It’s a longstanding tradition for those of us at Fox 10; Thanksgiving lunch.  We all gathered into the news studio, which became the Fox 10 Dining Room for a few hours, as we shared a great meal and lots of laughs, as you can tell by the pictures.

I spent a great morning at Mary G. Montgomery High School, getting students ready for the upcoming season of HiQ.  It’s an academic quiz competition that I’ve hosted for the past twenty-something years, along with producer Julie Harper and equipment managers Wendell Lewis and Joe Mills.  The 4 of us travel to 15 high schools in Mobile and Baldwin counties during the first few months of each year, doing our best to promote academic excellence.

As I told the students during this morning’s orientation session, I think they are academic stars who deserve the same respect as outstanding football or basketball players. 

The HiQ team members are all great kids; bright, eager and friendly.  Their faculty advisors deserve a lot of the credit for channelling that energy into achievement.  In fact, at least one faculty adviser this year used to be a HiQ team member. 

The 2010 season begins in January.  I’ll be posting stories on the matches here on fox10tv.com–and instant score updates on Twitter.  Just send me an invite @Bob_Grip .

Ken Burns got me thinking about veterans, Veterans’ Day, and one veteran in particular.

When I talked to him about his series, The War, he told me he wanted to tell the story of World War II from “the bottom up”. There were millions of those stories about the War, but now, veterans of that war are dying at a rate of 1,000 per day.

My dad.

Like so many other veterans, my Dad (pictured left) didn’t talk about his experiences much. He was drafted at the age of 32, he served as a rifleman in northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe, he nearly got killed at least once, and he came back home. Perhaps he felt his story wasn’t unique because WWII touched everyone. If you weren’t fighting, you were home working in a defense plant, trying to figure out how to get to work on your rationed gasoline.

My Dad served in Europe with the 94th Division (you can see the insignia on his helmet). When I was little, I would ask him to tell me another story about “the war”. At the time, I really didn’t know what “the war” was, but I knew it was an important part of his life.

He told me about a friend of his, Paul Hart, who was shot to death by a Nazi sniper while next to my Dad.

I learned that my Dad earned his Purple Heart on the front lines when a bullet clipped off the bottom of his ear. Luckily, someone had asked him a question and he turned to head to reply. That question saved his life.

I heard about a friend of his from the French resistance, who managed to survive the war only to die in a motorcycle accident in Algeria.

He told me about the Russian soldiers for whom he served as a translator when they were liberated from Nazi POW camps. He feared that they were no better off returning to the Soviet Union to face an uncertain fate.

I heard stories about frostbite, marching until your boots rotted and fell apart.

But the best story involved being on a train with others who were injured. The Paymaster was walking through the cars, distributing pay envelopes, asking the names of the soldiers. “Grip”, my father said. “Get out of here”, said the Paymaster. “I just paid you in the other car”. My Dad replied with language he cleaned up for my young ears at the time and said, “No, I haven’t been in another car”. The Paymaster told him, “Well, I just paid a fellow named Grip in the other car.” At that point, my father whistled. In my family, we had a whistle that all of us recognized. I can’t describe it, but I remember the seven notes.

When my Dad heard the whistle returned, he hobbled to the next car to find one of his brothers, whom he hadn’t seen since they were both sent off to war. Neither knew the other one had been injured.

I’m glad my Dad shared those stories with me. “Taps” has sounded for him, and so many other veterans. As Ken Burns discovered, there are still some who remember those days of sacrifice. Learn their stories now, before “Taps” is played again.

My favorite status update so far on Twitter:

Here it is, November 9 and we’re having to deal with tropical weather!

As our Chief Meterologist Jason Smith was explaining during an afternoon meeting in the newsroom, this is an extraordinary event.  When the temperature in the Gulf starts dropping, it robs tropical systems of the energy they need to thrive and survive.  That’s what is happening, but it will still leave us with a lot of rain and high wind especially Monday night into Tuesday morning.

BTW, we’ll be offering extended coverage tonight.  Our 5 p.m. newscast will stretch until 6:30.  The 9 p.m. newscast will go until 10:30.

It’s been fun watching certain “out of town” media come to town and try to become instant experts.  I just watched a live interview with Dr. “Saron” Hollinger of the Baldwin County school system. 

It made me think of a reporter who was dropped into Mobile as Katrina approached, doing a live broadcast in front of the U.S.S. Alabama.  She said, “The ship behind me has decided to wait it out, and remain docked here”.   That’s true.  It didn’t move .

Hurricane Ida

Hurricane Ida is currently located near the Yucatan Channel and is entering the southern Gulf of Mexico. The center of  Ida is located at 21.2 North and 86.0 West. Winds are at 90 mph. The system is moving n’west at 10 mph and the central pressure is 983 mb. The hurricane force wind field is very small with Ida. However, tropical storm force winds extend 140 miles from the center.

A hurricane watch is in effect from Grande Isle , LA to the MS/AL border. This includes Jackson County, MS in our viewing area. A surface high pressure center off the Carolina Coast will combine with Ida to produce strong pressure gradient force winds across our area, especially along the coast. A gale warning is in effect from Monday afternoon until late Tuesday.

Ida is being steered by a mid to upper level trough over the western Gulf and a mid to upper level ridge over the eastern Gulf and northern Caribbean. The forecast track is now a little faster and the models are in agreement that this system will pass very close to our area on Tuesday. Some strengthening is expected today, and then a weakening trend will begin on Monday. Ida will be tracking over cooler waters in the central and northern Gulf. The system will also encounter stronger wind shear on Monday and Tuesday. We expect Ida to transition into an extra-tropical low as it reaches the northern Gulf Coast.

Across our area, we expect quite a bit of rain, especially on Monday afternoon and Tuesday. We will see tides above normal along the coast, with winds to tropical storm force on Monday night and Tuesday. Conditions will improve of Wednesday as Ida weakens further and tracks north and east of our area.

In this case, BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology, and “Game Day” is Saturday at Davidson High School in Mobile.  You’re invited.

Starting at 9 a.m. in the Davidson gym, robots built by teams of students will fact off in a competition that’s a lot of fun to watch.  Each school basically receives a box of parts and instructions to design a robot that will perform certain tasks.  The rest is up to the imagination of the students.

25 schools have been working for months to get ready, and you can bet they will bring teams of cheerleaders, parents and supporters to cheer them on!

I’ve been asked, once again, to help present the trophies and prizes to the winning teams at the end of the day.  Join us!

I was reading a great article in this morning’s New York Times about David Bronner, the financial genius who runs Retirement Systems of Alabama, and made me think of a conversation I had this month while visiting in Chicago.

I was staying at a Passionist monastery on Harlem Avenue, helping to plan a conference to be held at Loyola in 2011, when I met one of the Brothers who lives there.  We got to talking during breakfast and he asked where I was living.  When I told him, he looked at me and said, “Do you know David Bronner?”.  I laughed and said I knew of him, that practically everyone in the state did.  It turns out this Brother was a classmate of Bronner, and said he still talked with Bronner about once a month.  Small world…

Well, not really, but I did think of Fugitive Files when I took a few days off to visit San Francisco, pay a visit to Alcatraz Island, and spend time in Berkeley to see a daughter and son-in-law.

I had the pleasure of hosting the Miss AWAG (Area Women’s Action Group) 2009 Beauty Pageant. The event was held at Faulkner State Community College on September 26th.

Congratulations to this year’s winner, Ms. Erin Patterson!

She’s a senior at Daphne High School, with an amazing voice.  Patterson says she plans to study Theatre Arts when she goes to college. 

This was my second year hosting the pageant.  It’s really neat event!  Not that I’m biased… BUT having competed in pageants before, I can’t stress the importance of pageantry enough.

The competitions help with self confidence, finding a platform to speak your mind and they also promote community service.

AWAG contestants were judged on talent and performing arts, evening wear and their knowledge of current events.  For example this year, the girls were asked to share their thoughts on the controversy that stemmed from President Obama’s decision to speak to students during school.

Despite dwindling financial support, pageant organizers of the pageant are able to provide winners a scholarship to Faulkner State, as well as cash prizes.

I have to give a personal thank you to Ethel Higgins for inviting me out.