Fireflies, Fistfights, and Arm Farts by Gene Strother growing up in smalltown Texas in the late 1960s and early ’70s Read on Substack
Tag: Family
What the Prodigy Said to his Progeny: a (very) open letter
Listen Children, and I will tell you the story of the pitfalls of the prodigious. I was a prodigy – not universally acclaimed but thought to be so by those who knew me. I knew before I was double digits in age what I wanted to do with my life, and who I wanted to…
Scars, but you’re worth it!
Don’t be scared. Be scarred instead. Wounds become scars. Scars become stories. Stories become inspiration. Storytellers with scars become legends.
Before I forget: living with Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
Author, speaker, and business leader Gene Strother writes about dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia in his family and offers advice…
Texas Rangers win the World Series and I keep thinking of Little Granddad
Congratulations to the 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers. And to us, their longsuffering fans. The 1972 Rangers, a transistor radio, Little Granddad, and me It is the Summer of ’72. I have finally hit double-digits in age. Our family of four is crammed into the cramped quarters of an old wood-framed, pier-and-beam house that…
“Can use Ju Jitsu”: remembering Mom on her 80th birthday
She was born Freda Jo Henager, on October 27, 1943, 80 years ago today. She was the first of five children for William Austin and Nova Dean Henager, and she was the first and last love of my father, William David Strother. She was only 17 when she married David. I was born barely more…
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.
Grave Troubles Be Gone: True Love Never Dies
She’s living proof true love never dies. from Living Proof by Ricky Van Shelton It’s a mystery I can’t explain why,We pay so little heed to the time flying by.It’s a plain simple truth, the surest I’ve knownIt’s a short time here; it’s a long time gone. We’re busy with things that don’t even countNever…
Word Warrior has arrived and poetry will never be the same
Word Warrior is a collection of poetry and prose. It is rife with insights, hindsight, reflections, regrets, celebrations, loss, family, friends, aching bones, breaking hearts, faith, hope, and love. The book contains a love song I wrote for Donya in 1979 and a piece of a song I wrote about a stranger when I was…
Crestfallen: has honor been lost forever?
There was a time when families, like nations, flew their flags…flags that bore a crest with emblematic symbols and sometimes mottoes.
Thank God for the Patriarchy and Pocket Knives
“You say ‘Patriarchy’ like it’s a bad thing,” I said. “It is,” he replied. “The age of Toxic Masculinity has come to an end.” “Indicting masculinity because toxic males exist is like blaming pollution on oxygen.” “I don’t know what that means.” “Then ask your Dad.” I am exploring the mental database of distant memories…
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 One: An Inauspicious Start
The wife and I just completed our Summer vacation. It was a fun-filled, whirlwind-yet-relaxing week that took us on an 800+ mile journey from Massachusetts to Vermont to New Hampshire to Maine and back to Massachusetts. We left the triple digits of Texas for milder weather. We vacated the North Texas prairie for soaring mountains,…
My Faithful Valentine: a story of love
Last night Donya asked if I remembered what I gave her on that first Valentine’s Day we spent together. I did, sort of. I remembered I gave her a blouse or a dress or some such. (I am sure the mountainous, volatile, protective Tommy Weir was thrilled that the big-eared kid with the silk shirts…
The sun shines…even when it doesn’t
Some trips are for business; others are for pleasure. This was neither. Having just come off a lengthy business trip that also included times of fun and relaxation, my wife and I landed at DFW early Thursday morning, only to leave Friday afternoon on a trip both of us wished was not necessary. We learned…
The gospel according to Hank …and Holly
I grew up with a Bible in my hand and big chunks of it systematically planted in my heart and mind. For that, I am grateful. Every sermon I ever heard about the poor, wandering, lost sinner sounded eerily like this: I’m a rollin’ stone all alone and lost For a life of sin, I…
The 60-Year Wedding Anniversary: A Milestone for the Mighty in Love
Tommy and Mary Weir, my in-laws(for 37 years and counting), are celebrating 60 years of marriage this very day. SIXTY! YEARS. This is a milestone not many of us will pass.You gotta get it right if you wanna get it done. To make it 60, you have to marry fairly young and really well and…
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…
18…Again – A note to my firstborn on the 18th anniversary of her 18th birthday
A few days ago, my ever-so-curious and talented son-in-law Edward Frys discovered a long-forgotten and deeply buried treasure of floppy disks bearing assorted thing I had written and saved over the years. I had not seen them or anything on them in 15 years or so. Among the digital cobwebs on these vintage computer disks…