THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2020 Page 13 TURKEY | FROM PAGE 1 This is serious stuff here, folks. Everyone was well aware that there was not going to be a Thanksgiving football feast to complement the turkey and fixings this year – we all got plenty of advance notice. But when reality really, truly arrives, sometime around 8 o’clock or so tomorrow morning, it is all over, close the curtains. There really, really is no Thanksgiving football game this year! In Malden, it means no game for the first time since 1888! Their game with Medford is the second-oldest continuous rivalry in the nation, for goodness’ sake! Game #133 was supposed to be tomorrow. “Was” is the operative word. Not happening now, kids. How about in Revere? Tomorrow the Patriots were supposed to be meeting traditional rival Winthrop for the 92nd time. Oh, what a glorious day it will be in 2028 for the Centennial 100th meeting! Uh, wait a minute. That will be delayed a year, now. At least. And in Saugus? It would have been the 75th meeting with Peabody between the longtime Turkey Day foes. Last year the final game in storied Sachem history was played at good old Stackpole Field as the new Saugus High includes a new football field as well. Will this game now be played sometime next March? Will Saugus still get a home game to open its new field in the fall of 2021? You need Agatha Christie to write the next chapter of this mystery. The pain in Everett will not be quite as severe, as the Crimson Tide was looking at a year without a Thanksgiving Day game anyway, as Masconomet, which had played Everett on Turkey Day the past couple of years, including a game at Fenway Park in fabled coach John DiBiaso’s finale, had pulled out of the relationship after three years. Not having any football all this fall season stung just as sharply as at the other schools, though. There will be the regular NFL games flooding the TVs tomorrow, of course, but it will not be even close to the same. High school football on Thanksgiving is oh, so much more than just going to the game – seeing old teammates, renewing friendships with former classmates and just getting out there and soaking it all in, whether your team wins or does not. How many of us see people at Thanksgiving football games and that is the only time we see them all year! Most of us? All of us? We cherish those moments so much and we look forward to them all year. Thanksgiving Day football matters. It really does, and now it is simply not going to happen because of COVID-19, a sinister thief over which we have no control. This is going to be a very tough loss in a year in which we have already lost so much. Now we know exactly how Charlie Brown feels the second after Lucy pulls the ball away. WHEELABRATOR | FROM PAGE 2 At the same time, he vowed that he wouldn’t be afraid to broach tough issues and that he wouldn’t support making any agreement with the company that would jeopardize the health and safety of Saugus residents. “I have serious thoughts about what I would like to see happen with a host community agreement. I would like to get the ball and run with it at the next meeting,” Cogliano said. “I think you can have an agreement faster than what it took to put this committee together.” Heffernan reiterated his promise that the meetings would not “degenerate into a shouting match” or allow Wheelabrator critics to bash the company. The mission is to work together cooperatively to solve issues at the plant, according to Heffernan. “If anybody feels they are going to take this opportunity to blame or point fingers, I’m going to mute,” Heffernan said, referring to his ability as cochair to silence the microphones of speakers who get out of control at “Zoom” meetings held via teleconferencing. “That’s the beauty of Zoom,” Cogliano said. Heffernan agreed. “We’re going to have adult discussions and get to the bottom of any issues,” he said.
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