Memories of event I didn’t see

• Jul 17, 2019

Neil Armstrong outlasted me.

Puttin’ up time comes again to the mountains

• Jun 12, 2019

It was almost as if a signal had been sent up.

Turtles, and history, on the move

• May 22, 2019

My tortoise made its move the other day.

On going down with the ship

• May 15, 2019

Daddy was never much for boat fishing, as far as I can tell. I imagine he did it a few times, but I don’t ever recall seeing anyone towing a boat into our driveway.

A winner in the ‘sweep’ stakes

• May 8, 2019

Daddy was good with a broom.

Explosive tales and a one-of-a-kind hobby

• Apr 24, 2019

So there’s this joke going around:

Plowing time: From tractor to tiller to mule

• Updated Mar 27, 2019

As the ground slowly warms, the smell of freshly-turned earth begins to waft over the mountains. It’s hard to describe – a mix of the smell you get when earthworms surface after a rain and of, well, life lying dormant ready for another season.

Going batty over a burst of wild onions

• Mar 6, 2019

Wild onions are appearing in force, one of the first harbingers of spring.

Learning to drive involved moments of sheer terror

• Feb 27, 2019

One thing I’m glad to have never experienced is a school lockdown drill. Or a real lockdown, for that matter.

Celestial wonders take a back seat to nature’s booby traps

• Jan 30, 2019

Mother never told me a lie, but late in life she told me something that made me wonder if she’d decided to pick up the habit.

Itching for a visit from an old nemesis

• Jan 16, 2019

It occurred to me last week that Daddy was on to something.

Orange memories, with a side of rice

• Updated Dec 26, 2018

Even though they’re available year-round, the smell of an orange always reminds me of the holiday season.

It slices, it dices – no wait, it just empties your bank account

• Dec 12, 2018

It’s safe to say a great many Christmas traditions have changed.

Tales of turkey terror

• Nov 14, 2018

Were I asked what I wanted my last meal to be, I’d have answer one of the following:

The season of omens and portents

• Updated Oct 17, 2018

It’s a curious world and seems to be more curious still as we settle into October, the month of haints, omens and portents here in the mountains.

A time when phones were a party

• Oct 3, 2018

A video circulated a few weeks back on YouTube showing a group of young ’uns, the current generation that has technical prowess unmatched in human history when it comes to communications technology, attempting to use a rotary phone.

Patching together a look at some fashion no-no’s

• Updated Sep 26, 2018

I suppose making fun of fashion has been in fashion as long as fashion itself has … um, been in fashion.

When disaster strikes, sometimes it’s best not to pick up the phone

• Sep 19, 2018

The sound coming from the phone sounded all the world like a swarm of angry bees.

The garden ends, mayhem begins

• Sep 5, 2018

One of the sights I enjoyed most in my youth was the browning of the cornstalks in the garden. It was a sign harvest was winding down, which meant Mother wouldn’t be turning the kitchen into a blast furnace during canning season much longer.

Maybe it’s time to bring graft back

• Aug 29, 2018

Roadside springs were once a thing here in the mountains.

Slackness vs. stubbornness: A breakin’ avoided

• Aug 22, 2018

Daddy abandoned me as a child.

Love of sports veered into dangerous territory

• Aug 8, 2018

ACC basketball nearly gave me frostbite.

It’s prolific, but there’s nothing divine about this vine

• Aug 1, 2018

It was a summer full of odd jobs, from cleaning restrooms at the Community Service Center to cleaning the trash piled up around Dumpsters from people with poor aim and/or discount garbage bags that fell apart at the seams, spreading their contents to ripen in the heat, awaiting Jim and his p…

Signs of the (forgotten) times

• Jul 25, 2018

There was a brief trend a few years back where grocery stores put advertising on their floors.

Granny was up to snuff when it came to bee stings

• Jul 18, 2018

A couple of co-workers were discussing wild mushrooms the other day. These folks know what’s what in the fungi world, and have been consuming this year’s crop with great gusto. Me, I stay away from mushrooms in the wild because I assume they’re all deadly poisonous, and only eat what I buy i…

A cool mountain spot when the heat is on

• Jun 20, 2018

Some years back, I got involved in a minor controversy regarding The South.

Some fundamental shifts in the culture: Who knew lightnin’ bugs would become an economic driver?

• Jun 13, 2018

Some of our interactions with wildlife have definitely taken on a Disney-esque quality.

A column with a very sharp edge

• Updated Jun 6, 2018

Mountain people have frugality embedded in their DNA. I suppose that’s a good thing, because most mountain people had little other than the land the lived on to rely on in their life’s journey.

Technology unwinds some old traditions of watch pockets and pocket watches

• Updated Jun 1, 2018

I was rummaging around in one of our trinket baskets the other day and came across a pocket watch and a Rolex.

If it still goes forward, who needs parts?

• May 23, 2018

An awful lot of features on Daddy’s trucks were apparently optional

There’s something in the air, so beware

• May 16, 2018

We’ve entered into the time of year when you’d best plan for pop-up thunderstorms in these mountains.

Humor gene came from some special ladies

• May 9, 2018

Mother’s Day is Sunday, a day to appreciate those who raised us, mentored us. It’s a time to appreciate the mothers still with us and to appreciate what carries on inside us from mothers since departed.

Maybe we should tackle litter differently: Sometimes the better angels of our nature just don’t show up

• Apr 25, 2018

I’ve spent most of the last week thinking trashy thoughts.

The dirt on modern lawns

• Apr 18, 2018

I didn’t just rise to the bait.

This particular possum wasn’t playing

• Apr 11, 2018

Well, I finally got to hear the story.

Fresh fish, straight from the box

• Apr 4, 2018

April was the traditional start of fishing season here in the mountains, a chance to dip a line after a long winter off the rivers and creeks in the area. My family participated in that annual ritual, and being a family of outdoorsmen enjoyed it, but Daddy decided he’d try a shortcut: Become…

The little egg that could ... lead to a car crash

• Mar 28, 2018

I guess the worst Easter egg hunt I experienced was the one where I wrecked the car.

Hillbilly upbringing has its pitfalls: An inadvertent lesson in sensitivity training

• Mar 21, 2018

I would not trade being raised in these mountains for anything. The era of my upbringing was a time when the land was still largely unfettered and easy to explore, the people bound by decades of history.

Ramping up for Easter; ham and a mountain necessity

• Mar 14, 2018

Every Now and Then

A bit of horse sense on the economy

• Mar 7, 2018

The stock market is going up and down like a yo-yo again – more down than up of late – and that brings up a tale of a leading economic indicator: horses.

The fine art of mountain angling

• Updated Feb 28, 2018

The arrival of warmer weather kind of went in steps back in the day. The garden got plowed, speculation about when the ramps would hit began. But perhaps the most anticipated step of all was the opening day of fishing season.

Behold, the arsenal of our youth

• Feb 21, 2018

I suppose it was the inevitable result of a mix of the outdoorsman craze of the 1960s and 70s (Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett) mixed in with comic book heroes, a dash of Bible study and the rise of ninja movies, but the thought occurred to me that we had an awful lot of handmade weaponry ba…

Every Now and Then: Close encounters of the blurred kind

• Updated Feb 14, 2018

Then there was that time I saw an alien.

The fiercest beast in the mountains

• Jan 17, 2018

I found myself lying there in a laurel thicket wearing a 3-piece suit.

A bovine with death on his mind

• Jan 10, 2018

As I’ve aged I’ve always sort of looked forward to winter. With no yard to mow or weeds to whack, winter generously hands a day of the week back to me, which I spend on enriching pastimes like watching football till my eyeballs roll out of my skull.

Yes, it’s cold, but it still beats the heat

• Jan 3, 2018

OK, I’ll admit it:

The powerful pull of mountain home

• Dec 27, 2017

The holiday season is a time when the thoughts turn toward home.

Coping (or not) with the snows of old

• Dec 13, 2017

Last week’s snow had us all breaking out winter gear we hadn’t worn in quite a while, and gave us a moment to reflect on how we dealt with the white stuff in days of old.

Of live bears, deceased bears and dead ringers

• Dec 6, 2017

Looking around the entertainment landscape these days, one might observe a noticeable lack of impersonators.

When truth is stranger than fiction

• Nov 29, 2017

I have a pretty good imagination, and I like science fiction, but have a tough time putting myself in the head of folks who fall for the fiction that folks are falling for out there these days.