Happy Thanksgiving, Ducks! I hope your morning pastries were fresh, your cheese and olive tray is crisp, your bird is moist and your pie is pumpkin (and vice versa).
This is a day to give thanks. My life is rich and I hope yours is as well. I have a lovely wife, a nice car, an editor who thinks I’m funny, and just about enough money in the bank to go to Subway when I get tired of turkey. I can’t complain.
But there are some things for which I am thankful for that are directly a part of my being an Oregon fan.
1. I am thankful the Pilgrims decapitated a turkey rather than … I can’t even say it. I have eaten many a turkey in my day. Give me a breast (of turkey! … I can’t believe you), some Miracle Whip, spicy mustard, a slice of smoked cheese, lettuce and a ring of pineapple. Put it on a burger bun. It is the best sandwich you will ever have. Guaranteed. Oh, I have eaten Duck, the last time at Kow Loon in Eugene. But then I had to go to Protestant confession.
2. I am thankful that Toa Mariota and Alana Deppe-Mariota fell in love and profoundly enjoyed one another’s company Jan. 30, 1993. Because their son, born Oct. 30,1993, makes me proud to be an Oregon Duck. He would make me proud to be a Duck if he had never set foot on the field. I have friends who are Florida State fans. They hate my life right now.
3. I am thankful for you, dear FishDuck.com reader. Without your support I likely wouldn’t have all that I have today. Oh, I would have the lovely wife and nice car. But it is doubtful that I would have been able to afford a plane.
4. But mostly I am thankful that God made me who I am. He could have, after a hard night of drinking on my part, made me this guy.
Go Ducks! The Beavers are who we thought they were!
Top image by en.wikimedia.org
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Kim Hastings is a 1984 graduate of Northwest Christian College. He cut his journalistic teeth as sports editor of a paper in his home town of Fortuna, CA, and, later as a columnist for the Longview Daily News in Longview, WA.
He saw his first Oregon game in 1977 and never missed a home game from 1981 until a bout with pneumonia cut his streak short in 1997. He was one of the proud 3200 on a bitterly cold night in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1989 for the Independence Bowl, and continues to be big supporter of Oregon sports. He is an active participant on the various Oregon Ducks messageboards as “TacomaDuck.”