A Few Things to Be Thankful For

            Solid family – wife Caroline and son Jonathan

            All my siblings and a pretty elegant mother - Nancy

            A coffee with Tony Turina

            Listening to Geno Auriemma

            Watching SportsCenter with my son Jonathan every morning

            Saturday afternoons in the fall at Yale Bowl with my dad, brother and the gang

            Abraham Lincoln

            The words of Abraham Lincoln

            Dave Post’s baseball passion

            Camden Yards

            The excellence of Fred Williams

            The excellence of Ansonia football

            Arkeel Newsome juking and jving. And scoring one more time

            Any morning at Patti’s Place in Thomaston

            Doing radio at Disney World’s ESPN studios with Mr. Gaffney

            Sunday conversations with Gene Martin, Scotty Wilson and the boys of the round table

            The Litchfield Hills Road Race

            The Village Restaurant

            Dave Vigant’s shooting touch

            The grit of Amy Matthews

            Brian Anzellotti’s 49-point performance at Holy Cross

            Watching Tony Hanson play basketball at Holy Cross

            The friendliness of Ed Generali and Frank Lombardo

            Talking with the late Pop Shortell at Ansonia

            Tracy Stolle’s shooting touch

            Larry Bird

            No. 56 Mr. L.T.

            UConn winning national championships

            Creedence Clearwater Revival

Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, Beach Boys and Elton John

Woodstock (now).

Christmas mornings by the fire place with my mom, wife and son Jonathan before the crowd arrives.

Chip Hilton books

The writing of Hawthorne, Poe, Tom Clancy and David McCollough

Backyard whiffleball

The American spirit

Chris Samele’ scourage         

The commitment of Doc McKenna and the service of Mike McKenna

The talent of teachers like Carol Wright, Laura Wolflein and D. John Long

Watching Dennis Fowler sink a shot to win a state championship for Terryville

Watching Matt Kalin sink a shot to win a state championship for Lewis Mills

Watching Christine Wallace sink a shot to win a state championship for Northwestern

Watching Nic Johnston hit a grand slam home run to win a state championship for Thomaston.

Hawaii

The sacrifices of those at Pearl Harbor, Omaha Beach and Gettysburg.

Watching Jonathan jump off a 25-foot rock on the north shore of Oahu.

Good friends in this business – Mr. Gaffney, Mike Barger, Peter Wallace, Steve Barlow, Mark Jaffe, Gerry De Simas, John Torsiello, Mike Chaiken….

Spending an hour with Connie Donahue

A cold, day, warm fireplace and a good book

Watching the Red Sox win with son Jonathan.

The friendliness of the late George Tirado

The mall in Washington D.C.

Talking baseball with Gregg Hunt

The accomplished Stolle family

Singing Sweet Caroline at Fenway Park

Friday night basketball

London and Paris and Scotland

A good golfing day

Winning a BL title ( few years ago).

A lot of good softball teammates from Skider’s Gym.

The football press box with R.J. Poniatoski.

In our over-extended lives, we tend to spend too much time talking and thinking about what we don’t have. Today is a day to think about what we do have. In this case it has been a marvelous journey to date.

So I say thank-you to one and all for all that has been, all that is, and all that will be.

Happy Thanksgiving  

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