I thought the cast iron skillet my mom cooked virtually every meal in when I was a child was her favorite. I now know that she cooked with it because it was the only skillet she had.

That skillet represented how many families in small town America lived in the 50s and 60s – as simply and inexpensively as possible. The goal was to just get by.

Growing up in Arkansas as the child and grandchild of parents and grandparents who weathered ...

If there’s anything crueler than insomnia; it’s insomnia topped with a weakness for cooking gadgets sold on 3 a.m. infomercials.

Of course, I’m blessed with both.

Let’s face it. Cooking requires just two things: Something to cook, and heat.

So, why is it there are so many different ways to cook, and why do I feel it mandatory to own all of them?

The short answer is that I’m a sucker. I’m exactly the guy the people who make infomercials are looking for. Someone ...

Photo credit: eBay

Ironically, the year America celebrated its 200th birthday and independence from England, it was a British rock star who held the number one spot on the American rock album charts for 10 weeks.

Peter Frampton had released four albums with little success, but his fifth, a double disc called “Frampton Comes Alive,” exploded in sales. Frampton became one of the hottest concert tickets in the country.

He was so in demand, it would take two more years before he played ...

I was too small for football and too slow for track. I played catcher, but was a lousy hitter.

My dad had been the captain of his football team and had even been offered a football scholarship.

In my case, the apple fell pretty far from the tree.

However, there were two sports that I was good at. Neither of which my dad thought were manly.

Tennis and bowling.

I discovered tennis around age 12. My aunt and uncle had a summer cabin in Oklahoma. ...

“You’re 24-years-old. You really need to find a primary care doctor,” my wife said.

“But, there’s nothing wrong with me,” I responded. “Why go get something I don’t need?”

“You will one day,” she answered. “You need to establish a relationship with a single doctor who can take care of you for the rest of your life.”

It was the 1980s, and I was working, going to college, and raising a family. Her request just seemed like one more thing to add to ...

(photo: 1976 Ashdown High School Panther Eyes annual)

If you want to see what life was like and what a community was doing in any particular year, pull a copy of a high school annual from just about any hometown and look at the ads in the back.

Skip the senior portraits and the group photos of the Beta Club and the school choir. Look at the ads in the back of the annual.

That’s where the real story lies for how the ...

Photo credit: Jwilli74 Wikipedia

When I was little, every time I got sick, I was fairly certain that every medication the adults dispensed was designed to kill me.

Before the advent of all of the different drugs we’re blessed with today, every single thing a parent or grandparent needed to treat a sick kid could be found on one aisle at the Rexall Drug.

And it fit neatly between the Aqua Velva and the Brylcreem behind the mirrored-door medicine cabinet, located above the ...

Each time we have a significant weather event, it seems to turn into a contest for storytelling. Each person tries to top the current weather with a story of another one they lived through that was far worse.

But, during the winter storm that everyone in the state of Texas, and many or most in Arkansas, Louisiana, and other southern states stumbled through, I heard very few people trying to top what we were experiencing.

Phrases such as, “I don’t ever remember ...

Most of us have a box or other container where we keep items we feel are important enough to carry with us throughout our lives. Mine is a cardboard box. It includes things that might not mean much to others, but do to me.

I call it my, “Life Box.”

I don’t see my life box very often. Most of the time, it sits on a shelf unless I’m looking for something that’s in it, I’m adding something to it, or we’re ...

(Note: In a previous column, I requested recipes for homemade biscuits. Boy, did I get them. Thank you to everyone who shared their recipes. Some dated back over 100 years to great grandmothers, while others came from the packaging of flour bags. At the end of today’s column, I’ve included one that was particularly fascinating and tasty. ~ John)

(Today’s column on paper towels comes with a nod to Andy Rooney)

Do you ever wonder why they couldn’t just leave paper towels ...