I’ve always worked at least two, sometimes three jobs. My dad said it built character. Maybe so, but what I noticed was that it built my bank account.

In 1972 when I was 11, I began mowing yards, raking leaves, or doing anything else that paid. There were plenty of elderly folks in my hometown who were no longer able to do this type of work, and I was only too glad to help them.

That same year a man in my ...

The yards had been mostly vacant on the street around the corner from our house, save for the tricycles, small bikes, and other toddler transportation.

But the warmer weather brought out the owners of these wheeled treasures.

On my way home, motion caught my left eye. She appeared to be about five years old. Straddling her bike, she stopped to wave at me.

I tapped the brakes on my old truck so that she could see my quick wave back.

She smiled. I smiled. ...

Rush Limbaugh single-handedly revived AM radio. In 1988, his syndicated talk show brought people back to a place they had left for the FM dial.

AM radio once was all we had. The advantage of the AM spectrum was the number of stations you could pick up, especially at night.

I listened to stations from all over the country. Late at night, stations from Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, St. Louis, and other distant cities would come in loud and clear. And even ...

When we think of someone becoming an instant sensation, we think of the Internet.

But long before AOL offered floppy disks and dial-up through an online platform (which, even as slow as it was, made calling Suddenlink today for tech support feel like you were riding on a bullet train), there were a handful of stars who didn’t need the World Wide Web.

Through sheer talent, there were a few individuals who punched through our consciousness and captured our attention. Talent so ...

We now take them for granted. But not so long ago, a washer and dryer were a luxury.

Actually, a washer was a luxury. A dryer was for rich people.

The small, red brick house we lived in on Beech Street when I was young had a clothesline. Most post-World War II homes had a clothesline. It was located behind our laundry room, which was in the back of our freestanding garage.

The family who owned the property before we had it had ...

When you’re stuck in your house for weeks on end, there’s an undeniable temptation to eat more. It creeps up on you at first, but soon, the cravings hit you like a high school girlfriend who caught you looking at a cheerleader.

Most of us justify this extra eating by saying, “I’m using my newfound time to learn to cook!”

I knew that I had a problem about five weeks in. That’s when I got on our talking bathroom scale and the ...

How is it that we’ve managed to cram virtually every necessity we need into one single cell phone, but I still have seven TV remotes on the table next to my chair?

I remember the first time I saw a television set that had a remote. It was the early 1970s, and our new next-door neighbors had a black and white TV that had a remote.

The television looked just like ours. There was a knob to change channels, a volume knob, ...

My dad and grandfathers taught me that if there’s a way to help someone, and you have a skill set that allows you to assist them, you should use it.

There’s an Internet app that’s become quite popular called, “Nextdoor.” It is a way for those who live in a specified, smaller neighborhood area to connect and communicate about everything from where to find toilet paper to sharing information about a military veteran who is struggling.

Recently, a good friend and I ...

There are two, true tests for how solid your marriage is – Covid-19 and hanging wallpaper together.

As I awoke from 9 ½ hours of sleep, all rested and ready for another day of hand sanitizer and staring out the window, I thought about how many scenarios there could possibly be that would force two people into close quarters for days on end.

After eliminating the age range of 18 through 29, I was able to narrow it down to two things: ...

Linus had his blanket. I had a rabbit. His name was Harvey.

Most children have a favorite stuffed animal. Recently, my mother came across two that belonged to me when I was quite young. One was a clown I don’t remember much about, but it was obviously one with which I snuggled so tightly that his plastic face disintegrated.

My grandmother sewed a new cloth face on the clown to keep me going.

From the clown, I graduated to a monkey. I’d seriously ...