ON THE TUNNEYSIDE of SPORTS
November 19, 2012 #411 Coming up next...A time for THANKS!
After further
review...Thursday of this week is Thanksgiving Day, which falls on the fourth
Thursday in November. President Abraham Lincoln designated the final Thursday
in November as a national holiday to further a sense of American unity between
the Northern and Southern states following the Civil War (substituting
political party names for those geographical entities may be applicable today).
In December, 1941 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt adjusted that date to the
fourth Thursday, reasoning it would give the country an economic boost (which
may apply to today's fiscal cliff as well).
The world of professional
sports figures that in whatever home you happen to be giving thanks, you'll be
watching an athletic contest on TV. Are ya ready for some footbaaall? This year
there will be three NFL games broadcast-one following the other across the USA
and the globe. While I was honored to have been the referee in six NFL Turkey
day games, I missed dinner with the family on that special day---
a bummer.
Thanksgiving Day as a kid was
always a sports day for me - no school and the next day was free too, yeah! We
played in the street with a ball so scuffed-up it had leathery tags hanging
from it, and we'd go till the street lights came on, but never past the start
of dinner. Mom served a wonderful meal following a solemn grace and we were
never to lift our forks until "Amen" was said by all. If the phone
rang during that special dinner, it went unanswered. Obviously, there was no
television, no texting, no tweeting, and no Facebook to disrupt that special
time. Dad consistently reminded us to "Count your
blessings". I
did and still do.
Living in those times,
indeed, was a blessing; thanks, Dad. That heritage gave me and our family a
running head start to live in today's fast-moving society. With good health,
daily physical exercise, a wonderful and care-giving spouse along with our six
children, sixteen grandchildren and a great- grandson, how can I be anything
but grateful? Retirement? That's not a word in my dictionary; I've adopted the
word "refirement" with so much yet to be done. The thought is- Give
without remembering; receive without forgetting! My thanks to all for reading
these Tunneysides!
Will you express your
gratitude by counting your blessings every day?
To contact Jim go to www.jimtunney.com or email
him at jim@jimtunney.com
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