Today,family and old fishing buddies
"Thanks for the memories"
Thanksgiving day has always been my favorite holiday. I love tradition and every Thanksgiving morning it was our tradition to go duck hunting. If we harvested ducks or geese, we would rush home and prepare them as a complimentary side to the deep fried turkey. The only thing better than my mother-in-laws dressing was her fried rabbit and blue-ribbon biscuits, which were often my dessert. With the exception being the time that the preacher was invited. After he ate 12 or 13 biscuits, fatback rine was all I had left to eat. I have so many fond memories of those days.....having our family gathered in the kitchen anxiously awaiting daddy asking the blessing and the smell of sweet potato custard and freshly carved birds. Those were happy times, times that remain dear and sacred to me. I miss our matriarch everyday but especially on these occasions. Now that daddy has passed, there will be another empty space around our table. I'm especially thankful for the memories that our family shares of him and each day we that we had him with us. Even as our souls are filled with sadness due to their absence, I can't help but give thanks for the love we shared and the joy they brought to our lives. Thank you daddy, I miss you.
I also am thankful for my wife. For over thirty years of marriage, my wife has given me so much joy and pride in being her husband. She has demonstrated her love by her faithfulness, loyalty, and forgiveness. Her sweet spirit is a mirror image of her mother's and that is the highest compliment that I could give her. She believed in me when there weren't many reasons too. She has trusted me for her provision and protection. She has given me the motivation through her unwavering trust to attempt, strive, and become a better man. Thank you for blessing my life and fulfilling my dreams.
I also am thankful for my family. My son has also been a source of great joy, although we have had some rough patches to endure, love has endured and thru my relationship with my son have learned some of life's greatest spiritual lessons. Thank you, son, for blessing us with our precious grandchildren. They have also been a tremendous blessing. They have brought us great joy and a love that is indescribable. My siblings (in-laws included) have always been in my corner, thru good and bad times. Their love and support have been a tremendous blessing in my life. Our bond is eternal, not only by blood, but also by spirit. I also am thankful for my father-in-law. He has taught me numerous things, too many to mention. Working like a plow mule aside, we have played hard as well. We have shared many fishing trips together over the years and I attribute a lot of my success to his teaching. I am thankful for all of my nieces and nephews. Each one of them are special to me in their own way. They also have brought great joy to my life. I delight in their successes and enjoy each moment that I spend with them and my great-nieces & great-nephews. I am thankful for every family dinner and each family vacation that has afforded us the opportunity to spend time with one another. I am thankful for my favorite Aunt, the Tate matriarch, my beloved Aunt Frank. She also has been a life-long inspiration, daring me to be and achieve anything I imagined. She, along with my favorite uncle, encouraged my pursuits in the outdoors and in part, responsible for my love of hunting and fishing. To my late uncle, thanks for teaching me how to cast a fly rod, sharpen a knife, and being one of my heroes. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my cousins and close friends. Without mentioning names, you each have helped me and blessed my life. I am thankful for the fishing trips when we caught our limits and for sharing laughs at each other's mishaps. I am thankful for coolers full of crappie, stripers, bass, bluegill, shell crackers, perch, and catfish. I am grateful to have fished with you in the Florida keys and caught dolphin, grouper, and lobsters. As a young boy, I could have only dreamed that one day I would have had that opportunity. I am glad we shared a boat at Mullins Ford and giggled like kids when the hybrids and stripers took our baits. I am grateful to have duck hunted the places of legend, like Sparkleberry swamp at Santee, the Bayou Meto in Arkansas, Mathews brake in Mississippi, Bear Island, the Delta, the old Santee gun club and every beaver pond in between. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to hunt pheasants in South Dakota and Ohio with young dogs, old men and our sons. I am thankful you told my wife to buy me a good puppy. That bird dog has filled my heart with pride and humbled me by his desire and passion to do what he was created for. I am thankful for the Chattooga river, a sacred and serene water filled with rainbows, brook and brown trout. I thank each of you for sharing my journey, whether in a boat, wading a river, duck blind, dove fields, or stumbling behind long legged bird dogs in pursuit of game. Thanks to each of you who have pulled some of my weight or paid any of my part along the way. I have tried to pay it forward to others deserving the same.
To all of you, thanks for the memories.....
