Opinions

I was privileged to be in the delivery room when my wife and I had our first child. We did not know beforehand what it was to be, but I never entertained any thought but that it was going to be a boy. The doctor was sitting in place and the nurses were around doing whatever it is they do. I was watching the action with the doctor. I knew all about cows and hogs and dogs giving birth so I was not really nervous at all. It was just nature to me. Suddenly, I could see a little head full of black hair and I shouted, “Here he comes!”, and here she came! When I saw it was a girl, my whole being completely changed. I knew instantly I could never be the same as I had been, ever again. It is the strangest thing how the birth of a daughter can do that. I mean it is hard to keep up a rough, tough, country boy image while carrying a diaper bag on one shoulder and holding a baby girl in a carrier in the other. [Full Story »] 

My and B. J.’s annual winding-down-the-year holiday fiestas usually begin during the Thanksgiving season and run through New Year’s Day. It is the celebrating/eating time of the year where abundant calorie-laden cuisine is both a savory delight and a risky amusement. Extra pounds can and do collect. [Full Story »] 

Goodwill is asking the public to please donate clothing, household items, etc. Everything was lost at the Wilmington Island Store. These donations help employ more than 550 folks with disabilities. [Full Story »] 

An economics professor made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. This particular class had insisted that the current socialist movement in America is working and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich; a great equalizer. [Full Story »] 

Since before Halloween, stores have been putting out their Christmas merchandise. Red ribbons and silver bells along with trees of every shape, size, and color wait in the stores to decorate someone’s home. I actually saw a metallic purple tree in Savannah a few weeks ago. It was resplendent with pink lights and green ribbons. I won’t say I hated it, but I wouldn’t want it standing in my living room for the month of December—actually not even one day of it. I’m more a traditionalist myself. I want my old faithful ornaments that the children and grandchildren made or that we’ve collected over the years. I also like the ornaments that someone chose or made just for my family. Just today we added a handful of red Santas done in plastic canvas and filled with Hershey’s kisses. None of our ornaments are expensive. They have little monetary value, but to me they are priceless. I do like my Christmas tree. [Full Story »] 

I remember the day I tried to pick up a two-hundred pound sack of fertilizer. I was young and thought I was strong but I could not budge it. A short, thin, wiry man walked up, knelt down and grabbed it, heisted it up and onto his shoulder and walked off with it. This took place at R.W. Griffins Warehouse somewhere around 1959. By then, 200 pound sacks were relics, but back in the bowels of that old warehouse there were many relics that today would be priceless antiques. I would go there each day after school and help do whatever work was at hand, like unloading a boxcar of fertilizer until 5:30 and quitting time, whereupon I would catch a ride home with one of the men who worked there and who lived close to our home. You see, my Momma was working in Douglas at C.O. Smith Guano Company then and she moved me from the Hebron Institute of Higher Learning of the Piney Woods to the Douglas Elementary School where she thought for some reason that I would have more opportunity to excel. This plan might have worked except for the assorted miscreants in my sixth grade class with whom I became fast friends. All I knew at that time was hunting, fishing, and work. They introduced me to other areas of human endeavor that I didn’t even know existed, all of which were in direct conflict with my Sunday school upbringing and complete innocence. Of course, they say the same thing about me though I am the one still in recovery. Anyway, rather than ride home with Momma each afternoon, I chose to work at the fertilizer warehouse for free after school and hang around with the older men who didn’t care if I smoked, chewed, or cussed, as long as I worked. Muddy Waters called it being a ‘mannish boy’. [Full Story »] 

Early Wednesday, B. J. and I awoke to a faint pattering on our bedroom window. She rolled over and pulled the curtain. Rain was coming down hard. I shook some of the sleep off, pulled myself from the sack and wobbled out on the patio to get close up to the Tennessee rain. The landscape was beautiful even in the rain. A quick check of the local weather on my state-of-the-art Blackberry indicated that there would be rain most of the day. There would be no helicopter rides over the Smokies today. [Full Story »]