For me, Thanksgiving 2012 began in May, when I was dispatched to Galveston, Texas, to escort a contractor onboard Carnival Dream. The contractor had been hired by Carnival Cruise Line to create a giant inflatable turkey for a planned Thanksgiving public relations stunt.
In 1986 I finally left the plastics factory in Greensboro, N.C., after 6.5 years because I realized I needed to finish my undergraduate degree. My wife at the time, Terri Averette Banks, was art director at Pace Communications, a fledgling publisher of airline in-flight and business magazines. Terri had gotten me a gig demolishing some offices in the Pace building that were being remodeled. I was standing on top of a partition wall, busting up drywall with a sledgehammer when in walked Melinda Stovall with a shoebox in hand — and changed the trajectory of my life.