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In 1936 Connecticut governor Wilbur Cross issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation. I incorporated it into a set of words of my own.

I would praise life and its gift to those
Who perch high on the food chain.

Nevertheless, the sentiment can occupy different words,
As it did in the year of my birth,
When the governor of Connecticut
Spoke to his citizens, grateful of gain,
Ignoring enduring depression pain,
Natural disasters, and general lack of mirth:

“Time out of mind, at this turn of the seasons
When the hardy oak leaves rustle in the wind,
The frost gives a tang to the air
The dusk falls early and the friendly evenings
Lengthen under the heel of Orion,

It has seemed good to our people to join together
In praising the Creator and Preserver,
Who has brought us by a way that we did not know
To the end of another year.”

— Wilbur Cross, Connecticut governor, 1936


Formatting and punctuation of Gov Cross’s words by
R. Leland Waldrip