BY KELLY HAGEN
What are you thankful for this year, Dad?
- JellyBean, Daughter
I’m glad you asked. This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for all sorts of things. One of those things is the ability to compile lists, so let’s start by doing that thing.
1. I’m thankful for you and your little brother. I can hardly remember a time in my life when I wasn’t a father to you two. I’ve heard whispered tales about how carefree and purposeless that young dude’s life was. Sure, he could go out to eat at Taco Bell anytime he felt like it, be it 3 p.m. or a.m. Sure, it sounds great, but is that real happiness? No. Despite all the exasperated sighs you hear out of old Dad each day, he’s never been happier in his life than he is right now.
2. I had a sandwich at the Broadway Grille a couple of months ago that was super good. It was a grilled cheese with bacon, and the bacon was cooked perfectly. Not too crisp, but not too raw and chewy. I’m super grateful for the memory of eating that sandwich.
3. I am incredibly appreciative of your mom and all she’s done for me. There was the one time when I asked her out, and she agreed. Then I asked her to marry me, and sure enough, she did that too. She birthed both of you, and she’s so incredibly patient with you two and with their dad who is slow to catch on to things like not riling the kids up right before bedtime or how to help the fourth-grader do new math. She’s worthy of sainthood, my Saint Annette.
4. Disney+ streaming service is pretty sweet. And if you’re a Verizon Unlimited customer, you get a free year to try it out. Check out “The Mandalorian” series; it’s in the Star Wars universe and it’s a lot of fun. If you like space westerns and weird sand creatures bopping droids with sticks. And there’s all the Disney cartoons and movies about princesses and Winnie the Pooh, and Marvel movies, and I think the Simpsons are on there, too. But Star Wars, don’t forget.
5. Novelty socks are just the best. I wish someone would have told me how fun it is to wear cheeseburger-emblazoned socks from the Hard Rock Café to the office. I’ll sit in meetings, knowing my secret silly socks are in the room and nobody knows it but me. This last remnant of frivolous fun is what is getting me through the remaining 25-30 years left of my prime working years.
6. I’m most thankful for your and your brother’s continued health, as well as Mom’s and mine, and all four of your grandparents. And Betty White, because she is a national treasure.
7. I’m really, truly thankful for having the opportunity to write this parenting column for the Eudora Times these past few months. Having been a journalism major in college and fledgling journalist for newspapers in North Dakota, I still believe strongly in the enterprise these young writers, editors and photographers are donating to the cause of re-establishing a newspaper in your community.
Thank you to Dr. Teri Finneman for giving me the opportunity to stretch my creative wings a little and try some new things. Just like Kevin McDonald of the Kids in the Hall comedy troupe once said, thank you for giving me the opportunity to fail, which is all I asked and all I did.
Kelly Hagen was a former newspaper journalist, works as communications director for a non-profit organization in his hometown of Bismarck, North Dakota, and is happily married to our sweet Annette, and they co-parent two wonderful, young children. Thanks for reading.
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