with food, food, and more food; football on television and in the alley; and a near constant buzz of conversation, laughter, and stories. By the end, the children were to be found sleeping on every semi-soft surface as the adults played cards and gossiped long into the night. Edgar Guest’s “Thanksgiving” (1917) captures the frenetic, joyful scene perfectly. Guest started as a copy boy at the Detroit Free Press (just across the lake from my childhood home in Milwaukee) and became a prolific poet, whose work first appeared in the paper. Guest’s poems -— which captured the vernacular of the day with a reporter’s ear -— are now often called sentimental but were wildly popular at the time, and this one in particular evokes the special spirit of Thanksgiving. In keeping with the season and the poem, I hope that your holiday brings all your wanderers home to the nest and lets you sit down with the ones you love best.

Happy Thanksgiving! 


Thanksgiving
By Edgar Allen Guest
Gettin’ together to smile an’ rejoice,
An’ eatin’ an’ laughin’ with folks of your choice;
An’ kissin’ the girls an’ declarin’ that they
Are growin’ more beautiful day after day;
Chattin’ an’ braggin’ a bit with the men,
Buildin’ the old family circle again;
Livin’ the wholesome an’ old-fashioned cheer,
Just for awhile at the end of the year.

Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the door
And under the old roof we gather once more
Just as we did when the youngsters were small;
Mother’s a little bit grayer, that’s all.
Father’s a little bit older, but still
Ready to romp an’ to laugh with a will.
Here we are back at the table again
Tellin’ our stories as women an’ men.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;
Oh, but we’re grateful an’ glad to be there.
Home from the east land an’ home from the west,
Home with the folks that are dearest an’ best.
Out of the sham of the cities afar
We’ve come for a time to be just what we are.
Here we can talk of ourselves an’ be frank,
Forgettin’ position an’ station an’ rank.

Give me the end of the year an’ its fun
When most of the plannin’ an’ toilin’ is done;
Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,
Hear the old voices still ringin’ with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An’ I’ll put soul in my Thanksgivin’ prayers.

Anne M. Kress
Office of the President
11/23/2016