Believing The Hype

This space is usually relegated to discussions centered on fried baloney sandwiches, classic TV shows, and the like. But today, I’m venturing into Dear Abby territory.

With apologies to Abby, Heloise, and Anne Landers, here we go.

No one actually wrote me for advice, but let’s pretend they did:

 

Dear John,

My Toyota Sasquatch isn’t very fuel efficient. My budget no longer allows for driving and buying food. What should I do?

Signed,

Hungry in Houston

 

Dear Hungry,

Have you tried hypermiling? It’s a trick you can do ...

Continue Reading →
0

Cross Roads

Spring had arrived, but the heat and humidity had not. It was glorious.

If I’d had a convertible, I would have had the top down. But I didn’t. So I did the closest thing I could. I rolled the windows down before putting on my sunglasses.

The shifter was in the console. I engaged the transmission to drive and pulled onto the highway from my parents’ home. I drove to my job at the radio station.

Radio was king. To work in the ...

Continue Reading →
0

Just The Facts Ma’am

When I was a kid growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, we picked up three channels. ABC, CBS, and NBC. PBS existed somewhere else near big cities. We’d heard of it, but didn’t pick it up off the antenna that was attached to the side of our house. This was the same antenna I was sent out to turn whenever the signal waned.

So, like most others growing up in 1960s America, kids dined on a steady TV diet of Hollywood’s version ...

Continue Reading →
0

Something To Remember Me By

The things people use on a daily basis mostly go unnoticed. A watch, knife, or Bible typically doesn’t have a lot of actual value. That is until the person who owned them is gone.

Then the item goes from being a tool to becoming a treasure.

Some of my most valued possessions wouldn’t bring much on the open market. But to me, they are priceless.

When they were given to me, I was grateful, but not appreciative.

I am now.

Growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, ...

Continue Reading →
0

Seeing The Light

Buying a loaf of sliced bread is something we all take for granted these days, but it has been available commercially for less than 100 years. It was first sold in 1928.

By the 1960s, sliced bread was how most kids in America survived. Not wheat bread or whole grain bread. I’m talking about light bread.

Now, people in different parts of the country call it different things, but in Ashdown, Arkansas, everyone called it, ‘light bread.’

If you’re unsure of what I’m ...

Continue Reading →
0

Let ‘er Rip

Whoever designed the string-pull on a bag of charcoal needs to know they failed.

And it isn’t just bags of charcoal. It’s also large bags of kitty litter and pet food. You pull the string and it either snaps off in your hand or removes one of your fingers, but it never ever pulls evenly and removes the paper to let you get at what you’re after.

Let me put it this way. If this design were also used to try and ...

Continue Reading →
0

With A Little Help From My Friend

Driving my new 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass, I steered its long front end into the carpet and tile store.

Actually, the Olds wasn’t new, but it was new to me. The person I was about to meet was also new to me. His name was Dennis.

He worked full time as an Ashdown, Arkansas, city cop. The carpet store was a part-time gig. At least then it was part-time.

I also worked multiple jobs. Disc jockey, grocery store employee, and photographer. On this day ...

Continue Reading →
0

A Guest Blog by Bret Engle of DIYGuys.net

Entrepreneurship 101: Financial Setbacks Are a Lesson, Not a Projection

The COVID-19 pandemic caught us unawares. Its impact on businesses, large and small, reverberated throughout societies across the globe as dedicated workers experienced layoffs, reduced hours, pay cuts, or outright job losses due to closures. Some, however, were able to pivot and adapt, delivering to customers what they needed in the present, as opposed to what was available pre-pandemic. Others found a new business ...

Continue Reading →
0

This Spud’s For You

Potatoes.

That’s what mom said got us through the hard times. Potatoes.

I honestly never knew we had hard times, but if she said we did, we did. And during those financial bumps in the road, we ate potatoes. Lots of them.

Like many families, my parents had a garden. I always thought they grew okra, tomatoes, and other itchy vegetation to make my life miserable. But the potatoes I never minded.

That’s because potatoes are the most versatile food on Mother Earth. The ...

Continue Reading →
0

Just Desserts

It’s hard to beat pie. You can go to any fancy restaurant and order a $20 item from the dessert menu, but it won’t be as good as a slice of my momma’s chocolate pie. Or pie made by any respectable lady who grew up in the South – which is anywhere below Little Rock.

There’s magic that happens in the kitchen when grandmas pass on their secrets of how to make pie, cobbler, and pudding.

Southern women learn early in life ...

Continue Reading →
0
Page 13 of 40 «...101112131415...»