A Free Gift Inside!

My sister and I would make a beeline for the cereal aisle at the Piggly Wiggly while my mom did the shopping.

Decisions, decisions. Did we want to roll the dice and pick the cereal that promised the possibility of getting the coolest toy, or did we want to go with cereal we liked since, either way, we’d have to eat the whole box?

They were called product premiums, and you don’t see them much anymore.

The marketers of American products used to ...

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Where The Heck Is Tyler, Texas?

“Where the heck is Tyler, Texas?”

My question didn’t surprise the guy on the other end of the line, and he chuckled.

It was early 1987. I was a 24-year-old disc jockey with a young family, and the job I had at the time just wasn’t working out. Shockingly, six months into the gig, the manager at the station reneged on my compensation package and cut my salary.

If you aren’t familiar with the radio business, being lied to and underpaid are hallmarks ...

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The Cat On The Mat

After living in the city my entire life, in 2003, we decided to give country living a try.

The transition wasn’t too different from Eddie Albert’s Manhattan to Hooterville move on the TV show, “Green Acres.” The only difference was that I wasn’t a wealthy New York attorney and our move was from Tyler to South of Whitehouse. Other than that, it was exactly the same.

I grew up in rural Arkansas, so I’d been around country settings in my youth, but ...

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Name Dropping

Most old-school celebrities are just regular folks.

There are very few celebrities I’ll spend money to see, but Jay Leno made the list.

We sat in the audience waiting for him to take the stage, and when he did, he didn’t disappoint. He’s one of the few comedians left who can be non-stop funny for 90 minutes without being vulgar.

We didn’t get to meet Jay, but he seems like a nice guy. He has that reputation in the show ...

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