There was so much to be thankful for Thursday.

Forty-seven years ago I vacationed in New Iberia during the week of Thanksgiving, sampled the bass fishing, was overwhelmed by the beauty of the nation’s last great overflow swamp and, most importantly, met the great people who make the Teche Area the best part of Cajun Country. My life and address changed from my native Kansas City, Missouri, to New Iberia after I accepted an offer to write for The Daily Iberian, after four years at The Kansas City Star, then moved here on Christmas Day 1975 at age 22.

Today I’m so very thankful for my family, for my friends, for the many encouraging words from readers, for the opportunity to write about the outdoors, mainly hunting and fishing. This area is blessed with ample options for both.

I was able to add another memorable moment Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. My wife, June, and I got a long-awaited visit from our oldest son, Joshua, who lives in New York and works as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines.

Due to his schedule, his return trips are few and far between to his hometown, where he graduated from New Iberia Senior High and was an original member and actor in the Iberia Performing Arts League. His latest visit began when he arrived at Lafayette Regional Airport.

Joshua, 38, grew up fishing many a day with me and June and our second son, Jacob. Those trips ended when he continued his education at the University of New Orleans, then worked in the hotel business in Atlanta before joining Delta Air Lines.

Wednesday morning he reacquainted himself with the Atchafalaya Basin. He was all for a bass fishing trip, a return in the nation’s last great overflow swamp.

He and I took advantage of a nice, balmy day, a respite from a chilly stretch of cold fronts. I hooked up the Ranger RT198P with a Mercury 150 ProXS outboard motor before midday and we headed to Myette Point Boat Landing.

You know what? Of all the trips this year, that was a most special day with my first-born. As I drove to Myette Point, I remembered a cold day on the water many years ago in one of my four DuraCrafts, a young boy huddled under a blanket with my left arm around his shoulders. We were traveling on the G.A. Cut.

That image has never left my mind. Neither has a bass bonanza all four Shoopmans enjoyed one day in one of those DuraCrafts as we caught and released nearly 100 bass in Oak Ridge.

It’s hard to forget one other moment captured in a framed photo standing with my keepsakes and knickknacks on a shelf of a cluttered desk behind me. It’s a black/white print of Joshua and Jacob, probably when they were 10 and 6, smiling on the front deck of a DuraCraft on an outing in the Sugar Mill.

They were wearing jackets, so it must have been a chilly day for fishing. The boys sat on the front deck, their feet on the floor, facing me, and Joshua had his right arm around his brother’s shoulders for added warmth.

As I said, I added another memorable moment Wednesday. We caught two bass in 1 1/2 hours on crank baits in the same borrow pit he once smiled so big with his little brother.

I didn’t want the trip to end.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.