There’s an old English idiom that says, “To have no truck with.” It basically means that someone doesn’t go in for syrupy or emotional stuff.

I’ve never been overly sentimental. But something happened two days before Christmas that made me question my sentimentality.

Two years ago, someone dumped an expectant momma cat at our place. We live on a homestead in the country. People find our dead end road irresistible for dispensing of their animal responsibilities.

The momma kitty decided that behind our ...

I now understand why my grandparents were resistant to change. When what you’ve always known is taken away, and the familiar is replaced.

My grandparents saw many things become common. The telephone, automobiles, airplanes, radio and television. I’m sure the things they witnessed seemed like magic. But what’s whizzing by now seems almost unbelievable.

On July 20, 1969, my parents let me stay up to watch the first man walk on the moon. I remember asking my dad if it was real. ...

The transition to digital is understandable in some areas. Watching old movies is easier online. But when it comes to reading, I still prefer a hard copy. A book.

Especially when cooking.

One of the most heartbreaking things to see is someone selling their mom’s or grandmother’s cookbooks. But I see them all the time. And I buy many of them. Especially the ones that still have note cards and slivers of paper wedged strategically between pages where someone’s preferred recipe lived.

“Bill’s ...

For much of the twentieth century, the Sears Roebuck catalog held a special place in American homes. It was never just a book of merchandise. It was a window into a wider world for families who lived in small towns and rural places where stores carried little beyond the basics.

In Ashdown, Arkansas, the catalog shaped Christmas wishes, household plans, and childhood arguments over who got to see it first when it arrived.

Sears was not the only catalog. Montgomery Ward, JC ...