Peter Gay: Some thoughts during a frantic time – The Sun Chronicle
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The days leading up to Thanksgiving have always been the busiest of the year since I first started calling the Attleboro and North Attleboro game back in 1984.
For the last 16 years, the game has been followed by North TV’s coverage of the town’s annual Santa parade. I always take the hours after the parade to unwind, plan and gather my thoughts before the start of our busy winter sports coverage.
Here are five of those thoughts from last night (one for each point in North’s margin over AHS on Thursday):
— I received a nice text from North Attleboro football coach Mike Strachan after Thursday’s game thanking the North TV team for our coverage this past season. My reply? The pleasure was all ours.
Stachan is a class act and the school is lucky to have him.
The first-year head coach started a new tradition for his team following the game by leading the team, still in uniforms and cleats, on a walk through the downtown while passing cars honked their horns in appreciation.
— Our leaders in Washington, D.C., could learn a great deal from the Attleboro and North Attleboro football players taking part in Thursday’s game. In spite of the fierceness of the rivalry, opponents helped each other up after big hits and then lined up to shake each other’s hands at the game’s conclusion, something sorely missing on Capitol Hill.
Those on the left blame Donald Trump for the erosion of decorum in our nation’s capitol, but I point back to the actions of Representative Joe Wilson during a speech by Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress 13 years ago.
You may remember the South Carolina Republican yelling “You lie” at Obama during his speech, an action unheard of at the time.
Democrats aren’t blameless, however. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also showed a lack of class when she tore up her copy of Trump’s State of the Union address following his speech in 2020.
It’s time for officials to start acting like adults. For example, would it have killed future House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his fellow Republicans by attending Pelosi’s announcement that she was stepping down as the leader of House Democrats?
Small gestures like that will go a long way in bringing this country back together.
— If you haven’t been to the Blue Pride Bistro on the first floor of the new Attleboro High School make sure you take the time to stop in for lunch one day. I attended a dinner there last month and the presentation and quality was as good as any five-start restaurant in the area.
Our family also ordered two pumpkin pies from the Bistro for our Thanksgiving dinner. They were superb and cost a fraction of what they would have cost us elsewhere.
— Bristol, Rhode Island, is the destination of many New Englanders on Independence Day because of the parade the town hosts, the oldest Fourth of July celebration of its kind in the nation.
North Attleboro may soon become a similar destination on the Sunday following Thanksgiving.
The longtime home of the Downtown Associates of North Attleboro Santa Parade and the Christmas tree lighting that follows on the veterans common, Town Manager Michael Borg this year added a first annual Leftover Turkey Trot 5K run, walk, stroll or roll and a Kringle Mart at the Masonic Temple.
— There are three memories I will keep from the recent funeral of Chief John “Jack” Coyle.
The first was the walk-through conducted by former and current members of the North Attleboro Police Department, the town’s fire department, the Massachusetts state police and representatives from other police department’s throughout New England before the start of calling hours.
The second was the singing of “An Irish Blessing” by the Rev. David Costa and the cantor at the end of the Mass at St. Mary’s Church. There were few dry eyes by the end of the song.
The third was the salutes by members of the NAPD as the hearse passed by the officers stationed at major intersections on the route to St. Mary’s cemetery, many of whom weren’t even born when Coyle was chief.
The people of North Attleboro are lucky to have the officers they do.
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