When I was a child, there was a painting that hung on my grandmother’s kitchen wall. It portrayed a man who was praying over a meal of bread and what appeared to be a bowl of soup. Near the man was a book, which I always assumed was a Bible, and a pair of spectacles.
From my earliest recollections until my dad’s mother passed, I remember looking at this painting while we ate in her home and wondering many things. Who ...
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Hands down, fall is my favorite time of year. I just wish that fall lasted a little longer in Texas.
Had I been born and raised in a different climate, this might not be the case. But, growing up in the south, the fall won my appreciation at a young age.
For those who are reading this and are sitting in a geographical location that is visited by four equal seasons every year, pat yourself on the back and say, “I am ...
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Our major holidays are centered around faith. Easter, Hanukkah, and Christmas focus on God. So does Thanksgiving, but it focuses on appreciating what the other holidays represent.
My earliest memories of Thanksgiving are of my sister and me riding in the back seat of my mom’s 1960 model Buick and traveling from one grandparent’s house to the other. I was very fortunate as a child. Virtually all members of both sides of my family lived in the same town.
Ashdown, Arkansas, was ...
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Wanna hear something really scary? If the estimates are correct, you’ll drop an average of $74 bucks for Halloween.
$6.9 billion. That was Fortune Magazine’s estimate in 2015 for the total amount Americans spent on Halloween. That included candy, costumes, and decorations. This year likely will be close to the same totals.
So, why do we celebrate Halloween? What makes us shell out hard-earned cash for large quantities of candy and dress up like ghoulish figures and politicians? Please forgive my redundancy.
According ...
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Walking down the sloped driveway, newspaper in hand, I strain to see the house, which is shrouded in fog. As I pass the truck parked in the drive, the mist has frosted the glass and offers the illusion of being covered in ice. The quiet is broken by a single crow, announcing his presence as he pierces the fog near the chimney and flies to my left, on the way to the rest of his day. The cat greets me ...
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My middle name is a gray area. Literally.
My middle name is Gray.
I’ve written before about last names, or surnames as they are called in the United States and other parts of the world, but until recently, I hadn’t thought too much about why we have or need a middle name.
In regard to history, last names are a relatively recent thing. Only used for the past few hundred years for most of us who trace our roots back to Europe, the ...
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I grew up in a family who fixed things. We fixed things because we didn’t have the money to pay someone else to fix them. As a result, I was taught a little about a lot when it came to everyday items.
Things used to be made simply. Consequently, in most cases you could fix most items yourself. A fan, for example, was rudimentary. A housing, blade, electric motor, and a plug was pretty much all there was to one. The ...
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I was about five years old when I discovered that my name wasn’t actually Johnny. I didn’t say anything about it until I was eight. Then, my OCD kicked in.
In the third grade, I decided to insist that I be called John. John was my name, and I should be called that.
This didn’t go over too well with my parents, especially my dad, who informed me that he could call me whatever he wanted.
He had a point, but my name ...
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I have become enamored with survival shows on TV.
Honestly, this isn’t a recent thing, it started about 10 years ago with a program called Survivorman, starring a man named Les Stroud. The premise is to take Les and drop him off in the most inhospitable place possible, with no food or water, few supplies, and a give him a week to not die.
It’s quite like going to the mall with your wife.
Mr. Stroud was the first of his kind to ...
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There was almost no breeze. Record temperatures were being shattered in England, and the Southern US was also pretty darn hot.
But three teenage kids in Arkansas decided that it would be a great idea to live in my backyard for most of the summer of 1976.
My cousin Randy was up from Alvin, Texas. I honestly can’t remember why he stayed with us for so many weeks, but I do remember that my mom quickly reached the end of her rope ...
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