[August 29, 2024] Among the many moves my family made during my teen years, one allowed me to join the Boy Scouts. Despite the brief time in scouting, it would remain a valuable part of my life. “Mom & dad, I hate scout camp. The scoutmaster told me to write this letter. I promise you I am OK… Read More »
[August 22, 2024] I’m from the poor Deep South, where I can still find my heart. I relate closely with those living in small towns and on farms, working blue-collar jobs, local volunteers, small church congregations, and truckers. When people ask where I’m from, I say, “I’m from Mer Rouge, Louisiana.” Despite not living there for six decades,… Read More »
[August 15, 2024] In the summer of 1967, when I was about to turn 15, the Academy Award-winning war movie “The Dirty Dozen” came out in theaters in my new Texas town, much to my happy surprise. I’d never seen anything like it; in the film, many of the worst convicts-turned-soldiers were given a top-secret mission to pull… Read More »
[August 9, 2024] I left home at 17 and I was gone before my High School graduation because I was enrolled in college and taking classes, a couple of weeks before my friends walked across the High School graduation stage at home in Abilene, Texas. I imagined in my mind my friends with their parents hugging each other, taking… Read More »
[August 5, 2024] There it was again, my yellow-stained 6th-grade Report Card with my end-of-year marks. I didn’t want to even look at it. Okay, I had at least one “B,” and I think that was in “recess.” And to make it worse for me, one of my parents had to sign off acknowledging my performance. “You can… Read More »
[July 31, 2024] In May of 1970, after I started Engineering classes at Texas Tech University, I turned 18, registered for Selective Service, and received my military draft notice shortly after that. The Vietnam War was still going strong with American and NATO participation, and the draft was in full swing, calling up young men to be part… Read More »
[July 21, 2024] I liked nothing more than riding my motorcycle out on the open road, headed to nowhere in particular. I’m just riding with the wind in my face. It was freedom like I’d never had at another time or place. I couldn’t explain it either, but going faster than a bicycle or a car was more… Read More »
[July 19, 2024] Farmer Simons and I were out in one of his grassy fields, trying to get a 1920s Doodle Bug Ford tractor running again. When the engine turned over and started to sputter back to life, we let go a holler of excitement. “She runs!” “There’s life in that old girl.” There was no telling how… Read More »
[July 8, 2024] Good teeth, good health. My first dentist appointment was when I was 14. I was lucky; many kids I’d grown up with were adults before they had their first dentist checkup. My dentist was as old as the dinosaurs and kinda weird in his own way. Dad called him a “guild barber,” whatever that meant… Read More »
[July 7, 2024] With a quick motion, I was dunked underwater by Preacher John at the Southern Baptist Church of Mer Rouge, Louisiana, in the Fall of 1961. He gently bent me backward and then straight up with one hand over my mouth and nose and the other on my upper back and said, “I baptize you in… Read More »