When I was young and single and starting my career at The Star, I used to give thanks at this time of year for totally different types of things than I do now.
I used to give thanks for things like…
:: New girlfriends…when I was lucky enough to get them
:: Front-page or Metro-front by-lines, especially in the big Thanksgiving Day paper. I remember one in particular about the late Jim Spainhower, who came to town the day before Thanksgiving in 1971, and I wrote that he was going to run for state treasuer. He ran in 1972 and won, and he served from 1973 to 1980. (Before he died last December, he was living at the Foxwood Springs retirement center in Belton.)
:: Pay raises
:: Some place to go on Thanksgiving Day, if I didn’t have to work. (Almost all of us reporters were on a holiday-work rotation. I remember either a Thanksgiving or Christmas when a photographer and I ate at a restaurant called the Snooty Fox, which was on the corner of Linwood and Gillham and later replaced by a 7-Eleven that has been at the site for decades.)
But, like I say, it’s different now.
I’m thankful, first of all, that I stuck it out in Kansas City the first couple of years, when I didn’t know many people and was having trouble adapting. I’m thankful every day, too, for Patty, whom I met in 1983 and married in 1985, and our children, Brooks and Charlie, and my other relatives and our many friends.
But, as I as thinking about it today — on the broader front — instead of being thankful for pay raises and by-lines, I’m now thankful for more mundane things — things that just make life a bit easier.
Let me give you three examples…
:: QuikTrip. I trust you, like me, have considered, periodically, how lucky we are to have such an efficient convenience-store chain. Many non-QT convenience stores are dumps, and the clerks are unfriendly and obviously unhappy to be doing what they’re doing. Not at QT. The stores are always clean and bright, and the clerks are almost always polite and efficient. And, they can count money as fast as bank clerks. Even though the Tulsa-based company operates primarily in only the Midwest and Southeast, it was ranked No. 33 on Forbes magazine’s list of largest private companies in 2016. The first QuikTrip was opened in 1958 in Tulsa by Burt Holmes and Chester Cadieux. Chester’s son, Chet Jr., is the current CEO.
:: Costco. Thank you, Jim Glover, for convincing Costco to open its Midtown store at Linwood and Gillham. I went there today, along with half of Kansas City, and, judging from how full the parking lot was, I thought I’d be there 45 minutes to an hour, even though I only needed three items. I was in and out in about 20 minutes. Every checkout line was going, and they had two people marking receipts at the exit…It’s hard to fathom now, but back in the 1990s some people were bitching about the composition of and lack of progress on “The Glover Plan.” In 1999, The Pitch had a story about an architect named Kevin Klinkenberg complaining about the area being “a parking lot with a lot of trees.” Klinkenberg went on to say: “At the beginning, back in the early and mid-1990s, they were going to have a Price Chopper and a Payless Cashways. Now they have a Costco and a Home Depot. The designs may be different, but they are just big-box stores that have no place in an urban environment.”
I can only imagine the mess we would have had if a Payless Cashways had gone in there, instead of Home Depot.
:: St. Luke’s Health System. I used to do most of my medical business in North Kansas City, with the Meritas network and North Kansas City Hospital. That changed this year after I had complications after a February knee replacement and had a couple of hospitalizations at St. Luke’s South. Along the way, I got a cardiologist and pulmonologist, who got me back on track. Then, after my primary care doctor at Meritas retired, I found I couldn’t get an appointment with the new Meritas doctor for several months. Now I’ve got an appointment with a new primary care doctor in the St. Luke’s system.
This Thanksgiving, then, as the year draws to a close, I’m counting blessings more pragmatic than years and decades past.
Being young and an asshole was a lot of fun — very exciting and invigorating — but this stage of life also has its rewards.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Enjoyed this and your recent few columns after a friend referred me to your blog. Remember your byline and work with The Star. Glad you’re still writing. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for reading, Bill, and welcome to the Comments Dept.
I should have also noted I’m thankful I can still string together sentences that make sense!
Remember that Thanksgiving when Bill Fisher and the Russells came? It snowed to beat the band, and we “saw the lights” in style!! One of my best!! Must have been the year I had Kent. Enjoy your holiday weekend!
I remember everything except Bill Fisher being here. It was great…And thanks to you for feeding me many great meals when I was single!
I remember you and John urging me to buy the house at 51st and Grand in 1977. John said, “You’re going to be here forever, so buy the house.”
Hi Jim – This year I’m happy for friends like you and Patty. And while I appreciate the QT stores for gas, and periodically purchase items at Costco, I’m more appreciative of the smaller locally-owned retailers who provide unique experiences and where I know the employees by name. Places like Prospero’s book store, Nature’s Own market, Ragazza, Westport Cafe, Yum Bakery, Mid-Coast Modern, Pryde’s and Phoenix Herb. Happy Thanksgiving Fitz! And btw, Kevin K. has moved back to Kansas City.
I definitely appreciate the local retailers, too, Kate, but those big retailers sure come in handy at times.
Gosh, I remember James Spainhower, who officiated at a wedding in Arrow Rock, back when he was a Missouri House representative around 1969. I was a best man. Nice, civic minded, decent fellow, bless his heart. Can you imagine that today? Well, in addition to your Thanksgiving retail heroes, let me add Loves Travel Stops. They have little dog parks. We sure didn’t have such amenities back in the day. Some conditions really do improve over time, though I still can’t stomach the roller grills, Quik Trip or otherwise. Interesting memories, thanks for sharing Jim. Happy Thanksgiving, blog followers.
I’ve had a few of those QT, roller-grilled hot dogs over the years, Bob, but my Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year’s resolution is..Never Again!
Fitz,
I’m thankful for your friendship. This gratitude has not changed since October of 1979.
I appreciate the work and fun we had at The Kansas City Times.
I’ll always appreciate your laugh and the fun we had with OJ Nelson too.
I was fortunate to learn from you, Bob Lynn, Bill Richardson, Joe McGuff and others.
Happy Thanksgiving 🙏🏽✝️💗❤️🌹🇺🇸🌎🍽🦃🍁
Wow! I didn’t realize I had so many good memories about our time in Kansas City, especially at Thanksgiving! Yes, Fisher was in Kansas City for that special Thanksgiving. He got a room in the older hotel on the corner so we could see “the lights” and of course drink. Snowed like crazy and I had a mini-car from work that we drove up and down 67th. I had “enough is enough” of you and Russell at about 4:00 am. I can still hear that drunken giggle of yours.
I never properly apologized for that…I do now.
i remember trying to explain to my young children why we had holiday meals at odd times, how even though it was a holiday for most, some people had to work, like policemen, firemen, emergency room doctors and newspaper people — the important “necessory” people in the world.
“Forever Young”! BTW, Kevin Klinkenberg is one of the great urban planners in America! Just as we are fortunate you stayed in KC, we are fortunate to have Kevin here!! (And I designed the financing for the Glover Plan).
The Midtown Costco and Home Depot have been godsends…I’m glad to hear you were instrumental.
Like all young reporters – brilliant or hopelessly incompetent – I dreamed of the glamorous life of the foreign correspondent: prowling Vienna in a Burberry trench coat, speaking a dozen languages to dangerous women, narrowly escaping Sardinian bandits – the usual stuff that newspaper dreams are made of.
Russell Baker