For years and years now, I have been adding to a list of things I am thankful for. I have decided to retire ye olde list; if you are desperate to see it, and the annual updates from the 16 years that followed, it’s here.
It’s not that I am no longer thankful; in fact, my gratitude for the good things in my life increases each year. That old list, and all the annual updates, were an arduous mess of copy to paste into a new article. So I’m just going to tell you something I’m thankful for. And we’ll see how this goes. My thankfulness this year will be about my friends.
My Facebook notifications were on fire yesterday thanks to this picture:
I had shared some old photos of Kalin Krohe, Jeremy Fifield and me as our annual Thanksgiving week radio show was drawing near. Pat Adriance thought one of the older photos of Kalin looked like Mr Rogers. (It’s the hairdo.) So he did a photohack of Kalin sitting next to the trolley in Mr. Rogers garb. I took the idea to its natural conclusion and gave Mr. KroRogers a King Friday puppet resembling Pat Adriance. It seemed to provide hearty entertainment for Facebook users throughout the day, But as I kept getting notifications, and kept seeing that picture pop up, I started to look at it in a different way. In the photo I started to see the good in my old pal. His kindness, his consideration for others, his generosity. The K-Man is good people. I don’t say it enough because I’m too busy making phony Krohe record album covers, hiding his jacket in restaurants or dribbling soda in his beer mug.
And King Friday there, Pat Adriance…my pal since 1995…over a quarter of a century. I was proud to be his best man (and did not lose the gig for bringing the wrong colored pants), was even more proud when Pat and Courtney named their son Jason Patrick Adriance.
Another great friend: Dangerous Dave Kuskie. Dave, like Kroheim, was a KCOW part-time hire who became a friend. Dave and I have been doing internet radio series for nearly two decades.
We also have grand travel adventures. We’ve seen Weird Al Yankovic, The Monkees, Chicago and Phil Collins live in concert. And we’ve been in a mess of Main Street Players productions, including our tour de force performances in “The Odd Couple” as Oscar (Dave) and Felix (Wenty).
Which brings me to my Main Street Players friends! The Bleisch family, Kent and Elaine and their kids who are not kids anymore….Angie O’Leary, the marvelous Obershaws…and, sadly, some Players who are no longer with us. Jim Joule was our Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” (and, during a marathon recording session, the Scrooge in my “Alliance Christmas Carol” radio special). And dear Wayne McLaughlin, who directed the first Main Street Players show I was ever in, “The Fatal Fifties Affair.” They are missed, and remembered fondly.
Also missed are Mike Garwood, Doug Abbott, John Jones, Dennis Klinker and John Howard. They were coworkers, and friends, during my earlier years at KCOW. I am more thankful than words can express for the chance to know them, laugh with them, work with them and learn from them.
Another friend I have learned from–this one still with us– my eastern Nebraska pal Jeremy Fifield. Kevin Horn introduced us, not knowing what an epic swarm of Beatles and Beach Boys trivia he had unleashed on the KCOW airwaves. Jeremy, Kalin and I starred in a goofy podcast called “Sandhills Jubilee” for a few years…and we still get together for special broadcasts on the ol’ K-Cow at holiday time, including our “New Year’s Eve Live” show. Fife grew up in Alliance and makes visits back from time to time. And once in a blue moon I get to see Fife in his natural habitat, the Zoo Bar.
Of course, I have had grand friends through every chapter of my life. Childhood (and beyond) pals like Chris Szabelski, Michelle Putnam (then Graham)…community college buddies Eric Lansing, K.T. Sherman, Josh Greene…Tracey Sheluga, my friend from my days working for Old Man Claus…SUNY Brockport friends like the Golden Boy himself, Ryan Nobles; Irene “viewers like you” Buchanan, Adam Gerstenhaber, Eric Finkelstein, Tony Martone, Todd Hess, Mark Ball, Heather Spanevello, Steve Klafehn, Paul Andre….man, I am gonna forget somebody. Many somebodies. So let’s just say…to quote a certain television series with which I am familiar, Thank You For Being A Friend.
Happy Thanksgiving! It’s A Thankful Life.