This will be hard for some to believe, but once upon a time, TV was free.

Sometimes, I think about what it was like before we had a thousand TV channels.

It makes me recall when three little channels used to offer a heck of a lot more to watch.

I can remember the first time I saw HBO. This was the late 1970s, and it was truly amazing to see a TV channel in someone’s home that played uninterrupted movies. I can ...

How many cars have you owned?

By my count, I’ve owned or co-owned 23 automobiles. That’s in 38 years of driving, so that’s a different vehicle about every year and a half.

Yes, I’m a car nut.

However, I didn’t change vehicles every year and a half. Some I owned for as long as 10 years. I’ve also owned as many as five at a time.

The 23 doesn’t count the vehicles I drove before I had a car that was actually mine. I ...

Every family has a recipe that no one likes, but no one’s willing to admit it.

So, what’s the recipe in your family that sends shivers up your spine whenever you find out it’s being served?

With the holidays fast approaching, I began to think about the joys of holiday feasting. Which then made me think about all of the family gatherings, which then made me think of the inevitable dish of Jell-O with fruit in it.

I’ve always hated Jell-O. Even Bill ...

I had been sitting in the airport for what seemed like forever.

It was just after they announced her plane’s third delay that I noticed him swinging his mop back and forth across the marble floor.

He looked to be in his late 60’s and he took his job seriously. It was a level of seriousness that I hadn’t seen in a long time. He liked his work and took pride in it.

As a child, I remember most adults being nice and ...

Every home has a random junk drawer.

Just as the accounting profession has a miscellaneous cost center, every home has a miscellaneous drawer. Or, as I’ve always called it, a random junk drawer.

Ours is in the kitchen. Actually, it’s two drawers since all of the random items that we can’t bring ourselves to toss won’t fit into just one.

I was about to toss a clothespin into the larger drawer, when I realized just how much stuff was in there.

An inventory of ...

Everything I like is bad for me.

When you’re a kid, grownups give you candy and cookies and ice cream. When you get older, people younger than you try to take all that away.

My doctor tells me the same thing every time we visit.

“You need to lose about 25 pounds, watch the fat and sugar intake, and let’s see if we can get this cholesterol under control. I want to see you again in six months. That’ll be $100.”

I’m considering mailing ...

I volunteered just to get out of class.

It was 1980 and I was a senior in Arkansas at Ashdown High School. One spring day, the bloodmobile came to our campus and our third period teacher announced that anyone who wanted to help those in the hospital could donate.

Like most 17-year-olds, I was more interested in what was in it for me rather than for people I didn’t know who were in a hospital.

So, I raised my hand, got up and ...

There are only a few real friends we have in life. We may have hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, but real friends, we only have a few.

While fulfilling my civic obligation at jury duty this week, my phone vibrated. I was sitting there watching people give the judge their excuses on why they should be allowed to go home, so I welcomed the interruption.

I looked down and saw that it was a text from a high school buddy. In ...

Vinyl records are making a comeback.

What was written off for dead 25 years ago is now the only segment of the music business that’s showing an increase in hard copy sales.

The website marketplace.org recently featured a story on the subject. It states that record album sales in 2013 had grown to 6 million, and that number is expected to increase this year.

With the last new vinyl record press going online in 1982, why has this happened? The answer is young people.

Even ...