There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person. - G.K. Chesterton
Remember last fall when I bought two goldfish? Well, Jack died. This isn’t news, since he died within a month or so. Tollers on the other hand has grown and is as healthy as ever. His growth spurt has reminded me of a book I read in the fifth grade a [...]
Nearly every day I pass by the elementary school where I was sent for the 3rd grade. Yesterday I was in a particularly nostalgic mood remembering Mrs. Cook and her class. Mrs. Cook was the kindest teacher I ever remember having. Which might be due in part to the fact that her [...]
I just got back from my thing at UNCG. It always makes me a little sad to go back, because it’s a reminder that 1) more and more time is separating me from some of my fondest memories and 2) that everything changes. My sophmore year is especially burned into my memory. [...]
I remember the small bathroom off of the main room where my first grade class met. It was basically a closet with just enough room for a toilet, with a skylight built-in to the ceiling. I can remember looking up…way up…at the skylight, and the room seemed a hundred feet tall. I’m [...]
Behind the row of houses across from our cul-de-sac ran a small creek. It was surrounded by small woods that followed the creek’s winding path behind the row of houses, until at one end it opened up into a clearing behind the townhouses, and at the other joined the larger woods outside of the [...]
There are certain anchorpoints in my memory that I always go to when I think of phases in my life. Watching my grandpa load the tiller up onto the blue pickup just as the rain starts…bringing tadpoles for show and tell in the third grade only to find out that they had grown legs [...]
Nearly seven years after my dad passed on, I can still hear his voice.
“Don’t use ink pens with my straight edges…you’ll ruin them.â€
My dad, a draftsman, had a large metal drafting table that we kept in our den when I was growing up. Unlike the more economically designed tables I see for sale today, [...]
I was talking to a friend of mine a while back about school and somehow we landed on the subject of math. Neither of us did well in math, and he began to describe his early childhood difficulty with numbers. Apparently he couldn’t remember them without assigning a gender to the number. [...]
The advent of the 8th grade saw the release of that strange hormone that forces awkwardness upon teenage boys. Socially, I shut down, crawled up into my shell, and waited for middle school to be over. The only solace I found was in my 8th grade crush, a cute long-haired girl who [...]
The sky to the west is a dark grey that gives a peculiar contrast to the brighter eastern clouds. After a steady afternoon rain the feeling of fall sits heavily in my room. In my mind I’m in the 8th grade again, the day not unlike this one. I get off [...]
Owen was one of those strange incidental characters in my life. One that, at long last, I feel has finally played his part and has left the stage, leaving a void that beckons to be filled by more weirdness.
I met Owen in kindergarten. Even then I remember him as tall and lanky, [...]
Middle school, the 8th grade in particular, was the most miserable experience of my childhood. It was that year that I suddenly found myself a complete and utter introvert…and there’s no creature more miserable than an introverted, awkward-looking 14 year old with protruding ears. If middle school were the animal kingdom (and the [...]
I have known one person in my life who articulated every single word she said. I mean every word. If something was important…it was ImporTanT. And if something didn’t happen, she would tell you that it DiDn’T happen. Clearly, this had to have taken many hours of practice. While other [...]
In keeping with my pack rat tendencies, I keep just about every drawing I do. It’s helpful when I’m feeling like I’m in a rut because I can go back a year or two and see how much I’ve improved. It’s always fun to go back and see what I was drawing when [...]
Last week Sarah and I finally put together our spare bedroom. It should be noted that this comes after nearly 4 years of using it as nothing more than storage. So now at least I feel like we’re finally living in a 3 bedroom house. Even though the other room isn’t a [...]
Not only will this be long and in a couple of parts, it’s written mostly for my benefit. Read if you want.
Rockford was born in 1917. I am not certain if he was the youngest ( though I seem to think so) of the six or seven children in the family. The [...]
Now that I’m out of work with five years of memories to sort through, let’s explore one together. Wouldn’t that be fun? OK! Get ready for a magical ride of whimsy and mirth!
Disclaimer: This ride contains neither whimsy nor mirth.
Among my many attempts to procure gainful employment elsewhere, two [...]
For a long time when I was in school I would catch the bus in front of my friend Ronnie’s house. Ronnie’s house was not a part of our neighborhood, instead it was situated behind the woods on three or four acres of land. It was an older house that was built before [...]
I have pictures of my grandfather from the 30’s and 40’s and in nearly every one he has a cigar or a pipe in his hand. He chewed tobacco and cigars (yes chewed) until the day he died at the age of 83. I spent a lot of time with grandpa growing up. [...]
Last Saturday I was standing in Lowe’s trying not to look stupid when I saw an old friend of mine. I hadn’t seen Ronnie in nearly 2 years. We had grown up together and he, our friend Joey, and I were inseparable until we were about 18 or so. Ronnie saw me, [...]