A few weeks ago, a former Cass Cityan sent me the postcard pictured above, which shows a gathering at the intersection of West Street and Main Street (the square house in the background is where Huntington Bank now stands).
As I studied the picture, I could not help but notice how different—better, even— things seem to be then compared to now. People dressed nicely back then, with their overcoats and hats. Whatever the event was that caused these villagers to convene, it appears that there was also a sense of community that is absent in many cities today. There is something about quaint, sepia tone photographs, like this one, that causes one to think the past really was better. And pictures are not the only sources for this conclusion; when we tell stories about the past, for example, they tend to be rose-colored, while our prognostications about tomorrow are dismal. These thoughts passed through my mind as I studied the details of the old photo. I then realized that I had seen a similar picture from the same event in a local history book. I pulled the book off the shelf and leafed through until I found it. Sure enough, there was a photo from the same day, albeit from a different angle. But when I read the caption, my rose-colored glasses fell from my face: Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918. The United States had participated in a bloody and brutal war across the Atlantic. Some of Cass City’s own sons gave the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country. At the same time, an influenza pandemic swept across the globe, ultimately killing at least 50 million people and infecting ten times that number. In fact, in the same issue of The Cass City Chronicle that announced the Armistice, Dr. F. L. Morris, the town’s health officer, announced that public places would be closed for another week due to the aggressive spread of the illness. Thanksgiving 1918 would certainly be different, even muted, despite the war’s end. But that did not keep villagers from giving thanks. Albert E. Sleeper, then-governor of Michigan, issued a proclamation for Sunday, Nov. 17, in which he called “upon the people of Michigan to gather on that day in their accustomed places of worship, and there by prayer and praise to render thanks to Almighty God for the triumph of our cause and the restoration of peace on earth.” Although that cause would not go unchallenged in the ensuing years, and although that peace was tenuous and short-lived, Gov. Sleeper’s call was fitting. The events of the day awoke people to the fragility of man’s institutions and to their own mortality. And the leader of the state, recognizing these things, called for the people to bow their heads in collective, humble gratitude to God in a difficult time. One hundred three years later, we find ourselves in the midst of a Thanksgiving season not unlike that of village residents in 1918. The events of the past couple of years, like those experienced by the Cass Cityans in my postcard picture, have shaken us. We, too, face a global pandemic, and there is little doubt that we are in the midst of a sea of societal upheaval that shows no signs of stopping. We would do well, then, to learn from our forebears. Like them, we ought to allow the events of our day to serve as a check on the confidence we place in our institutions and in ourselves. And, like them, we should be sure not to waste this season, but to use it, in the words of Gov. Sleeper, “by prayer and praise to render thanks to Almighty God” for His goodness to us in difficult days.
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AuthorTy Perry is a writer based in metro-Detroit. Archives
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