Thanksgiving in 1945 --- and now

 

I was struck this morning by the final line of this Thanksgiving greeting, published on Nov. 22, 1945, in Chariton's Herald-Patriot --- "(that) those who gave their lives that the true spirit of Thanksgiving in America might live on forever."

World War II had just ended: Germany surrendered on May 8; Japan, on Sept. 2. There was indeed much to be grateful for. But while most Lucas County families were celebrating, others were mourning lost young men; still others were awaiting final reports on the missing.

Looking back 78 years from Thanksgiving 2023, the dream of world peace continues to be only a dream as violence accelerates; domestically, we're more divided now than I can ever recall --- and my useful memory stretches back into the 1950s.

Here's the text of that 1945 greeting. Perhaps there's still time to learn a little from it:

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Reunited at last! Heads bowed in prayers of thanksgiving; sons and daughters returned from the wars to the warm love of a mother's aching heart --- a father's strong, silent yearning --- the eager adoration of younger brothers and sisters. Thanksgiving dinner with all its trimmings and not one vacant chair! The world at Peace! Is this not reason enough for heads to be bowed in prayer --- prayers of thankfulness for having lived in a land that escaped the ravaging hand of a deadly enemy --- a land whose brave sons and daughters fought and died that truth, humanity and righteousness might triumph over deceit, cruelty and treachery --- and today whose flag flies victoriously over a vanquished enemy. On this Thanksgiving, above all, our first since the end of a tragic and bestial war, there is much for which to be grateful --- much for which to thank the Almighty. And those of us who are fortunate enough to have our loved ones home, in our joy, let us not forget those less fortunate, whose loved once will never return --- those who gave their lives that the true spirit of Thanksgiving in America might live on forever.