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The older I become the more I realize I put my parents through perdition. The toughest task I believe I’ve ever faced is raising two boys. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe Amy and I have two of the best children we could have ever asked or prayed for, but as they grow older, I realize more and more each day how terrible I was as a teenager and even young adult. My prayer is that if my sons, Cole and Jacob, don’t do half the stuff I did, I believe they will both turn out just fine (maybe they will act more like there mom). [Full Story »] 

With the advent of gardening season comes the problem of how to handle the superabundance of fresh vegetables. What a fantastic problem to have. Here in South Georgia, we simply freeze or can most of it, but some things don’t freeze or can well. Who ever heard of canned zucchini or frozen eggplant? [Full Story »] 

Back in the 50s when I was growing up in a little town down the road—namely Hazlehurst, ladies dressed up to go to the Piggly Wiggly on Friday afternoons. I remember seeing Mrs. J.J. Miley in her navy blue polka-dotted dress with the white collar, her white gloves, and her navy blue straw hat with the white silk rose on the side. Her blue pumps and her navy patent leather purse finished the outfit, making the final statement that she was indeed a lady. She could have left the grocery store and gone straight to church, if any church had been open on Friday afternoon. I didn’t know Mrs. Miley well at that time, but I admired her taste, even as I resisted acquiring it for myself. After I did get to know Mrs. Miley, we spent a lot of time laughing about changing styles. [Full Story »] 

Back in the day, if you wanted a chicken for Sunday dinner you had to grow it and kill it yourself. It was back around this time in history, when most everyone had a few chickens in the yard, that Ahtee Crider began his odyssey as a chicken tycoon. [Full Story »] 

“The corn will be ready tomorrow morning,” my Mother said. I knew the only answer I could give was “Yes, Ma’am.” Everyone knows sweet corn, time, and the tide wait for no man. When it is ready, it is ready. If one waits too long, the corn will be hard. It is only just right for one day and Miss Myrtle will brook no insubordination or whining about a business meeting that day or a death in the family. All things must be put off when the corn is ready and corn, when ready, takes center stage at Vickers Still. [Full Story »] 

A timer sits in front of me and eats the seconds away, crunching into my day and my life, reminding me that time is relentless, ticking away as life moves along. It stops for no man--no woman either. During the crises of life it seems to slow down for sorrows and the sorrows never seem to end. The rapturous seasons of life fly right by us, but really, time is just marching steadily along—never changing. It’s a baby crawling on the floor searching for pennies to cram into its mouth. It’s a teenager driving the restored, candy-apple red ’66 Mustang and picking up the brown-eyed girl for a movie. Time is a man kissing his wife as he leaves for the office and putting macaroni and cheese on his table before rushing off to coach little league. All too soon it’s a man snoring in his recliner, remote in hand and cat in lap, flipping through the endless channels and finding only nothing. It’s a hearse parked at Omega Cemetery and a weeping family. Time needs no one and is totally sufficient unto itself, marching steadily toward eternity. [Full Story »] 

I hate to fly but my wife and I walked into Jacksonville International Airport last Thursday morning at 3 am. It was 73 degrees. I checked our luggage and told the handler I had a pistol in one bag, all legal, of course, unloaded and in a locked box and all that. Then we had to go through the body scan and Anne went through first, then me. I shut the place down as buzzers and bells went off. They took me aside and swabbed a white cloth patch across my hand. I knew I was in trouble right then because I had test fired the pistol earlier that morning. Sure enough, more buzzers went off. When I finally got out of wrist bracelets and leg shackles, I was allowed to proceed. When I finally found Anne, she pretended not to know me, even going so far as to swap seats with someone else so I could not sit with her. That is until we got to Sioux Falls later that day. Then she was proud to know me again. [Full Story »] 

I was in the grocery store the other day when I felt the presence of a Spirit from my youth. I turned around and caught Jerry Lee Braswell sneaking up on me. He started laughing and grabbed my hand and we embraced like the friends we are. Jerry Lee is only one of the many black men this white man respects and knows well. [Full Story »]