SEAGRAVES: I’m Thankful!

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, November 26, 2024

As a young adult, just married and out on my own for the first time, I subscribed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  I did it mainly to read the sports page but I did truly enjoy reading the rest.  We moved to Atlanta, me for school and Karen to work at Chick-fil-A Incorporated.  My subscription went with me and it was a joy to read a city paper and keep up with the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, and at that time even the Georgia Bulldogs.  One of my favorite activities was to sit down on Sunday afternoon with the paper and read it from cover to cover…it was a great way to while away the afternoon.  Sunday was always the same, church, lunch and the AJC.

We moved to Auburn, Alabama to work on the staff of Auburn Christian Fellowship and my habit of reading the paper went with me.  Eventually we found ourselves in Kingsport, Tennessee, raising babies, working on staff at Colonial Heights Christian Church and attending graduate school at Emmanual School of Religion.  I couldn’t afford the daily paper and there was only one place in town that sold it.  I would save my change throughout the week and on Monday morning I would go to my office, get things started and drive to the Bristol Bagel Shop in downtown Kingsport.  Right next door was Wilson’s Newstand.  The Sunday edition of the paper cost me $4.00 but I would splurge and go next door and eat a bagel and drink coffee. I was homesick and the AJC brought me home for a few hours.  I would read Lewis Grizzard and Furman Bisher and both helped me get over how much I missed home.

Furman Bisher in particular would bring me home.  He had a way of writing that made one feel they were there and played a part in whatever was happening.  There was one column in particular that I looked forward to every year.  It was simply entitled “I’m Thankful” and in it he would simply write a list of the events and people for which he was thankful.  It might be as simple as being thankful for “those who hit homeruns in the bottom of the ninth, especially when they play for us!”  or “I’m thankful for the right to play the game you want to play and back the team you want to back, though it isn’t necessarily set forth in the Constitution.”  His list was normally made up of things that were simple and ordinary, some folks would even consider it mundane.  It impacted me and reminded me to be thankful for the small things because they come around much more often than the big.

In the spirit of Furman Bisher, a few things I’m thankful for:

I’m thankful for a family that loves me and each other and is always on one another’s side.

I’m thankful for Karen who has loved me for 48 years, 42 as husband and wife, despite my faults.

I’m thankful for sons that have grown into men and husbands and fathers who love their families and are always making sacrifices for them.

I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to work for 30 years in a place I loved, doing what I loved and I was able to retire still loving both.

I’m thankful that the same place I worked at for 30 years gave me the opportunity to try something new and as of today I’m still gainfully employed!

I’m thankful I was able to coach a group of young men who put me in a position to win two state soccer championships even though I knew very little about the game.  I’m thankful that Bobby Jaworski and Dustin Jennette coached the troops and let me love on those boys and hopefully leave them with something that impacted their lives.

I’m thankful that even though it has warts and blemishes and appears bruised and beaten at times, I live in a country that still values freedom and offers opportunities seldom found in other countries.

I’m thankful that Gil Pound lives in our community and does such a fantastic job writing about it!

Just a few things.  Pretty simple, not earthshattering at all, pretty mundane.  I hope you come away realizing that I am thankful for this life I have and for those I have lived it with.  This week as we approach our day of national thanksgiving, take a few moments and reflect upon the things and people that cause you to offer thanks.

—Scott Seagraves is a retired GMC Prep educator. His column appears occasionally in The Union-Recorder.