Southern Stories, Interviews, and Artifacts
The Semmens wedding was the perfect excuse to celebrate surviving this hellscape of a year, and I was more than ready. John Semmens, the groom and now grown-up that I’d started babysitting when I was fifteen years old, was getting married. Although the Semmens had moved from south Georgia years before, our families had remained […]
I’ve always been a goody-two-shoes, a square, maybe even a prude. I suppose I am too afraid not to be. Growing up at home, Daddy didn’t put up with much. I knew exactly how I was expected to behave. Until I was about sixteen years old, I was intimidated, maybe even a little afraid of […]
For the last ten years or so, Jamie’s business has provided customer service at a tradeshow in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Working on this show has always been a family affair. Over the years, the show has become more than just another job. Now it’s more about friends and family. It’s tradition, reunion, loyalty, fun. […]
My last post was in June of last year. Thanks to quarantine, I’ve found the space to write again. This post is part two of what is a three-part series about the BIG FUN we had at my cousin’s wedding in Birmingham, Alabama last summer. Check back next week for part three. If I’m going […]
This post is part one of what is a three-part series about the BIG fun we had at my cousin’s wedding in Birmingham, Alabama. Family weddings don’t get any better than this one, y’all. We received the Save the Date for my cousin’s wedding in February, so it wasn’t like I had no idea I […]
For those of us who choose to worship in small churches, at least those in southwest Georgia, our responsibilities are clearly defined. There are so few of us, we all have to do most everything. Like – everything. At Elmodel Presbyterian, at the corner of Georgia Highway 37 and Jericho Road, each woman […]
Jamie introduced our boys to the empire that is the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) when Colin was about two years old. Jamie isn’t really a devotee, but when he realized the children didn’t know who Andre the Giant was, he recognized the opportunity for education. One Easter we took the boys to “big church” […]
I take showers in the mornings, a foggy stumble into the bathroom for a quick in-and-out of a hot shower and hair washing. In high school, I took a bath just before bedtime and had enough time for a little ritual. Balancing my little black boombox with a cassette player on the towel rack, […]
When I was teaching, there was a pervasive theory that if it hadn’t been taught by Spring Break, it would not be learned at all. I suppose this theory is based on the fact that we have more in common with the animal world than we recognize. For it is in spring when animals […]