Thanks for the...

Sorry it's taken so long for me to blog again, I am trying to get into the routine of working again. It's a wonderful thing, that's for sure!

If you recall, I spent a lot of time bitching about being out of work. Well, what have I got to bitch about now? The answer is simple, really - nothing.

So life for me right now is amazing. I can't even say how amazing it is, because tonight's topic isn't so much about me - it's about my history. It's about my mom. It's about my year. It's about posterity.

Tonight I spent some good time with my mom. We did our Sunday football thang, which is always good. But we talked, too.

One of the things we talked about was history. My mom is upset that no one remembers Thanksgiving anymore. And I know exactly what she means.

I read an article somewhere saying that Wal-Mart is targeting shoppers earlier this year for Christmas. Yep, the 3.2 bazillion dollars that they made last year at Christmas time was less than the 3.4 bazillion that everyone else (Costco, Meijer, English Gardens, etc) made COMBINED...

So what happens after Halloween?

Santa pops up everywhere.

Now, I understand that here in Michigan, our weather has been incredibly mild, and we should be taking advantage of the weather in order to put up our Christmas lights... that I do understand.

But what about Thanksgiving?

I was raised believing that Thanksgiving was about family. What is more wholesome... more American, than having the family sitting at the table sharing dinner, conversation, respect... and thanks?

I loved going to my Grandmother's (and later, my mother's) house on Thanksgiving. We always had an amazing dinner... and the pies! Lordy!

But something I never appreciated until I got older and things changed was the chance to be with family.

See, at Grandma's, we had her and her sister - auntie Aggie - my aunt Betty, my uncle Ray, my cousins and our family.

After the amazing dinner, we would play cards or watch television. I think I learned how to play poker on Thanksgiving.

And now that I am 39 years old, with no family of my own, I really miss my grandma and auntie Aggie at Thanksgiving. I miss the closeness of family, even though I have spent nearly every single Thanksgiving of my life with my mother... I miss screwing around with my cousins.

Maybe MY Thanksgivings were special... I don't know. I don't know what anyone else does for Thanksgiving.

I do know now that we need to hold on to our memories. Our memories become history if told to the right people.

This week, I was interviewed about participating in the Detroit Thanksgiving Day parade by the Royal Oak Tribune. One of the things I was asked was why I wanted to be in the parade. My answer was that as a kid, I remember going to the parade, and thinking that the people in the parade were larger than life - something like heroes - and I wanted to be that for today's kids.

So I suppose that the moral of this blog is to beseech anyone reading - take complete advantage of this Thanksgiving. Give thanks for your family. Give thanks for the good memories. Give thanks for the opportunity to make today and tomorrow a better day than today.

Don't forget Thanksgiving. Don't let it be a speed bump on the way to Christmas.