Thanksgiving Pigskin

Thanksgiving memories are fond ones no matter if the birth of those memories began last year or 50 years ago.  Getting to stay home from school for a few days was always a treat and spending time with the family all gathered in one spot was even better.  But high on the list of memories was the fact that I always got to eat all the turkey and dressing I wanted and I could just about eat my weight in dressing.  Always  working up that appetite by throwing the old pigskin around while waiting for the annual Thanksgiving football games to start on television usually began my turkey day each year of those childhood days

Things never seem to stay the stay the same during life.  I can't eat my weight in dressing anymore nor do I have someone waking  me up each morning telling me it's time for another day of school.  But some things never really change very much.  The family still gathers every Thanksgiving for turkey and dressing and to watch the annual Turkey Day football games.  Back in the days before cable/satellite television broadcast, watching any game was a treat.  Now days football is on 24/7, making most games common place.  Not even the Super Bowl or the NCAA championship is as special as those Thanksgiving games used to be but watch I do.

This year my two favorite teams are playing just as they do every Thanksgiving and both are having a difficult season.  The Cowboys can't seem to catch a break except for the break of their quarterback's collarbone. The Boys have to play the New Orleans Saints and it looks as though the Saints have already stuck a voodoo pin in the Cowboy's Quarterback which will probably let the Saints eat all the turkey legs they want.  Then there is my other favorite team, the Texas Longhorns. They may have a little easier time of it on Thanksgiving but I am not counting my turkey legs just yet.  Sometimes those Texas Aggies can get as angry as a bunch of hornets and I've seen hornets drive Longhorns mad before.

This year I'll only get to watch the first half of the Cowboy game because I'll be driving back form the family Thanksgiving gathering.  I won't get to watch any of the Longhorn game because for the first time in the history of the game, the broadcast will not be on free over the air television.  ESPN is trying their best to single handedly destroyed my Thanksgiving memories but I'll be damned  if I am going to pay a $1100 cable /satellite  bill just so I can watch one game.  It looks as though turkey and dressing along with the gathering of family will be the highlight of this years Thanksgiving.

I guess it's true "you can never go home again".  Those childhood Thanksgiving memories are to be savored forever, good or bad.  So as I break the wishbone I'll wish for a Cowboy victory, the return of Longhorn greatness and the broadcast of every football game on free over the air television.  But in reality the only memory that's guarantied is a plate full  of turkey and dressing.