Unattended Husbands

Since my wife retired, she does what many retirees do. Whatever she wants.

Like many families, our children and other family members are scattered across the country like dice across a table. Consequently, some of her time is spent flying or driving for visits in Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, and other destinations.

But, being gone from home requires the one thing that most wives dread. Leaving their husbands unattended. For whatever reason, women think that men are completely incapable of handling a few ...

Continue Reading →
0

Going Dutch

A number of years ago, I stumbled across a television program on what was then a new cable offering called the RFD-TV channel. A man named Cee Dub was on the screen cooking an entire meal using only Dutch ovens. I was fascinated.

I vaguely remembered these cast iron pots with three legs from my days in the Scouts. I made it through Cub Scouts and Webelos, but only a year or so of Boy Scouts. By about age 12, I ...

Continue Reading →
0

And Sew It Goes

My friend’s mother had passed away and my friend had the unenviable task of sorting through her mom’s things. She had decided what she was going to keep, but now she had to price the remaining items, advertise the sale, and then watch as strangers came through her mom’s home and took them away.

I’ve gone to estate sales, yard sales, and garage sales (there are many names for them) all of my life. Some of the best things I’ve come ...

Continue Reading →
0

Go Johnny Go

I had no idea how much one man had impacted my life until Chuck Berry died recently at age 90.

When I was 8 years old, I knew that I wanted to play Rock and Roll music. What I didn’t know was that Chuck almost single handedly gave Rock and Roll the roots of its sound and paved the road to success for all rock acts who would follow, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

I remember walking into Mike Hubrel’s ...

Continue Reading →
0

Soldering On

I sat near the front of the auditorium. I was the fourth to speak, so I wanted to be as near the podium as possible. But, I sat in the section to the left. The center area was for the Veterans.

There were only two.

It was the 74th memorial service for the Camp Fannin Association, and it was held at UT Health Northeast, which now occupies the site of one of the largest military training facilities of the Second World War. ...

Continue Reading →
0

Tick Tock

I read something recently that was a bit disconcerting. Someone was offering a class to teach children how to tell time.

Think about that.

We’ve simplified the most basic things to the point where children, the very group of people that we will all rely on to run the country and our nursing homes when we reach old age, can’t read a watch or a clock.

Sure, kids, or anyone else for that matter, can look at a cellphone or a digital device ...

Continue Reading →
0

Chewing The Fat

Some men do things they aren’t supposed to when their wife leaves town. I’m no exception.

I kissed her goodbye and told her that I loved her, I would miss her, and to tell her mother hello. The first chance I got after her departure, I did a rapid, cursory inspection of the refrigerator.

Just as I suspected. It was full of healthy food.

I toppled the stacks of fat-free yogurt as I parted them like the Red Sea, looking for something that ...

Continue Reading →
0

Stuck on Green Stamps

My mom and her mother saved 7 1/2 books to get us that swing set. Just three years before in 1966, my parents had saved to buy their first house. Money was tight, so, if my sister and I were going to have that new addition to the backyard, Green Stamps would be the key.

For families in America in the 60s and 70s, Green Stamps were part of life.

S&H Green Stamps are no longer available, but at their zenith, moms, ...

Continue Reading →
1

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 ...

Continue Reading →
0

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 ...

Continue Reading →
0
Page 40 of 55 «...1020303839404142...»