The Augusta Press’s Senior Reporter Scott Hudson wrote a column on Thanksgiving about how we all have a reason to the thankful. And before that on Tuesday, Michael Meyers wrote a letter of Thanksgiving that was so nice and kind it made me realize I hadn’t written a single word about being thankful in my Turkey of the Year column last Sunday. And that needed to be remedied immediately, if only to show you can learn from the young.
So, although Thanksgiving is over, I’m going to tell you what I’m thankful for from A to Z.
A. Absolut; Amazon
B. Books – all of Rick Bragg’s books; all of James Herriott’s books; Robert A. Caro’s five tomes on Lyndon Johnson; “Seabiscuit” by Laura Hillenbrand; “Secretariate” by William Nack; Celestine Sibley’s “Turned Funny;” Bob Young’s “The Treasure Train” and “Graball Road;” Hillary Mantell’s books about Henry the Eighth and Thomas Cromwell; Winston S. Churchill’s “Memoirs of the Second World War;” “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society,” and Anthony Doer’s Pulitzer prize winning “All the Light We Cannot See.”
C. Crock Pots
D. Dogs – Molly the Border Collie was so smart she understood five languages – English, Scottish Gaelic, Bolognese, Snausage and Frankfurter.
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Mickey was a yellow Lab mix. He recognized the sound of my car when I was coming down the road on my way home from work and would go sit by the back door. We got him from the Richmond County pound. He got a cancer on his tongue that spread. I took him to the University of Georgia veterinarian clinic and spent $7,000 trying to get him cured. He was 14 years old, and when I told my friend Gwen he was getting radiation treatments, she said, “That’s like giving a 99-year-old man chemotherapy.”
Well, she was right. I just hadn’t thought about it like that before.
Ernie brought Nell, a small black dog and her sister Annie, who were living on the side of a mountain in Rome, Ga., home with him, along with Nell’s seven puppies. We found homes for all but one of the puppies, Beauregard, who grew to be four times the size of Nell. He had seizures, and I gave him phenobarbital twice a day for 15 years to keep it under control. I wouldn’t say I loved him the most, but I might have. When I finally had to take him to be euthanized, the veterinarian was having trouble getting his heart to stop beating, and I cried so hard and so long, she was almost as upset as I was.
Joe was big brindled orange and black dog who showed up outside our fence one day and wouldn’t go away. So, after a few days of saying “Go home! Get out of here!” we faced the fact he didn’t have a home. There was nothing to do but feed him and let him inside. He brought a dead skunk home one day and dropped it in the backyard under the dining room windows. I said, “Uh oh, those daffodils in that vase on the table have gone bad.”
“That smell is not daffodils,” Ernie said.
MORE: Cooper announces 2021 Turkey of the Year awards
So, we poured almost two quarts of tomato juice all over Joe, after which we poured some vodka in what was left and drank it.
Joe learned to talk in his old age using grunts, growls and barks to comment on TV news of the day, the outcomes of sporting events and entertainment which he enjoyed from his oversized orthopedic bed in the living room.
Honey showed up in the neighborhood malnourished and sick, and we took her in. She had recently had puppies, and every time I think about what must have happened to them, I’m sad. Honey followed me everywhere I went for years, until one day I noticed she wasn’t going on walks with us but staying at the house. And then her kidneys failed suddenly. I still feel awful when I think about handing her over to the vet and telling her I’d be back for her soon, but she died that night.
There were others, but I’ll just say I loved them all and am thankful for them and the ones we have now. The only bad thing I ever did to any of them was put off having to have them euthanized way too long. And the only bad thing they ever did was die.
E. Ernie, my husband, Vietnam War combat veteran, writer and baseball memorabilia collector.
F. Family – the only people who have to take you in when you have nowhere else to go.
G. God, Gardening; Getting rid of carpal tunnel syndrome
H. Health, Humility, Humor
I. Indoor plumbing
J. June, my sister who died last year
K. Kinfolks
L. Leftovers
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M. My daughter Mary and granddaughter Miya; Music; Memorabilia – I’ve saved every letter card and newspaper clipping I’ve received for the past 50 years. The most precious are letters from Mama who loved me in spite of myself and letters, cards and recipes from June. She sent me copies of recipes in Mama’s handwriting, one of which I’ve framed and have in the kitchen. I try to read the letters and cards, but they make me so sad I stop after one or two.
One clipping I found last week was from 1995 when I won the Augusta chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Margaret Twiggs Sweepstakes Award for investigative reporting. Barry Paschal of the newspaper’s editorial staff won the commentary award for the column written in the wake of the Melanie Richey murder. Sportswriter Andy Johnston won an award for a story about a high school whose head football coach committed suicide.
Miss Twiggs was a longtime political reporter and columnist for The Augusta Chronicle and then-defunct Augusta Herald. She died in April of that year.
I also found a copy of a column I wrote for The Valdosta Daily Times in the 1980s before I got burned-out and repetitious. It was about me and Daddy visiting the Hickory Springs Church cemetery in Chula on a bitter cold February day and looking at the graves of our ancestors and others he knew and could talk about. I will save that for another day.
N. Neighbors Gayle and Sammie McCorkle and their daughters Samantha, Merri and her husband, Josh Stephens; Angie and her husband, Scott Roberts; and Sammy’s brother Paul McCorkle and his wife, Bonnie, and their son John and his wife, Nicole, and three little boys.
O. Orange Juice. See A, above.
P. Places I’ve Been – The Confederate prison in Andersonville, Ga.; Oxford, Miss., when the Rebels were playing in Hemingway Stadium; the King Tut Exhibit in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; the Sun Bowl in El Paso; the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans; the Cotton Bowl in Dallas; the Peach Bowl in Atlanta; the Liberty Bowl in Memphis and the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Ariz.
Q. Quotes from famous people like President Ronald Reagan, and those from not-so-famous people like Augusta Commissioner John Clarke. Actually, as Miss Twiggs used to say, “Any old quote in a storm will do.”
R. Random acts of Kindness
S. Stephen, my son, and Carolyn
T. The Augusta Press and Publisher Joe Edge; Executive Editor Debbie van Tuyll; Chief Reporter Scott Hudson; CFO Connie Wilson; Features Editor Charmain Brackett; Business Editor Tyler Strong; Reporters Dana Lynn McIntyre and Skyler Andrews; “Jail Report” contributor Greg Rickabaugh; Sports Columnist Ashley Brown; Columnist Michael Meyers; Contributor of news analysis Hubert Van Tuyll; Correspondent Anna Virella; and website manager Sayvon Moore.
U. United we stand against the tyrants in government who would turn us into…
V. Victims instead of strong free citizens. They would force us to take COVID-19 vaccinations every six months as new strains develop until we die and mandate wearing masks even in our own homes. You might ask, “How could that be enforced?” The answer is the way all totalitarian governments enforce their mandates. Turn neighbor against neighbor and reward them for snitching on each other; then send squads in the middle of the night to drag the disobedient out of their homes to be murdered or imprisoned. Think that can’t happen here? Think again. “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
W: Winston Churchill.
X: X Factors; X Boxes; X Husbands and X Wives
Y. You
Z. Zippers
Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com
