Thankful for football... but not why you think
There isn't a strong tie from this post to WorldCat. There are a couple great WorldCat lists related to the holiday -- Thanksgiving--juvenile fiction is wonderful, as are a couple more traditional bibliographies. The main reason I post today is that I love Thanksgiving for two reasons. First, being reminded to be specifically thankful is a great idea. Second, I owe my marriage to the longest running Thanksgiving Day high school football rivalry in the country.
I grew up in Needham, Massachusetts. In 1982 I was a junior in high school there (Go, Rockets!) and the town was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Needham / Wellesley football game. This was a Very Big Deal.
Normally, my family went back to New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with my Dad's folks. But in 1982, we had to stay in town because the chorus was singing at the televised half-time of The Big Game, and our director told us he'd fail anybody who didn't show. So... rather than being on the road to Long Island on Monday, November 22, 1982, I was in school to meet my friend Gabe's friend Christina who was visiting from Buffalo. Cue strings, cue soft-focus close-up, cue love at first site (for me... it took me months to convince her she'd been in love-at-first-site with me). We dated, broke up, got back together, got engaged, got married, had a kid. All because of a football game.
Which brings me back to the "specific" part of Thanksgiving, and another tie-in to WorldCat and libraries. There is a general, environmental kind of "thanks" that goes on related to the holiday, of course. My son's Cub Scout troop and I just visited the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Ohio Historical Society, and the "Freedom from Want" painting is the one that, in my mind, sums up the more national, iconic notions of "what Thanksgiving means." But, for my son, Thanksgiving means the reason his folks met. And he's thankful for that (so far, anyways).
I think libraries have a similar, two-level association for most people. We understand that "library" means the overall ideas, goals, and services that are generally provided by many, if not all libraries. But we all have specific, individual associations, too.
So... this year, I am thankful for: "freedom from want," in general; meeting my wife, specifically; libraries, in general; and the junior high library where the assistant librarian introduced me to science fiction, which I enjoy to this day.
I grew up in Needham, Massachusetts. In 1982 I was a junior in high school there (Go, Rockets!) and the town was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Needham / Wellesley football game. This was a Very Big Deal.
Normally, my family went back to New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with my Dad's folks. But in 1982, we had to stay in town because the chorus was singing at the televised half-time of The Big Game, and our director told us he'd fail anybody who didn't show. So... rather than being on the road to Long Island on Monday, November 22, 1982, I was in school to meet my friend Gabe's friend Christina who was visiting from Buffalo. Cue strings, cue soft-focus close-up, cue love at first site (for me... it took me months to convince her she'd been in love-at-first-site with me). We dated, broke up, got back together, got engaged, got married, had a kid. All because of a football game.
Which brings me back to the "specific" part of Thanksgiving, and another tie-in to WorldCat and libraries. There is a general, environmental kind of "thanks" that goes on related to the holiday, of course. My son's Cub Scout troop and I just visited the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Ohio Historical Society, and the "Freedom from Want" painting is the one that, in my mind, sums up the more national, iconic notions of "what Thanksgiving means." But, for my son, Thanksgiving means the reason his folks met. And he's thankful for that (so far, anyways).
I think libraries have a similar, two-level association for most people. We understand that "library" means the overall ideas, goals, and services that are generally provided by many, if not all libraries. But we all have specific, individual associations, too.
So... this year, I am thankful for: "freedom from want," in general; meeting my wife, specifically; libraries, in general; and the junior high library where the assistant librarian introduced me to science fiction, which I enjoy to this day.
On November 30, 2008 at 3:04 PM Anonymous said:
I really enjoyed this post guys!
I'm thankful too. I've started my own business selling wooden garage doors and hopefully next year I will find freedom too!
:-)