Friday is not Black for this Fred!

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday on which families gather to feast and give thanks.

This year I have so very much to be thankful for:

I was born in America the Free and fortunate to have parents who wanted to make a better life and provided me and my sister with excellent values and extensive education. 

Yes, I came up in the halcyon 50s and survived the caldron of the tempestuous 60s. 

I married very very well to my High School Sweet Heart Joanne and start this iteration by being thankful for my wonderful family: 50 yearsof marriage, 2 amazing sons and their equally amazing wives, 4 wonderful and soon to be amazing grand children and, of course, our puppy girl Charcoal! 

I am thankful for our enriching (it truly is better to give than receive) one of a kind networking group, Gotham City Networking, Inc., and all its many members, the interacting moving parts which make Gotham go around and come around-especially our Tribal Council (Nancy, Debbie, Mitch and Ben) and Entertainment Chairman Norman (VIG) Spizz.

I am equally thankful for my law firm, Klein Zelman Rothermel Jacobs and Schess,  which has been my professional home for so many years-especially my all female partners Joan Rothermel, Jane Jacobs and Nancy Schess, who provide me with invaluable care, advice, nurture and much needed and appreciated push back.  Also, I will dearly miss our retiring long term Office Manager Pat Sumple. 

I am thankful for the Friars Club, Gotham's home and my home away from home since 1978, my fellow Friars, especially my lunch partners Arnold Penner and Stu Cantor.   

I am thankful for my dear friends, teammates, colleagues, fellow travelers, fraternity brothers, Book Group members, co workers and Facebook friends.  

My life has been bountiful and fortunate.  I stand at this juncture hopeful that it can continue on track and wishing that this Land of the Free, as I know it, may somehow be sustained. 


Thank you and God bless America!