When I was growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas, I thought every adult was old. I really couldn’t tell how old someone was, I just knew that they looked old to me, so they were.

Maybe that’s why the young man gave me the discount.

About a dozen years ago, I went in early one morning to a restaurant that served breakfast. It’s gone now, but when it was around it was one of the few places where you could get real homemade ...

Saturday night 50 years ago, who else was held hostage by their grandparents and Lawrence Welk?

By their other grandparents and Hee Haw?

Back then a handful of relatives and three channels were all we needed to have good, clean entertainment and quality time with those we loved.

At the time, it seemed like TV prison. I would’ve rather watched The Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family but those shows weren’t options at my grandparents house.

We watched what they wanted, which was typically ...

My grandfather was a blacksmith. To supply his shop with the metal, wood, and other materials he needed to operate, he attended auctions. Auctions that sold all types of items.

Since his shop was in Ashdown, Arkansas, that gave him close proximity to the auctions frequently held in Oklahoma. Hugo, Broken Bow, and other Sooner State locales were rich with things he needed to fabricate his living.

One Thursday night a month, my sister and I went with our grandfather and grandmother ...

There are events that are so significant that virtually everyone can tell you where they were when they happened.

The loss of Kennedy, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the moon landing, and of course 911.

But the death of Elvis came to mind recently when someone mentioned it was his birthday. When I looked up his birth year I was taken aback.

Elvis would have been almost 90. The age of 88 to be exact.

What’s even more jarring is that he’s been gone ...

The first time I saw a VCR was in 1979. A buddy of mine got it from a friend who bought things he couldn’t afford.

Many of my most prized acquisitions came through similar channels – people who overbought and then sold to me at a great discount – but that’s for another column.

There was something magical about being able to record something right off of the TV antenna and watch it again. And again, if you wanted. But at first, ...

I have no clue why we’re told to say, “cheese” when preparing to have our photos taken. I do know that I often said cheese when asked as a kid what I wanted to eat.

Specifically, cheese toast.

That was my go-to quick meal growing up in Ashdown, Arkansas. I wasn’t allowed to eat it every day, but I ate it as often as my mom would make it for my sister and me.

Cheese toast was one of the simple, yet hearty ...

Once upon a time, kids used to get bored. Before cell phones, video games, and 4,000 cable channels with nothing to watch, there wasn’t much to do. And kids got bored.

I was one of them.

It was bad enough to have a deep, endless chasm of time swallowing you (think Christmas holidays or summers before you were old enough to work a job), but it was even worse when you were with cousins and other family or friends, and all of ...

My mother must’ve kept everything my sister and I ever made for Christmas. Some things were put together in school, but most were done in Sunday School.

Same is true for anything we ever made, regardless of the time of year.

Decades later at a Christmas gathering, if something someone says reminds my mom of a drawing I did in Vacation Bible School in 1967, she leaves the room and moments later returns with said drawing for all to see.

I never understood ...

I love language. Especially English. That’s likely because it’s the only language I speak.

I’ve read that outside of Icelandic, English is one of the most difficult languages for a non-native speaker to learn. Inside of Icelandic, I bet it’s even harder.

I was listening to a radio show that deals with words and unique regional phrases, and a caller rang up the hosts about the word, “spell.”

The lady who called lives in Appalachia, where she said spell is a word of ...

Saturday mornings used to be for kids.

Weekdays as a kid on Beech Street in Ashdown, Arkansas, started with the two captains. Captain Kangaroo and Cap’n Crunch. Saturdays were for all of the other shows made for children..

You felt ownership of the TV on Saturday. Cartoons were on all three channels. You didn’t have to worry about your parents coming in and switching the dial to some educational show that actually made you learn.

Yes, Saturdays belonged to the youth of America. ...