When I lived at home with my parents, every Thanksgiving, my dad would load up a car with me and my brother and whatever friends were hanging about and take us on a tour of Detroit’s great sliders and tamales. The “Slide Ride” is one of my favorite memories and gave me a real connection to my dad, especially as a teen when I was looking for as many reasons to get away as I could.
It was a set up from the start. My mom needed a clear house so she could get dinner prepped and ready, so she enlisted my dad to come up with an adventure. All those Thanksgivings, I never once thought about why my dad took us or what his plan was…I was so in the moment, looking forward to the next stop, hanging with my friends. I was never pre-occupied with anything beyond that experience and if I never said it then, let me say it now: Thank you, Dad, for making that day about more than turkey and football. You made a new tradition and an ocean of memories for me and so many of my Berkley boys – we are forever grateful.
Now it’s my turn to be the driver on the Great Slide Ride. Last year was the first for my boys, Hunter, River and Fischer. We took my dad on a ride from Birmingham to Mexican Town, eating our way through sliders and tamales, carrying on 34 years of Farbman tradition. I was so happy to be in that moment with my boys and my dad, it gave me an incredible sense of gratitude and comfort, joy and love…and isn’t that what Thanksgiving is all about?!?
This year, we are going big. We have a whole crew joining us, a caravan of friends and family and entirely new generation of kids on the ride. I have been making a conscious effort in my life to be present for my boys and my wife, telling them and showing them how I feel, no matter how cheesy or uncomfortable it is for any of us. There is nothing greater than sharing my feelings with 8-year old Hunter and having him get me. It fills me with pride I could not claim before now, that this boy and his beautiful soul is the product of my life. And I can only take credit for a small part of who he is, who he and his brothers will be, and I am forever grateful to their mother, my wife, for being on this journey of parenthood with me. I’d be lost without her and the grandparents on both sides that have set us up for success and created so many meaningful memories. After all, Thanksgiving is a day to be thankful for all the blessings in our lives.
It is my wish for you, hunters, that this Thanksgiving holiday you take the time to tell the important people in your lives that you love them. That they are the reason you get up in the morning or smile at nothing in the middle of the day, or sleep soundly through the night. Be the one making the memories this Thanksgiving and hunt down your gratitude they way I would track a ten-point buck on opening day. A grateful, fulfilled life is a much bigger trophy.
