When we’re in the office brainstorming what we’re going to ask people for our Around Town feature, we often like to question ourselves first. I like to crack a joke whenever the time’s right but I couldn’t bring myself to do that this week.
If you’ve been reading my column for a while, you know Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year (Christmas is cool and all, but I like to root for underdogs). It’s got everything going for it. The food is awesome. There’s always football. You can spend meaningful time with your favorite family members and your adult friends always have something going on right when you have to get away from some extended family member(s) ranting about conspiracy theories. It can even make a guy like me who doesn’t really get all sentimental about stuff to think about what I’m thankful for, which is what we wanted people out here to tell us this week.
First off, I’m thankful for everyone out there who picks up our paper or goes online and reads our stuff, even if it’s not a regular occurrence. Any support we get from you is awesome and we literally can’t do what we do without help from our readers.
I’m thankful that I get to see Plant City continue to grow. There’s so much more going on here than when I started five years ago and I think the movers and shakers breathing new life into our arts and entertainment and dining scenes, even downtown as a whole, are doing a great job. Our little editorial team of two writers and one managing editor live, work and play in Plant City and totally support all our local businesses downtown, midtown, uptown, in the suburbs and even as close as you can get to being out of town without actually being out of town.
I’m thankful that I’ve gotten to catch some really good sports action this year. Not only is Plant City like a hidden treasure trove of athletic talent, I think people from other towns have no choice but to be impressed when they face our teams and play at our venues. Speaking of venues, I’m also thankful for the new community center giving us all a new place to go and shoot hoops, among other things. I may have to whip myself back into prime (more like “washed up at best”) basketball shape by next summer.
I’m thankful for all of the coaches we have in the area who do their jobs the right way. I know I say it in a column every month or so, but there are a lot of great men and women out there who truly care about their athletes and aren’t afraid to make sacrifices to help them. On that note, I’m also thankful to be in a community where a ton of those athletes are more than willing to give back and be good citizens and do cool things all the time. I don’t have enough hands and feet to count the number of high school athletes here right now that any kid could and should look up to.
There are other things in my personal life that I’m thankful for and won’t bore you with, but I do have to end on this note: I’m thankful I finally got to try Susan Sullivan’s green cake this year. It’s my favorite school-specific snack since Durant’s game day banana pudding and I now understand exactly why so many Plant City High School kids have brought it up during interviews.