(ROCKWALL, TX – May 11, 2015) My dad has always got the press. Having served on the Tennessee Governor’s cabinet, as well as 20 years in the State House of Representatives, he was a giant in our community, and a hero in my life. Yet, as they say, “the hand that rocks the cradle is […]
ROCKWALL,TX. (August 19, 2014) Pappaw taught me how to change oil. Often I rode my go-cart in his “back 40” between the peach trees and the potato patch and then he’d wave me in, “Give it a break, Scotty, and let’s change that oil.” He loosened the plug to drain it and made me touch […]
ROCKWALL,TX. (July 16, 2014) Compared to her older brothers, my daughter is unique: they are athletes; she’s an artist, barely noticing a ball. They are rough, a little wild (Huck Finns and Tom Sawyers around here); she is quiet, shy, and reserved (Becky Thatcher). We’ve had her involved in art classes, but she needed something […]
(February 11, 2014) I bragged the day I was scheduled to work with Angie McGinnis. I dialed my best friend and rubbed it right in his face. We worked concessions at a local ball field, which meant busy weekends as cowbell-ringing parents and uniformed tots packed the diamonds playing all-day tournaments. Brad and I typically […]
I don’t know if I could make it as a kid these days. Many of the junior highers I teach need a personal assistant with the myriad of lessons, and practices, and select teams, and personal coaches, and trainers, and workouts. Those practices and trainings aren’t for naught, either, so every weekend is packed with […]
(Rockwall) July 30, 2013 – A friend texted a few weeks ago: “Interested in co-ed softball? We’re putting together a team.” He was crazy; a decade had passed since my last men’s league game and 41 is a far cry from my spry 30’s. The wake-up-sore-how-the-heck-did-I-hurt-that- feeling greets me each morning so I half-heartedly chuckled […]
July 8, 2013 – Two of my boys and some friends started a summer contest: the most fish caught by August 12, and the winner receives a new fishing rod along with the Twitter handle, “@TheAngler.” The one rule is they must all be fishing together for the catches to count. No one owns a […]
June 27, 2013 – Christy busted in my classroom too excited for schoolwork. Paris would be her summer destination. “Paris,Texas?” I asked. “Paris, France, Coach,” she giggled – although to me, Paris, Texas, sounded pretty good. The class erupted in vacation plans: Brittany was visiting her family’s beach house in Galveston while Charlie would deep-sea […]
(Rockwall) June 23, 2013 – My students clamored for summer break, having whined and begged for free days once Christmas ended (an exercise in futility… I give no free days, ever). After a year of higher standards, grueling tests and lackluster results, this class cleaned out their locker, turned in lingering assignments, and became freshman—another […]
When my dad was a kid, his family was desperately poor, so poor that my grandmother secretly changed his birth certificate so he could work a year early. He found a job as a delivery boy for a small drugstore and every morning (in the summer) that middle-schooler peddled his bike down gravel roads for […]