Thanksgiving Thoughts, by Lewis H. Chrisman (November 1947)
The request to write a few words of Thanksgiving greetings for the West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin causes memory to throw the light of other days around me. In these times of comparatively easy transportation, the Wesleyan campus on Thanksgiving is a rather lonely place. Students can get home easily, and practically all of them take advantage of their opportunity.
This was not so back in the administrations of Dr. Fleming and Dr. Cutshall. Then the whole college community remained in Buckhannon. In the morning most of us went to church. The rest of the day was spent in lazy comfort. Then came the climax, which was a traditional dinner in the Agnes Howard Hall. My only painful memory of the occasion was of a nefarious and unsuccessful attempt being made to compel me to carve the turkey at the speakers’ table. Those of later generations are warned not to picture this company assembled in the present dining room. In those days the girls of the Agnes Howard Hall dined in the large room on the first floor on the side next to the Administration Building. I often think of that crowded room on Thanksgiving evening with the heavily laden tables and the happy company. And I am sure that these memories are shared by many others of that college generation.
Since those days much water has passed down the Buckhannon. Wesleyan has gone through some hard storms and successfully weathered them. Other generations of students have come and gone. Wesleyan men, and some women, have journeyed to the ends of the earth at the call of war’s rude tumult. Yet the life of the college at Buckhannon has moved steadily on. Some of us for almost thirty years have faced students in the same classrooms. It may be hard for Wesleyanites of other days to imagine the chapel packed with students to the top seats of the balcony, as is now the case. We must though, remember that the Wesleyan of yesterday is the Wesleyan of today. The past, the present, and the future march hand in hand.
Although we no longer gather in the Agnes Howard Hall on Thanksgiving Day, there is still no better time for us to relive the experiences of the past, to remember those who made college life richer and brighter, and to renew our allegiance to the great moral and spiritual verities which undergird the universe.
Chrisman, L. H. (1947). Thanksgiving Thoughts. The West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin, 40(8), p.2.
Chrisman, L.H. (1949). Our Thanksgiving Heritage. The West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin, 42(9), p.3.
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