Southern Stories, Interviews, and Artifacts
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 […]
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 […]
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” […]
Once when I was working a temp job in LaGrange, a co-worker remarked that my childhood sounded like an episode of The Andy Griffith Show. He was right. It really was. Mama and Daddy did everything they could to make it so. In the field adjacent to Nanny and Pops’ yard was a fire-tower […]
The back-to-school honeymoon we enjoyed in those fresh-faced few weeks of summer is clearly over. We are swimming in the deep-end now. We are in full-on homework agony. The scheduling squeezes of after-school clubs are putting a vice-grip squeeze on us now. The once sparkly-new, back-to-school tennis shoes have turned into worn-down stinkers that fill […]
Once the bridges were reopened in the early morning of September 12th, I borrowed a friend’s car and drove back to our little apartment in Alexandria. Lying in Jamie’s arms in our little bed, in our little apartment so far away from home, I whispered, “I just want to go home. Can’t we go home?” […]
Just like nearly every other woman I know, tonight after I got home from my full-time job, I started my second full-time job. On this particular evening, in addition to the typical routine: supper prep, supper clean-up, laundry, and homework assistance, I also peeled 8 pounds of russet baking potatoes. Loaded baked potato casserole is […]
The hamster was not my idea. The hamster was Ginny’s idea and somehow, she roped Jamie’s sister Keisha into it, too. Colin had been asking for a kitten, but we already have a dog. Paisley, our miniature schnauzer, was bought for Jack after he turned three. Buddies for the last 11 years, Paisley follows Jack […]
When Ginny and I were around thirteen, Mama and Daddy started giving us someday house presents: a set of pewter candlesticks, iced tea glasses, a piece of silver. I romanticized the gifts, of course, and thought of them as a kind of modern dowry. When Jamie and I moved into our first apartment, I […]
I get too emotional about things. Always have. In fact, one of my best friends gave me a little pink sign for my cubicle wall that has “Just Slightly Dramatic” painted in white curly letters on the front. It is a facetious understatement. In fifth grade, I overheard my parents and their friends discussing local […]