The thanksgiving image implanted in the minds of most Americans as children is one of Pilgrims sitting at a table decorated with a “horn of plenty” filled with vegetables and fruit, eating turkey with one or more Indians.
As one matures into adulthood, there are many things other than the Pilgrims and Indians for which to be thankful. I decided to make my own list.
I am thankful that I was born to a good family that was financially poor during the “Depression” but we didn’t know it because others were worse off and we shared what we had with them. I am thankful for having been born in the Dark Corner of Greenville County, South Carolina, with a stubborn Southern Heritage and a rich history of independence and a willingness to sacrifice if necessary to remain free.
I am thankful for a mother who taught me to respect others, to never mistreat our black neighbors, to choose my friends wisely, (sometimes she chose for me), and always do the “right” thing.
I am very thankful that my father taught me the value of money and the wonders of the free enterprise system, that rewards hard work and use of brainpower. He was a stubborn, quiet, independent man who worked one day in a textile plant, declined his pay check, and from that day forward became his own boss. He was a complex individual who chose a simple life. He quoted Chaucer and calculated numbers in his mind. He could play any stringed musical instrument and loved “shaped note” Gospel music. Despite his financial success following World War II, he chose not to accumulate wealth for fear of spoiling his three sons. He succeeded. We are all still working and the youngest is past 65.
I am thankful that God gave me a good wife who has faithfully tolerated me for 58 years including two year-long separations when I was deployed to Korea and Vietnam and she was left to care for two young sons and hope that their father would return safely.
I am thankful for our sons who were motivated to seek education after high school while pumping gas and fixing flat tires on Saturdays at “Froggy’s” gas station on Highway One in Mt. Vernon, Virginia, at the insistence of their demanding father. I had been motivated to attend Clemson and graduate, by plowing a mule, milking two cows before catching a school bus every morning, hoeing and picking cotton, cutting logs with a cross-cut saw and working on the third shift in a cotton mill spool room.
Our first-born son graduated from The Citadel and the younger from Clemson. They are both smarter than their father and have been very successful in their chosen fields of endeavor. They are in their mid fifties now and have blessed us with two generations of “grands.”
I am thankful for a successful, yet unintended, 27 years as a member of the United States Army. I have been retired for 31 years and the early retirement has allowed me to wander into new ventures about which I never dreamed of or prepared for.
I am thankful for the prayers of grandparents and others back home for their role in divine intervention that rescued me from a number of otherwise unexplained close calls during my military service.. I’ll list only two.
On one occasion, I was participating in a deep sea ditching exercise in the Pacific Ocean with a defective inflatable vest. I could not swim and was spending more time under water than above. It was a stormy day and I could see nothing but waves of water. The wind blew a raft from half a mile away directly over me. The men in the raft never saw me, however I was able to pull aboard by a rope hanging over the side.
On a Sunday afternoon in Hawaii, I had been invited to fly in the back seat of a single engine jet with a Navy Pilot I worked with and our families had Sunday dinner together. We were assigned to a nuclear weapons command and control battle staff and Tim had to get mandatory flight time to remain proficient.
When I told LaVerle I was going to fly with Tim to see the active volcano on the Big Island, she informed me that we had been promising the boys that we would take them to a park near Ft. Shafter, and she insisted that I decline the request by Tim to keep him company for a couple of hours in the air and instead take the boys to the park. I reluctantly agreed. A Marine friend took the flight in my place. The plane exploded shortly after takeoff and both of my friends were lost at sea.
I was and remain thankful to be alive. Happy Thanksgiving!