One of my favorite Hollywood comedies is National Lampoon’s Vacation. I love it because it is such an accurate caricature of life in the American familyand because most of us who have been around a minute can identify with the characters and their misfortunes. There is this epic journey to Walley World, with mishap after…
Category: nostalgia
The Journey Man: Celebrating seven years and change of not much
Today is nothing special…and that is a perfect reason to write this little bit of self-indulgence. I decided this morning over coffee to take a look back at my blogging journey. I discovered that I have been writing about sports, religion, family, faith, politics, and assorted other subjects for more than seven years. My very…
Like the rain: a retrospective of this life, love, and marriage
Marriage: Any relationship that stands the test of time must withstand its share of storms. It may have begun with sunshine and song, but the thunderstorms will soon roll in.
Hello, Spring and Happy Birthday, Dad
Dad didn’t pay much attention to his birthday, the way I remember it. Maybe that is because I was a kid most of his time on earth and kids figure birthdays are mostly for them and not so much the old folks. He’s been gone 25 years already. He would have been 76 today. It’s…
I, Tom Sawyer: The True Adventures of an American Youth | Part One: Billy Jack, Buford Pusser, and me
I grew up with a Bible in one hand and a copy of Mark Twain’sThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the other. If I had a third hand it would have held a football. A fourth would have had a baseball glove on it. A fifth and sixth would have clamped the handlebar grips of…
Some godly men I have known and you should meet
Yesterday, wonderful people from parts of our past stopped by on Facebook to congratulate Donya and me on 34 years of marriage. Just seeing some of the names afforded an opportunity to revisit those places where we left large chunks of our lives and pieces of our hearts. One of the notes was from Cathy…
Memorial Day Memories: Me and Captain Hook
Circa 1972. He was an old man when I was a young boy. He was gaunt, grayed, and scraggly. His voice had that quality that reminded you of the sound your sneakers make when you shuffle your feet on a gravel road. Beneath athinning mop of hair was a narrow face with hollow cheeks and…
Hey, Kids. History matters!
A football genius took me to taskthe other day for being a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, who, as mytormentor pointed out, “Suck, man.” I gently reminded the pigskin peanut brainthat the Cowboys have made eight Super Bowl appearances and have won five Lombardi trophies. The predictably tired and irretrievably ignorant retort was (of course),…
God Bless the Lesser Lights: The Undistinguished, Unextinguished.
Lesser Lights | An Original Poem God bless the lesser lights: Those lives lived on a small scale; Those names that never lit a neon sign, Nor graced a magazine cover, But are forever etched in stone In mostly-neglected, weed-strewn tombstone; Whose memory is faded, even to those that loved them. Their time…
West Ham United, Pretty Bubbles and The Still-Hopeful, Melancholy Soul
I was thinking about Dad this morning and singing a song he often sang, just out of the blue, just to break up the silence. The song goes like this: I’m forever blowing bubbles Pretty bubbles in the air They fly so high, they reach the sky Just like my dreams, they fade and…