In this season of Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for a small moment in time that brought me back to North Carolina and a new beginning. Many years ago, when I lived in Detroit wrapping up a career and a first marriage, I was saved by a wonderful collection of essays by poet Donald Hall. I was perusing books in an Ann Arbor bookstore when I spotted something marvelous. The original 1985 publication of Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport (Mostly Baseball) had an illustration of the old Durham Athletic Park on its cover, a welcome sight to a Durham Bulls fan trapped in a Michigan winter. The sight of that revered minor league baseball park on the front of a small paperback triggered something that ultimately lead me back south. Donald Hall’s magical collection of essays became even more poignant to me after I had a son of my own 21 years ago.

So now my son is in his Senior year at Elon University and not much interested in playing catch. But the sound of the generations of fathers playing catch with sons looping back forever remains as special music. I am thankful for that music, and the miraculous chain of events that brought me home to North Carolina.

By Tom Gongaware (General Sales Manager, Triangle Region)