This week I am sharing some Thanksgiving memories with you, and at the same time wanting to give thanks to so many during a week that is set up to do so.  I spent 21 Thanksgivings away from my home here in Northeast Ohio.  I was on a 21 year professionaI radio job road trip tour, and I spent it with various friends and people. Some I still see, and some I have not in many years, but that's our world.  Suzi from Columbus, I do not, but I will not forget her kindness.

I had just moved to Columbus in the fall of 1983 to work at a Country station there, WRMZ.  It was my biggest break yet in radio, I was newly 22.  I had a very small place in a seedy joint called the Moonglow Apartments, north of town on I-71. You can still see the sign from the highway as you drive by it.  My first Thanksgiving there I was poor, and had to work the weekend, so I could not go home.   It was my first holiday away, and I was home watching Billy Sims and the Detroit Lions beat up on someone in the first game.  Was I lonely?  Being honest, I don't really remember. But what happened later I sure do.

I had a neighbor that lived above me named Suzi.  She worked late nights and I think was about 10 years older than me.  I didn't know her well at all, and being honest, never really did even after this day I'm talking about.  But around halftime of the Dallas game, she knocked on my door and gave me a ton of leftovers from her familys Thanksgiving celebration she was coming home from.  I was so shocked, I was speechless.  She stayed for a minute and said she had to go up and sleep before her night shift. 

I remember the food was great, and I was so happy I did have a Thanksgiving after all, beit alone.  But what I really remember was Suzi's kindness, that has stuck with me all these years. I think it was like the first real "adult" thing ever done for me. And it opened my eyes to the fact I was no longer a "dude" and I was going to be dealing with grownups in my personal life and professional life as well.  It changed me.

Always thankful for that act of kindness....