Something popped up on my Facebook page that I posted six years ago.since it’s Thanksgiving month I thought I should update it for posterity.

I'm thankful my father survived World War II or else I wouldn’t be here.

I am thankful I had two loving parents and grew up in the south on Oak Hill Farm.

I am thankful I was born on the upper floor of a movie theatre in Louisville, Mississippi, just like Carl Jackson.

I am thankful for all the pretty girls that rode the same school bus I did and became my friends.

I am thankful my bus driver that didn’t let one of my brothers die when the bully tried to beat him to a bloody pulp.

I am thankful for two older brothers that set the mark so high my parents had something to be proud of.

I am thankful my teachers had mercy on me and passed me through to the next grade each year or else I would still be in high school.

I’m thankful for my dog, Tippy, who was my best friend when I was a kid and had no one else to play with.

I’m thankful it was just a movie, and Ole Yeller didn’t really die.

I am thankful for all the folks that picked me up from the side of the road when I was hitchhiking back and forth to college and helped me reach my destination. Especially the guy who let me drive because he knew he was too drunk to be behind the wheel.

I’m thankful for that pretty girl that jumped into my car when I was sitting in Gentry’s parking lot one night and kissed me for ten long, wonderful minutes before she realized she was in the wrong car. I have no idea who she was, but I’m thankful.

I am thankful I was able to be around and help out when my folks were ill. They taught me what love and commitment were all about when times were really bad.

I am thankful for all the people that hired me when I was young and dumb and taught me the value of good, honest, hard work. …Even that boss that made me ride in the back of the truck for a hundred miles when it was freezing cold outside, just because he could. (Come to think of it, I’m not thankful for that at all. He was a jerk.)

I’m thankful I met that fifteen year old girl while I was studying for college finals in Winston County’s library. She asked me out a year later and became my wife when she was just seventeen.

I’m thankful all the folks that said it wouldn’t last were wrong.

I’m thankful I got hired on at the paper mill 41 years ago for a job that I thought was just a temporary gig along the way. It wasn’t always easy, but nevertheless I’m thankful because it enabled me to have a wonderful life.

I’m thankful that girl I met in the library in 1973 honored me with three beautiful daughters, and I’m thankful they honored me with nine wonderful grandchildren that call me Boo Boo.

I’m thankful I didn’t fry or blow my fingers off that time I tried to wire up an attic fan and mistakenly cut into a 220 amp power line. I’m thankful I didn’t die and walked away without a scratch when I flipped a car back in the 1980s.

I’m thankful I saw the bright white light at the end of the tunnel and lived to talk about it the time I fell off the back of a moving vehicle and landed on my head in the 90s.

I’m thankful the nurse at the hospital that night that put sixteen staples into my scalp deadened it first.

I’m thankful the world didn’t come to a screeching halt when Y-2-K rolled in with the 21st century.

I’m thankful it’ll be another three years before I have to have another colonoscopy.

I’m thankful I live in a country where a kid that grew up on a cotton farm had the opportunity to travel most of its fifty states.

I’m thankful I flew in a big airplane all the way to London and Paris and back and didn’t fall into the ocean.

I am thankful God has blessed me for nearly seven decades even if I haven’t done anything to deserve it.

But most of all I’m thankful that I am still here, and when it’s over, it isn’t really over.

_______________
Rick Algood
November 2,2020