Deeper Insights Article – Encouraging One Another by Kara (Glott) Job
THANKSGIVING LONG AGO
Travis Elizabeth Donald
Grade 6-A
Colorado City, Texas 1928
In the days of long ago,
People traveled through the snow.
Just to offer thanks to God,
As they knelt upon the sod.
Where’er they went, they took a gun.
For in that land, the savages did run.
When a savage, they chanced to see,
They hid themselves behind a tree.
There were prayers and sermons,
And songs of praise,
In the church houses,
In those bygone days.
This task was very hard indeed,
A woman—Mrs. Sara Hale,
Wrote time and time again,
Pleading with the President, to set aside this day.
Oh, Father, we are so thankful
For those people who were so thoughtful,
To set aside a day of thanks
Ore all this U.S. land.
Travis Elizabeth Donald led an unusual life. When she was ten, her father abandoned the family. Only a few years before, her mother had delivered a breech baby that left her paralyzed from the waist down. At the young age of ten, Travis became the “one in charge” of household chores as well as caretaker for three younger siblings. Her obligations to family became so demanding that she missed most of 6th grade and had to repeat it. It was for a school function that she composed and read this poem.