It’s Thanksgiving Week, time to reflect on the things for which we are grateful.
First of all, I am thankful beyond measure that the first Thanksgiving featured turkey and not pasta.
I’m just sayin’.
Second, I am thankful that my parents realized they were with the wrong people on that double date shortly after World War II.
This is an interesting story because they double-dated to a Johnnie Lee Wills dance in Seminole. My mother was not then a dancer and never became one, so you have to wonder why she went to a dance.
As her version went, she and dad realized they were making more sparks than an out-of-fluid Zippo, so they foisted the other couple onto each other.
Mom and Dad spent the night sitting and talking and became Mr. and Mrs. six months later.
Third, I am grateful for having plenty to eat.
There was a brief time many years ago when I didn’t and I became intensely grateful for the ability to buy food and cook it.
When the eagle finally flew enough times for me to pay bills and have a little left over, I bought a pound of hamburger meat and a loaf of bread.
Crumbled the entire pound of hamburger into a skillet, fried it and ate it straight from the skillet, sopping up the grease with bread.
Naturally, my stomach had shrunk, so I overstuffed myself and got sick, but hey. A too-full stomach beats an empty one every day of the week.
Fourth, one word: bacon.
I don’t know the name of the marketing genius who created the 16-ounce single-serving package of bacon, but I salute him or her.
It was one of the great advancements in the history of mankind.
Fifth, I am grateful I wasn’t born during the last Ice Age.
I dig cooler temperatures and tend to be comfortable when others are cold, but running around chunking spears at mastodons sounds like anything but a good time.
Even with your feet wrapped in furs.
Sixth, I am grateful for the life I have been allowed to have.
A good family, good friends, a good career.
Throughout human history, billions of people have trudged through lives of misery and anguish, and I am grateful I didn’t have to.
Life is good, and I am grateful for that.