Cherish the moment and be thankful
Taking Names and Keeping Score
Charlie Anderson
By the time most of you read this week's column the process of preparing a traditional Thanksgiving meal will have already begun at your house or you will be on the way to the home of someone else in the family where the traditional meal will be shared with you.

There may be some of you who will be with friends instead of family this year or in some cases because of the absence of family and friends you may be spending this Thanksgiving holiday alone. It is even possible that current circumstances in some of your lives will dictate that you spend Thanksgiving away from family and close friends but in the midst of a number of other people whom you have gotten to know well enough through your shared circumstances to call them friends.

Regardless of your individual situation, I am sure you, like me, are looking forward to all those wonderful food dishes that usually tantalize our taste buds at this season of the year. For me a well roasted turkey surrounded by my wife's special cornbread dressing, a serving of fresh snap beans, a little sweet potato casserole and some fresh yeast rolls with a toasted crust on the out side and equally soft and moist inside will do the trick. Throw in a little cranberry sauce for tradition and a glass of good old sweet iced tea and I am as happy as a pig in the sunshine.

Of course everybody's taste buds aren't just like mine so we more often than not will prepare a couple of other meat choices at my house including a honey baked spiraled ham and a pork tenderloin. If certain members of the family are coming to eat with us we may even wind up with a couple of other dishes like creamed corn, a green bean casserole or a fruit salad all of which I will delight in trying.

Once we've gotten through the main course its time to bring on the desserts which might include pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, or even a special lemon meringue pie. For the choc-a-holics my wife most likely will have prepared some of her famous Argie's Candy whose recipe has been passed down in the family from generation to generation.

Some of us, who may have already had to loosen our belt some after the main course, might not be able to respond to an immediate call to the dessert counter. Instead we may elect to get that dessert later in the afternoon with coffee or a good cold glass of milk. Besides, by that time some of us will be engrossed in one or more of the several football games that are being televised on Thanksgiving Day and will need a little snack to make our enjoyment of the game that much better. That is of course contingent upon having already gotten that short power nap in.

By this time it is mid-afternoon and time to get up and do something to work off a few of those calories we have enjoyed taking in over the course of the day. For some that means a trek to the woods to hunt the trophy buck. For the rest of us, weather permitting, it probably means a leisurely walk enjoying the beauty of nature captured in the changing of the leaves or some other outside activity with the grandchildren.

Because of the present ages of my grandchildren, a good game of touch football in the yard doesn't really work out too well now but someday in the future that will most likely become a reality. When it does it will rekindle memories of Thanksgiving Day games in my own childhood at my grandmother's and those in the lives of my children which were played in either of two grandmothers' yards or our own yard at home. All of those times are long ago now but only seem like yesterday in my heart.

Before we know it the sun is setting and the evening shadows are creeping across the lawn. The grandchildren who haven't been dispatched inside the house for a nap are clinging to the last rays of sunlight, pleading to stay out a little longer while the adults are already dragging out the lunch leftovers to prepare for one more run at the feast that was ours for the day.

Soon the dinner meal is done and one by one or family units together will be saying their goodbyes and heading back to their own homes not realizing at that particular moment the memory of another Thanksgiving Day has been recorded in their heart and mind for another time. For those of us who now are the grandparents we savor the memories of the day because we now truly understand what our parents and their parents before them meant when they encouraged us to cherish such days because they will be gone in an instant.

It's funny how we seem to only truly appreciate something after it is gone. Regardless of where you are this Thanksgiving or what your circumstances might be I challenge you to cherish each moment and be thankful for all things.

Until next time…….be safe!

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