I saw a T-shirt that said, “I like a couple of my buddies, my dog, and that’s about it.”

It substantiated what I had long felt, seldom said, and had heard from others. Many of us like our dogs better than most people. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Every time we lose a dog, I always say I’ll never get another one. It just hurts too much. And if I’m honest, which I am, the hurt often exceeds ...

My uncle’s mother, Mrs. Ward, had a storm shelter. And I snuck into it every chance I got. Few others had one, so a storm shelter was absolutely fascinating to me.

At least, a storm shelter is what they told all of the kids it was. It doubled as a storm shelter, but it was actually a bomb shelter.

In mid-20th Century America, most kids were kept in the dark about a lot of things, including potential thermonuclear war.

When I was growing ...

When Eisenhower, JFK, and LBJ were in office, rarely would you find a kitchen that didn’t have an electric skillet.

Waking up each morning to the smell of bacon, sausage, and fried potatoes was just how the world turned in 1960s Ashdown, Arkansas.

And an electric skillet was part of what made that possible.

Moms across the South used cast iron to fry up meals, but there were only so many skillets and spaces on the stovetop. That’s where the electric skillet came ...