He left me a message, so I called him back.

It’s funny how, even if you haven’t talked to a childhood friend in a long time, the conversation picks up as if you had just spoken earlier in the day.

“Remember that location you always said you’d like to buy one day?” he asked me.

He was referring to a store in our hometown of Ashdown, Arkansas. For some reason, I felt I had a calling to be the proprietor of my own ...

They were called, “Victory Gardens.” And they were one of the weapons US citizens used to help win World War II.

With the bad guys throwing everything at us that they could, in return, we were throwing everything at them that we could.

What we were throwing was in the shape of bullets, bombs, aircraft, and tanks, all of which cost a lot of money.

With the military needing all of the commercially grown food for the troops, the president asked Americans to ...

Pee Wee Herman died.

He was a character, not a real guy. But, to many of us he seemed real. And that’s what made him so unique.

The actor Paul Reubens created Pee Wee Herman as part of his stage act in the late 1970s with a group of improvisational actors called The Groundlings. Reubens said he had around 15 or so characters, but none of them received the feedback and appreciation that Pee Wee did.

As a result, he said he began ...

When our parents would take my sister and me from Ashdown, Arkansas to Texarkana, often they’d succumb to our begging and stop for ice cream.

The only destination considered was Baskin-Robbins 31 Flavors.

Sure, there were other options, including Dairy Queen, Tastee-Freez, and A&W Drive In, but with Baskin-Robbins sitting right on the Texas side of Stateline Avenue between Interstate 30 and downtown, there was never any question where we’d go.

Also, my mother liked pralines and cream, which was only available from ...