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DEL.ICIO.USGrateful day brings home what matters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top of the day to ye. Thanksgiving Day is a holiday for everybody, a family day, when all get together around the bountiful table, eat, drink and be grateful. Have you noticed that airlines are busier around Thanksgiving than any other holiday? Thank heaven to be home already and not have to suffer through the clutter that airline travel has become. Sorry, shouldn’t have brought it up. That is the day to be especially thankful, sometimes with a bit of whimsy. So …
I’m thankful that the Dow Jones averages mean more to me than batting averages.
I’m thankful when the dentist tells me this isn’t going to hurt a bit — and it doesn’t.
I’m thankful that I used to be able to go out into the woods and cut our own Christmas tree.
I’m thankful that I grew up when radio stations entertained and didn’t talk your ears off.
I’m still thankful the side I was on won World War II — now if they could just get this mess cleared up.
I’m thankful we have our own well, and it doesn’t know there’s a drought.
I’m thankful when a football player scores a touchdown and acts as if he’s been there before.
I’m thankful when the doorbell rings and it’s our grandkids.
I’m thankful for backroads — “blue highways,” somebody called them — any escape from the interstate race tracks.
I’m not thankful for those things they call “wraps.” (Like eating cardboard, though I’m not an authority on that.)
I’m thankful I grew up having to milk the family cow — now I have a deep appreciation for where milk comes from.
I’m thankful when, on my monthly statement, credit leads debit by a one-sided score.
I’m thankful when the noise in the middle of the night turns out to be the ice-maker. (And if you’ve heard that before, it still goes.)
I’m thankful that when I was young, poetry was poetry, when it rhymed, not some rambling drivel going nowhere.
I’m thankful we still have a dial phone, and it’s always in working order, through sleet and storm or whatever.
I’m thankful I knew the days of Kaltenborn, Heatter, Thomas, Edwards, Blair and their kind, when news was news and not a “show.”
I’m thankful, that as I grow older, I’ve come to realize that cleaning off our roof is a job for somebody else, not me.
I’m thankful that we have our squirrel menace under control. (Applause, applause, for my wife, not my 16-gauge.)
I’m thankful for buttermilk, but don’t try to order it in a New York restaurant.
I’m thankful for my old Royal typewriter, which still gets plenty of use.
I’m thankful I finally quit waiting until tomorrow to stop procrastinating.
I’m thankful for my first good-morning kiss.
I’m thankful, in parting, to be able to offer a solution to Georgia Tech and the Falcons in their football dilemma: Swap coaches, Gailey for Petrino.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Thanksgiving
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By Anitha Along
November 22, 2007 6:50 AM | Link to this
I am thankful to Almighty God for my life, my Parents and my Husband Along Murang and my handsome sons…and my friends .
By rc
November 22, 2007 7:20 AM | Link to this
thankful that furman is still at it….really enjoyed his writings over the years and his football show
By Keith Strawn
November 22, 2007 7:48 AM | Link to this
I’m thankful that almost a dozen years after moving from Atlanta, I can still can read this column early on Thanksgiving morning, just as I would have done 20 years ago, before jumping into the car with my mother and father to drive to Douglasville to have Thanksgiving dinner with my grandparents. And I’m thankful Furman Bisher is still at it, after all these years.
By Sylvia Cannon
November 22, 2007 8:01 AM | Link to this
I am thankful for life itself.That God cares for me, and I love Him for who He is.I am thankful for you Bisher.
By Atlanta Native Florida Resident
November 22, 2007 8:16 AM | Link to this
I’m thankful my Father, and Atlanta Native himself, is in Heaven. I’m thankful long before I was old enough to appreciate or be thankful for it, before Al Gore invented the Internet, when there was no AJC, much-less an AJC.com, back when you read either The Constitution in the morning or The Journal, and Furman, in the afternoon, that my Dad had me read Furman Bisher’s Thanksgiving Day Column. I suppose I’ve read 30 or so now. Please keep it up as long as the Lord will allow Mr. Bisher! Many more than you could count are thankful for 1 more year of giving thanks with you.
By Atlanta Native Florida Resident
November 22, 2007 8:17 AM | Link to this
I’m thankful my Father, and Atlanta Native himself, is in Heaven. I’m thankful long before I was old enough to appreciate or be thankful for it, before Al Gore invented the Internet, when there was no AJC, much-less an AJC.com, back when you read either The Constitution in the morning or The Journal, and Furman, in the afternoon, that my Dad had me read Furman Bisher’s Thanksgiving Day Column. I suppose I’ve read 30 or so now. Please keep it up as long as the Lord will allow Mr. Bisher! Many more than you could count are thankful for 1 more year of giving thanks with you.
By bullwinkle
November 22, 2007 8:57 AM | Link to this
Thanks, Furman, for doing this every year. You bring us back down to earth. This column should be required reading. It is now officially Thanksgiving.
By BUSHWACKER
November 22, 2007 10:01 AM | Link to this
Again Mr Bisher, it has been a pleasure to read your comments for these years, I am 48 and been in Atlanta all my life.
I agree with you on the coaching changes.
Chan Gailey for the Falcons with George O’LEARY running the defense.
They need someone who isn’t afraid to get in their face!
Keep it up, they don’t make em like you and Lewis anynmore!
By Charleston SC-former Atlanta native
November 22, 2007 10:14 AM | Link to this
Thank you Furman for all that you have done for us. I remember: - When you hosted the Sunday college football broadcast on channel 2, when you reviewed Saturday’s games. You had the “old ball coach” as you called him, Harry Mehre on your panel. - When you wrote about the UGA and Ga Tech freshman game and how the players visited the Scottish Rite Hospital. - When you wrote about the Milk Bowl. The high school football championship game prior to Atlanta developing surburs. - When I lived in Atlanta how my family would always read your Thanksgiving colume and discuss it on Thanksgiving day. I am thankful to God and the spirit of God that I see in people like Furman Bishop. Happy Thanksgiving Furman from a long time fan and former Atlanta native.
By Tom
November 22, 2007 11:17 AM | Link to this
Thanks for all the memoriesyou have provided over the years in your Thanksgiving article. I still remember the good old days when the GEORGIA and GA TECH freshman played on Thanksgiving Day for charity. It’s too bad that college football has strictly become big business.
By Toby Cash
November 22, 2007 11:38 AM | Link to this
Furman, I am thankful for being able to read your Thanksgiving thoughts and being able to identify with them.
By Chopdawg
November 22, 2007 12:24 PM | Link to this
A great big CHOP and a WOOFWOOFWOOF for Furman—and to “Charleston” above for reminding me about that Sunday football show, back in the ‘60’s. Someone remind us who else was on that panel of experts!—as I recall the panel included Furman, Jesse Outlar, Jim Minter, and Harry Mehre. I think about that TV show every time I watch Tony Barnhart, Mark Schlabach, Bob Neal & Tee Martin on CSS Sunday nights now. Happy T-day everybody; keep it up, Furman, & come see us again at State Mutual Stadium.
CHOPDAWG
By Einstein
November 22, 2007 12:39 PM | Link to this
I’m thankful that the Falcons are going to beat the Colts. 24-21. Manning just doesn’t have it this year, and our defense is superb.
By yellowblood
November 22, 2007 1:03 PM | Link to this
Thank you Mr Bisher for continuing to be the standard by which all sportswriters must be compared. I remember reading your article in my childhood, I remember the Scottish Rite Thanksgiving UGA-TECH freshman game, Rich’s, Davison’s, and Muse’s downtown, Bobby Dodd, the Crackers, Ponce De Leon Park, the Yellow Jacket Drive-In, the Cyclorama,Ivan Allen and all the people and places that made Atlanta the great city it was in the 50’s-60’s before being discovered by the world. I miss it but treasure the memories.
By WashDC
November 22, 2007 1:08 PM | Link to this
And I’m (again) thankful for Furman’s Thanksgiving Day thoughts. I’ve been reading them from afar for more than 20 years (about as long as I enjoyed them in Atlanta) but it’s still a highlight of every 4th Thursday in November. Thanks Furman!