I did the grump’s version of the traditional Thanksgiving column this week. It includes a thank you from the communist Chinese for the willingness of the poor state of Arkansas to extend socialistic corporate welfare kickbacks to a big Chinese paper company in return for some mill jobs; a thanks to Louisiana for electing a Democratic governor (though it took a whore-mongering Republican and a huge black voter base to get the job done by a 56-44 vote), and a thanks to workers at UAMS who contribute food for Thanksgiving to the many workers at UAMS who don’t make a living wage from the state of Arkansas.

But there’s more to life than politics. When it comes to family, health and an absence of want, I couldn’t be more thankful. If I could change one thing, it would be to have my adult children home.

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I still remember my first Thanksgiving apart from family, as a college freshman. I’d been invited to spend it in Atlanta with a college friend. But as we approached the Atlanta airport on the freeway, I said, “You have to drop me off.” I just wasn’t ready to break from family yet. I got a student standby ticket ($50, I think) for flights that wound through Huntsville, Ala., and New Orleans and brought me early Thanksgiving day to the front door of my home in Lake Charles. What a happy greeting I got from surprised mom and dad.

For the record: Today a team of cooks will produce turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, creamed onions, a green vegetable of some sort (brussel sprouts?), cranberry sauce, yeast rolls (by me),  gravy and pecan and pumpkin pies. There WILL be marshmallows on the sweet potatoes.

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We’ll miss Martha and Fritz, but we’ll add a substitute godchild, Shem Ngwira, a first-year student at the Clinton School from Malawi. He’s a fortuitous and sunny legacy of Martha’s work on a farm project in Malawi where Shem’s father works.

And Christmas isn’t far off. 

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