The Corner Store

Before Wal Mart and its supercenters, there were corner stores. A typical corner store was locally owned, small, sparsely stocked with kitchen and other household essentials, sometimes selling gasoline, and was located near or in the middle of a neighborhood.

In my hometown, we had Puckett’s Store and Withem’s Store.

Both were located on Highway 32, with the former on the edge of town and the latter closer to the center.

My family traded primarily with Mr. Withem. Hindsight, that choice had a ...

Continue Reading →
0

The Crock-Pot Crackpots

During a recent discussion with coworkers, someone asked me what was typically served every Sunday after church when I was a kid.

Of course, I said pot roast.

Pot roasts migrated from the oven to the Crock-Pot during my childhood. The Crock-Pot was and still is the perfect cooking appliance for a pot roast. It was also the original set-it-and-forget-it appliance.

Moms would get up in the morning and sear the roast in a cast iron skillet, then toss it ...

Continue Reading →
0

My Grandfather’s Blacksmith Shop

My grandfather’s shop seemed cavernous. Every room was filled with tools that a man with a strong back could use to make a living and feed his family.

My grandfather was a blacksmith. His name was Parmer.

He was a product of the Great Depression. Born in 1918, he arrived at adulthood in the midst of the worst economic period in American history. But, like many men and women of that era, he was raised in a family that survived not on ...

Continue Reading →
0

Finding Mrs. Right

I first noticed her when she was standing about fourth in line.

I was working in the radio business at the time, and the Dallas Cowboys were headed to the Super Bowl. That should give you an idea of how long ago this story takes place.

The radio station was giving away a trip for two to the game, all expenses paid. We went to different advertiser’s locations and set up registration booths for the drawing. She was trying to win the ...

Continue Reading →
0

Cooking Up Memories

My wife and I love to buy old cookbooks. I find most of them at estate sales.
The families who are selling them are indifferent and I’m sure they have never looked for or seen the notes that their mom, grandmother, or great grandmother, scribbled in the margins.

So, for 25¢ or 50¢, I take home the guidebook for so many of their memorable family meals.

But, some of the best recipes are not found in a cookbook. They were found in ...

Continue Reading →
0

Musical Freedom

As I plugged the Stratocaster into my Fender amp, the buzz of the quarter inch plug made contact with the amp’s input and let me know that the amp was ready when I was.

We live at the end of a dead end road in the middle of nowhere.

The location was strategic. It was a request I’d made years ago. I’d always wanted to live as far away from town as possible. Town was where the jobs were, but when I ...

Continue Reading →
0

Random Road Debris

How someone can lose a shoe and not notice is beyond me. But, it isn’t uncommon for me to see one shoe in the middle of the road.

The lone shoe is just part of a much bigger phenomenon that I call random road debris.

Random road debris is anything that you spot in, on the edge of, or near a road that doesn’t belong there.

Stripes in the middle of the road belong there. A striped tennis shoe in the middle of ...

Continue Reading →
0

Gardens And Grandma

As a kid, I hated the vegetable garden. If you stood on our back porch, it was to your left. It took up the entire corner of our large yard.

To me, gardens were work and nothing more. From planting, to weeding, to harvesting, to canning, it was a waste of valuable play time. It also took away the area of the yard that the neighborhood kids and I liked using for a baseball diamond.

I would watch television and see advertisements ...

Continue Reading →
0

Watch This

Watches are going the way of the buggy whip.

Many people, especially younger folks, are opting out of wearing a wristwatch. It seems that the same thing that made the Kodak camera, the video camera, the calculator, and many other once commonplace items, has also made the watch obsolete. The smartphone.

As if people needed another reason to stare at their cellphone, the iPhone is also now a timepiece for many.

Long before batteries powered watches, you had to wind your watch each ...

Continue Reading →
0

The Marriage Manual

There should be a marriage manual.

When a man asks a woman to marry him, the woman gets a wedding shower. The man gets a bachelor party.

Women are practical. They give the bride-to-be kitchen towels, a Crockpot, frying pan, bedding, dishes, cookware, an iron, and silverware.

The groom’s buddies give him a hangover.

What they should give the guy is an instruction booklet.

The marriage instruction booklet should be written by really old men who have been married at least 50 years.

If you are ...

Continue Reading →
0
Page 5 of 8 «...34567...»