1958 Rose Bowl Program

Oregon Ducks vs Ohio State. I wasn't there but I bought a copy off of eBay a few years ago. Go Ducks!

1995 Rose Bowl Program

Oregon Ducks vs Penn State

Fred Meyer Holiday Twist Video Ad on You Tube

(click on the title for a link to the youTube Video)


(Picture not from ad but reminiscent of it.....click on title for link)


For this old "baby boomer" this is the best TV ad of the Christmas Season. I love it. As someone who remembers the early days of Rock n' Roll it does a very good job of recreating the sound, performances and dress of that era. Let's Twist!

On a related note I received an invitation from Time/Life, which sold me the CD set "Malt Shop Memories", to go on the "Malt Shop Memories Cruise" with some of the real life performers like Bobby Rydell, Lesley Gore and Frankie Avalon. Their website describes the cruise as follows:

We’re dusting off those old 45s, turning up the jukebox and transporting you back to the birth of Rock n’ Roll. Twist and shout from morning until night to your favorite music from the '50s & '60s. Relive this wonderful era with a nostalgic, ocean cruise on the Carnival Inspiration from May 13 -17, 2010. This fun-filled trip will also include a stop in beautiful, sun soaked Cozumel.

And the best news? The music will be live, live, live! All your favorites like Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Lou Christie, Lesley Gore, Herb Reed & The Platters and The Original Drifters will perform for you in an intimate and personal setting. Disc jockey extraordinaire, Jerry Blavat, the Geator with the Heater, will be your host. He’ll be playing the platters that matter and having you dance all night long. Plus, you’ll get to mix and mingle with stars as they take this trip down memory lane with you.

Relive the best years of your life! Remember driving your 57 Chevy to the drive-in and meeting all your friends at the malt shop for a burger and a shake? Well, break out the Brylcreem and VO-5 that beehive. Fluff up your poodle skirt and dust off that old leather jacket. Get ready for a vacation unlike any other!

I told my wife I would like to go on the cruise but it would be depressing with so many "old people" and she said: "yes, like you"!

ROSE BOWL TICKETS

Without going into too many details we learned yesterday that it looks like we got the tickets we ordered through the University of Oregon Athletic Department for the Rose Bowl game between the Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes for January 1st,2010 in Pasadena California. Go Ducks

UPDATE: Just got a confirming email from the Oregon Athletic Department Ticket Office. We are in, YES!!!!!!!! GO DUCKS!

Wickre Duck Bowl History

I was middle aged before I went to my first Oregon Duck Bowl. I was too young to go the 1958 Rose Bowl or the 1963 Sun Bowl. To be more precise, my parents were not football fans and thus as a kid we did not go to either of those bowls. I did watch them on TV. All through my college years and young adult years I "swore" that I would go to any bowl to which the Ducks were invited. In those years based upon Pac-8 or Pac 10 rules Oregon was mostly limited to going to the Rose Bowl and Oregon had terrible teams in those years and thus received no invitations. That all changed in 1989.


1989 Independence Bowl Oregon 27 Tulsa 24 Won
That all chanced in 1989 when Oregon Athletic Director, Bill Byrne, agreed to buy 14,000 tickets to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport Louisiana in return for a bowl invitation. My 6 year old son and I flew to Dallas Texas and I drove a rental car from there to the game. With a windchill temperate of below zero we watched the Ducks, led by QB Bill Musgrave, come from behind to win the game. During the game I kept worrying that my wife would "kill me" if our son got frost bite. He didn't and that game became a bonding experience we will never forget.

1990 Freedom Bowl Colorado State 32 Oregon 31 Lost
The next year the entire family drove down to the Freedom Bowl in Anaheim, California. We went to Disneyland and had a great time at the Disneyland Hotel. The Washington Huskies were in the Rose Bowl that year and the fans we ran into treated the Freedom Bowl as a Junior Varsity (JV) game. This is one of the reasons I learned to hate the Huskies.The loss was very disappointing but at both the Independence Bowl and the Freedom Bowl you could see the thirst of Oregon fans to go "bowling" after such a drought.

1992 Independence Bowl Wake Forest 39 Oregon 35 Lost
Fortunately we had a tailgate party at home and watched this turkey on TV. Oregon led big time at half time and managed to lose the game in the second half.

1995 Rose Bowl(1994 Season)Penn State 38 Oregon 20 Lost
Again the entire family drove down I-5 to this game and stayed at a hotel near LAX as part of an UofO Alumni "ground package" trip. It was over priced but we did get a bus ride to the game. We had a great time driving down I-5 to the game and passing other Duck fans in their "Ducked out" cars and vans. We met Ducks at every stop on the way down and back. We loved the Pep Rally at Century City, the day before the game, and it was fun just being at the Rose Bowl. It was a disappointing loss but it was the first time Oregon had been to a "big time" bowl and the entire state of Oregon was excited about the event. When we got home a friend gave my wife a tee shirt that said "I survived the Rose Bowl." Unlike our kids my wife is not a big football fan and dislikes crowds.

1996 Cotton Bowl Colorado 38 Oregon 6 Lost
We stayed home and watched this game on TV. This is where we learned to hate then Colorado coach Rick Neuheisel when Colorado went for a fake punt late in the game when Colorado lead Oregon by a big margin.

1997 Las Vegas Bowl Oregon 41 Air Force 13 Won
The entire family drove to Las Vegas for this game. On the way through the Mojave Desert a radio station was giving away Berry Manilow tickets to a concert at the MGM Grand as part of a promotion. The radio station broadcaster said that if you were near a specific exit to stop and show the DJ in the radio station van some Christmas item and they would give you two tickets to the concert. We were near the exit in the middle of "nowhere" and saw the van on top of the overpass and stopped and showed the DJ our cassette tape of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and got the two Barry Manilow tickets. We loved the game and my wife and daughter went to the concert. We stayed at the team hotel, the MGM Grand, and enjoyed touring the Vegas Strip.

1998 Aloha Bowl Colorado 51 Oregon 43 Lost
We had a Hawaiian Luau in our family room and watched the game on TV

1999 Sun Bowl Oregon 24 Minnesota 20 Won
We welcomed in the Millennium by watching this game on TV on the morning of New Years Eve day.

2000 Holiday Bowl Oregon 35 Texas 30 Won
What a fine game this was. Watched it on TV. Wish I had gone !

2002 Fiesta Bowl(2001 Season) Oregon 38 Colorado 16 Won
Our son and I and some friends drove all the way to Tempe, Arizona in our van to watch this game. Had a great time and enjoyed New Years Eve on Mill Street in Tempe near the stadium. It was good to finally win a big time BCS bowl and to beat Colorado.One of my favorite Oregon games of all time.

2002 Seattle Bowl Wake Forest 38 Oregon 17 Lost
Our son and I and the same friends drove to Seattle for this game and it was one of the few time I was ashamed to be a Duck. It was obvious the team did not want to be at this "lower tier" bowl and put in little effort and it showed. To top it off it rained very hard as we drove back to Portland after the game to my sisters home.The rain felt like the tears of Oregon fans. We stopped at a fast food restaurant on I-5 after the game 45 or so miles from Seattle. It was full of Oregon fans and it was so quiet!It was like we were at a funeral.

2003 Sun Bowl Minnesota 31 Oregon 30 Lost
Watched on TV New Year Eve Day.

2005 Holiday Bowl Oklahoma 17 Oregon 14 Lost
The entire family had plans to spend Christmas at Disneyland and so we extended our stay in Southern California to go to this game. Stayed at the team hotel in San Diego and had a great time. It was on the waterfront and we went to the Duck pep rally, the parade and a tour of the navy aircraft carrier Midway which is now a museum. The Ducks almost pulled out a win at the end but no luck. It was fun for the entire family to again go on a bowl trip together since our kids were now adults and living away from home.It was strange when my kids bought me a beer in the
Gas Light district of San Diego.

2006 Las Vegas Bowl Brigham Young 38 Oregon 8 Lost
Watched this on TV and was very disappointed in the Ducks. Looked like they didn't care. I cared and it hurt.

2007 Sun Bowl Oregon 56 South Florida 21 WonWatched on TV. This win helped heal the pain of the loss of Dennis Dixon to an injury in the Arizona game and the loss of the "Civil War" to the Beavers on our own field.

2008 Holiday Bowl Oregon 42 Oklahoma State 31 Won
Watched on TV. Little did we know this would be Coach Mike Bellott's last game.

2010 Rose Bowl (2009 season) Oregon ______ Ohio State _____
Stay tuned.........

Book Cover of the Day !

They say you can't judge a book by it's cover and I don't know anything about the book but if I were to judge it by it's cover I would say it made me laugh!

Be very afraid !

President Barack Obama told House Republican leaders to "stop trying to frighten the American people"

Sorry Obama; but, the American people have finally figured you out!

President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to 47 percent in the latest Gallup poll, the lowest ever recorded for any president at this point in his term

Have You No Shame !

Democrat Senate Majority leader Harry Reid on the Senate floor this morning:

"Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all Republicans can come up with is this: slow down, stop everything, let's start over," Reid said.

"If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said slow down, it's too early, let's wait, things aren't bad enough."

As I remember it Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

December 7th..........1941 !

From a article by Victor Davis Hanson of the Hoover Institution I posted a year ago:

On Dec. 7, 1941 - 65 years ago this week -(now 67) pilots from a Japanese carrier force bombed Pearl Harbor. They killed 2,403 Americans, most of them service personnel, while destroying much of the American fleet and air forces stationed in Hawaii.

The next morning, an outraged United States declared war, which ended less than four years later with the destruction of most of the Japanese empire and its military.

Sixty years after Pearl Harbor came another surprise attack on U.S. soil, one that was, in some ways, even worse than the "Day of Infamy."

Nearly 3,000 people died in the Sept. 11 attacks - the vast majority of them civilians. Al-Qaida's target was not an American military base far distant from the mainland. Rather, they suicide-bombed the United States' financial and military centers.......To defeat both Japan and Germany, we averaged over 8,000 Americans lost every month of the war - compared to around 50 per month since Sept. 11..And after Pearl Harbor, Americans believed they had no margin of error in an elemental war for survival. Today, we are apparently convinced that we can lose ground, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, and still not lose either the war or our civilization.

Of course, by 1945, Americans no longer feared another Pearl Harbor. Yet, we, in a far stronger and larger United States, are still not sure we won't see another Sept. 11.

In many ways the Japanese in their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor did the world a favor by their treacherous attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States then,as today,was a divided nation with a majority isolationist. The treacherous attack united the United States in a war against Germany and Japan. Fortunately for the United States our aircraft carries were at sea and escaped the attack and were available for the major naval battle of the war at Midway.

Day after the "Civil War" Game !

The Ducks are going to the Rose Bowl!

Ducks Win "CIVIL WAR" !!!! ....Go To ROSE BOWL

(Oregon Ducks 37, Oregon State Beavers 33, Ducks smell roses as in Rose Bowl)



(Oregon Duck Fans celebrate as shown on Autzen Stadium's big Screen TV)




(Two Happy Ducks from Medford!)

The Oregon Ducks have received a formal invitation from the Rose Bowl to pay Ohio State University on January 1st, 2010 in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena California. Go Ducks beat the Buckeyes.

"CIVIL WAR" Gameday

Ducks it's finally here! Time to strap it on and beat the Beavers! The University of Oregon expects that every player and fan will do his duty! Players need to play out their hearts and fans need to be very loud on every Beaver offensive play from the time they go into there huddle until the play is over. Autzen is our home and we need to be polite to their fans who are guests but there will be no hospitality on the field.....sportsmanship yes,.... but "no quarter" within the rules. WIN THE DAY... BEAT THE BEAVERS..... GO DUCKS!

Oregon
"Mighty Oregon"

Oregon, our Alma Mater
We will guard thee on and on
Let us gather round and cheer her
Chant her glory Oregon
Roar the praises of her warriors
Sing the story Oregon
On to victory urge the heroes
Of our mighty Oregon!
Go Ducks Go!
Fight Ducks Fight!
Go!
Fight!
Win Ducks Win!

Osu may fight to the end but we will win

UPDATE: The front page of both the Oregonian and Medford, Mail Tribune had stories about the "Civil War" Even the Wall Street Journal" has a story about the game and the rivalry. On the way into work as I was pulling out of our circle a car all "Ducked out" with flags flying passed me. Near the I-5 underpass I passed a Beaver car with flags flying. I pulled into my office parking lot and there were two cars all "Ducked out." with flags and pom poms.Even Safeway had a full page ad just inside the front page of the Mail Tribune with a "Civil War" theme. From Medford to Portland, from Coos Bay to Ontario Oregonians are ready for this game. Go Ducks.... win the day! Make us proud !

White House aides insisted F-22 be removed from Obama speech venue

From the Weekly Standard Blog:

When President Obama spoke to troops at Alaska's Elmendorf Air Force Base last month, the unit there parked a shiny new F-22 fighter plane in the hangar. But according to multiple sources, White House aides demanded the plane be changed to an older F-15 fighter because they didn't want Obama speaking in front of the F-22, a controversial program he fought hard to end.

"White House aides actually made them remove the F-22-said they would not allow POTUS to be pictured with the F-22 in any way, shape, or form," one source close to the unit relayed.

Stephen Lee, a public affairs officer at Elmendorf, confirmed to The Cable that the F-22 was parked in the hangar and then was replaced by an F-15 at the White House's behest.

Click on the title for a picture of Obama with the F 15 in Alaska and the original article.

The airmen there took offense to the Obama aides' demand, sources told The Cable, seeing it as a slight to the folks who are operating the F-22 proudly every day. They also expressed bewilderment that the White House staff would even care so much as to make an issue out of the fact that the F-22 was placed in the hangar with the president.

Click on the title for a picture of Obama with the F 15 in Alaska and the original article. F 22 pictured above.

Waiting for the "Civil War" game

I leave tomorrow about noon for the "Civil War" game in Eugene.The Oregon Club of Southern Oregon has chartered a bus to take us to the 6:00 PM Thursday night game and we will return to Medford right after the game. This is the biggest "Civil War" game in Oregon Duck football history and I will be there. Never before have both teams been guaranteed a trip to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California if they win the game. In 1964 the Pac-8 had to vote because other teams were in contention. This game has been weighing heavily on my mind for at least three weeks. I believe the Oregon Ducks have across the board superior talent. On the other hand, the Oregon State Beavers have often beaten Oregon Duck teams due to more desire. That could be the case tomorrow. Oregon State teams often come out like rabid dogs and play their hearts out.I respect them for that!I have been told that this Oregon Duck team has more of a "blue collar" ethic, than past teams, and they will need it tomorrow. Last year we spoiled Oregon States bid to the Rose Bowl by beating them on their own field and they will be out for revenge.I don't want to see any roses at the game. We have only one mission and that is to beat the Beavers. The Vegas gamblers have Oregon favored but I don't believe it.

Thomas Hobbes once wrote that "the life of man,(is) solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short." Hobbes never won a "Civil War" game.... but he was dead on if you lose.

As former Oregon State football coach Dee Andros, once said about the "Civil War" "it's for the right to live in the State of Oregon."

Time goes so slowly waiting for the game.

Go Ducks! Win the Day!

Medford Mail Tribune sports story on joint "Civil War" Lunch

Click on the title for a link to a story in the sports section of Medford's Mail Tribune newspaper on yesterdays Joint "Civil War Lunch."

Photos from Medford's joint "Civil War" lunch

Click on the title for a link to photos taken by the Mail Tribune Newspaper at yesterdays joint "Civil War" lunch. Over 300 Ducks and Beavers attended in the only joint gathering of fans in the State of Oregon. Congratulations to the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon and their Beaver counterparts for making this happen.

Obama's Speech on Afghanistan at West Point

Too little... too late...too equivocal !

Victor Davis Hanson fron National Review online:

Stanley Baldwin, not Winston Churchill. Not a word about the horrific nature of al-Qaeda and their nightmarish Taliban sponsors, and why both of them are going to fail in the manner that the terrorists and their supporters lost in Iraq. Somewhere in this cerebral but flat speech there is the good news that we won't quit Afghanistan — at least for 18 months — but otherwise it was the sort of talk a college provost gives to the faculty at the September back-to-school assembly.

I am happy that for another 18 months, Obama will fight the Taliban. But I think that, in times of war, when troops are headed into battle, Americans would rather hear "smoke 'em out" and "dead or alive" than a Noble Peace Prize preamble.

Obama mentioned himself 44 times and "Victory" not once!.

Medford's Joint "Civil War" Lunch Today!

For the first time in about 10 years there will be a JOINT "Civil War" lunch between the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon and the Oregon State fans in Southern Oregon. The clubs had joint lunchs for many years but about 10 years ago there was a fight between a Duck fan and a Beaver fan over in Klamath Falls at a joint function leading up to the "Civil War" football game between the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. As a result both universities withdrew support for the joint meeting. Both groups of fans continued to have "Civil War" functions, just not joint! Well, last year the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon on it's own approached the Beavers and their AD said no. This year the clubs got together with the passive support of the two schools and will have a joint lunch of friendly rivalry. Last I heard there were 295 fans scheduled for Medford's Red Lion Hotel at 11:45 today.

Go Ducks beat the Beavers!


Oregon
"Mighty Oregon"

Oregon, our Alma Mater
We will guard thee on and on
Let us gather round and cheer her
Chant her glory Oregon
Roar the praises of her warriors
Sing the story Oregon
On to victory urge the heroes
Of our mighty Oregon!
Go Ducks Go!
Fight Ducks Fight!
Go!
Fight!
Win Ducks Win!

“OSU may fight to the end, but we… will… win!”

7 stories Barack Obama doesn't want told

Click on the title for a link to a news story on Politico.com on seven storie lines Barack Obama does not want told.

A year into his presidency, however, Obama’s gift for controlling his image shows signs of faltering. As Washington returns to work from the Thanksgiving holiday, there are several anti-Obama storylines gaining momentum.

The Seven are:

1. He thinks he’s playing with Monopoly money

2. Too much Leonard Nimoy

"Obama, a legislator and law professor, is fluent in describing the nuances of problems. But his intellectuality has contributed to a growing critique that decisions are detached from rock-bottom principles."

3. That’s the Chicago Way

On domestic politics

4. He’s a pushover

On foreign policy

5. He sees America as another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe

He does not believe in "American Exceptionalism"

6. President Pelosi

No explanation needed!

7. He’s in love with the man in the mirror

No explanation needed!

(Again, click on the title for a link to the entire analysis)

"Taking Chance" 2009 *****

Last night I watched the movie "Taking Chance" a movie I rented from Netflix. Taking Chance is a 2009 HBO movie that is a historical drama based upon the experiences of Lt. Col. Michael Strobl (Kevin Bacon) escorting the body of a Marine, PFC Chance Phelps (posthumously promoted to LCpl), back to his hometown in Montana from the Iraq War.

The film was selected for showing at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and premiered on HBO on February 21, 2009 and is a very good movie. I recommend you have some tissue available when you watch it because it is very emotional.

The movie is based upon a detailed report written by Lt.Col. Michael Strobl (Kevin Bacon)about his trip from Dover Delaware across America to a small town in Montana for burial. In his report he details the reactions he received from ordinary Americans. It makes you proud to be an American . Click on the title above for a link to his report

The movie has home videos of the real Chance Phelps in the "Special Features" portion of the DVD as well as interviews with his real parents and sister.

"CIVIL WAR" WEEK; BEAT THE BEAVERS !!!!!

Hear, hear, Denis Dixon

Former Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon started tonight for the Pittsburgh Steeler's against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football on TV. Watching Dixon run for a touchdown tonight brought back all the great memories of when he played for the Ducks. In particular the game against Michigan in Ann Arbour.

Long Holiday Weekend

THANKSGIVING DAY;

My wife spent hours planning, buying, and preparing Thanksgiving dinner. We were joined for dinner by my mother in law and brother in law. It was very good and we have been eating the leftover all weekend. After dinner, I spent hours washing dishes and putting the food away and generally cleaning up. That evening we went to Medford's Tinseltown to see the movie "Pirate Radio"**** which was a lot of fun. If your are a baby boomer like me and believe the best Rock n' Roll came out in the mid 1960's this is the movie for you. It also has a moral that British socialism is bad regardless of whether it is government run medical care or government run radio stations. In the mid 1960's the only radio stations in the UK were run by the BBC and they played very little Rock n' Roll and so an entrepreneur had a tramp steamer made into an offshore radio stations and broadcast Rock n' Roll 24 hours a day until the government crushed them. If Obama care becomes reality will we have off shore hospitals on ships where we can get the medical care we want? The movie has a great soundtrack of music. I highly recommend it.

UPDATE: From a post on the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB)

The Government minister in charge of closing down the pirate radio stations is depicted as a right-wing reactionary, with a grand home with servants. In fact the responsible minister was Tony Benn, then the Labour government Postmaster General at the time, who is known as one of the most left-wing and socialist senior politicians ever.

Hollywood almost always likes to make Conservatives the bad guy even when the true facts get in the way. Look up Tony Benn on Google and you will find out the above quote is true!

"BLACK FRIDAY":

Friday morning I got up about 4 am to hit the "Black Friday" sale at Target! Big mistake! I got to Target at about 5 pm expecting a crowd of hundreds. Well, it was more like thousands. Medford's three TV stations all had their remote vans there. It took me about 15 to 20 minutes to get into the store and then the "fun" began. My main reason for going was to get the "single disk" Blu Ray DVD version of "Gone With the Wind" for only $12.98. "Gone With the Wind" has just come out in Blu ray on DVD but they are selling it for at least $45.98 on Amazon with lots of special features and booklets with 4 discs. Well, I have all the features on regular DVD and only want the movie in Blu ray. Target had an "exclusive" of the one disk version. Well I got in and fought the crowd, found the movie and then the hard part began. I had to find a line to the check stand. Well, I found the end of the line in the electronics department ( going away from the check stand area!) and the line snaked it's way through out the store. I was in line for 2 hours! I also got a special edition to Alexander" in blue ray for $8.98. and a couple of Christmas presents for a relative. I then went home an helped my wife get out our Christmas decorations in the garage and put up our tree. I put on the lights on the tree and then took a nap while my wife finished decorating the tree and fireplace area. We always put the Bing Crosby's movie "White Christmas" on while we decorate the tree. After my map I helped my wife put away the Christmas boxes and then watched some college football on TV.

SATURDAY:

It was my wife's turn to hit the early sales so I slept in and watched ESPN's Game Day. When she got home we started to put up our outside Christmas decorations. It was cold but sunny. All in all we put up 20 plus strings of lights, A light up Santa face, light up rain deer, light up full Santa, light up Frosty the Snowman, and two large light up candles along with associated wreaths and other decorations. One string of lights would not work and I spent about an hour trying to get them to work. I finally gave up and made a trip to "Fred's" and replaced them in the dark. I finally finished about 7:30 pm and finished the day by watching some college football. The lights look good. If our kids were not coming home for Christmas I probably would not have put them all up but there is a little (a lot) of the dad in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" in me.

SUNDAY:

After a late start I went shopping for some items for the joint "Civil War" lunch we are having here in Medford between the Oregon Club of Southern Oregon and the Beaver Club on Tuesday. Now that the weekend is coming to an end I can concentrate on the "Civil War" game on Thursday night on ESPN TV. I will be going to Eugene for the game. Let's go Ducks... win the day... Beat the Beavers!

Happy Thanksgiving

THANKSGIVING during the real Civil War

Things are unsettled for me this Thanksgiving waiting for the " War for the Roses" the Oregon vs Oregon State "Civil War" game the Thursday after Thanksgiving. However, to put it all in perspective I re post the following from last year from Newt Gingrich the History Professor:

The Civil War was raging. Three months earlier, the Battle of Gettysburg had left 50,000 Americans killed, wounded or missing. Riots were tearing apart American cities.

In the midst of this chaos, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed in October 1863 that the last Thursday of November should henceforth be set aside as a day of thanksgiving.

Lincoln acknowledged that the nation was "in the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity." But he focused instead on the nation's blessings, urging his fellow Americans to remember that "No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy."

And Lincoln, too, proclaimed that all Americans set aside the day for a public expression of gratitude to God. He wrote, "It has seemed to me fit and proper that they [gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people."

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

UPDATE: The full proclamation by Abraham Lincoln:

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln