Fireflies, Fistfights, and Arm Farts by Gene Strother growing up in smalltown Texas in the late 1960s and early ’70s Read on Substack
Category: nostalgia
Come Before the Fall: Another Breakfast with Billy Wayne and Joe Eddy
Billy Wayne: “We met in grade school. She used to chase me around the playground trying to get a kiss. She said she wanted to be the first to kiss a future giant.”
Joe Eddy: “What are you? Six foot eight?”
I miss the coffee can-do generation
I was raised under the influence of a couple of generations of Americans who never wasted an empty Folger’s coffee can, a King Edward’s cigar box, or a worn-out suitcase.
Vacation 2019: You can never go back but go ahead and try anyhow
Come with me on a visit to yesterday. It is OK to visit the past, to glean its gleaming fields of laughter and tears, of sorrow and joy.
Just don’t dwell there.
I have been and remain The Journey Man.
Remembering Rayburn: A trip down memory lane
Dr. Rayburn Blair Eloquence and influence I have been in Tallahassee, Florida two weeks today. Hurricane Michael plowed through Florida narrowly missing its capital (leaving only scattered and mostly minor damage in the city). The ravaged coastal area of Panama City and Mexico Beach, however, are not far from here. So, here I am, doing…
PONDERING WHILE WANDERING – SUMMER VACATION 2018 | PART FIVE: THE MAINE THING IS LOBSTER AND LIGHTHOUSES
After a fantastic day in the Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire, we headed for Bangor, Maine. We did not know we would be escorted by the participants in The Great Race, an annual event involving street legal vintage automobiles. At first, I was like, “Man! Look at that Model T.” Then, it was,…
PONDERING WHILE WANDERING – SUMMER VACATION 2018 | Part Two: Norman Rockwell, America! Lost and Found…
After a long and mostly sleepless night, Donya and I woke Sunday morning surprisingly refreshed and resolved to make the most of the next seven days. I had mapped out the places we wanted to visit. First up, Stockbridge, MA, and the Norman Rockwell Museum. America! Lost and Found… Norman Rockwell has always been a…
Dear Mom, Thanks for the benefit of the doubt
I woke up this morning thinking about my mother…Mom, I call her. I think it was the residual thoughts of a dream I dreamt, but it slipped into the recesses of subconscious and disappeared in the fog of fading memory. I can no longer confirm that I dreamed of her or dreamed at all. At…
A Father’s Day Remembrance: Little Granddad – the dad who almost wasn’t
I have honored the dads in my life just about every year around Father’s Day. My own father, William David Strother, died at age 51, when I was 30 and left a million memories of my childhood and a million more what-ifs behind. My wife’s father, Thomas Henry Weir, now 80 and still spry, still…
Trigger warnings, safe spaces, and middle-age orneriness
Dear College/University Student, Please forgive me if I don’t understand your need for Trigger Warnings and Safe Spaces. Forgive me not understanding how vital it is to your mental health and wellbeing to be sheltered from all adversity and opposing ideas. Let me explain where I am coming from and maybe, if in your safe…