Where In The World Is Jimmy Stegall?

In the fall of 1970, the Oakshire Raiders football team went undefeated. Coached by Coach Doug Daniels (full time postman and part time coach), the Raiders won the Whitehaven Elementary Athletic Association Football Championship. Oakshire Elementary is still located on Holmes Rd, near where it crosses I-55. In the late 60s and early 70s, Oakshire… Read more »

The Day The Music Died

In the early 1960s, just as the The Beatles brought a new sound to America, he brought rock and roll to Birdland. He taught every kid in Birdland to sing Herman Hermit songs with a “proper English accent”. Ponder that for a minute. He saw doing what he did as something of a public service…. Read more »

The ‘Cup’

Photo Credit Jeff Presley

Cajun Greenbeans

My son recently asked for my recipe for cajun green beans. He and his girlfriend Laura are spending Thanksgiving at Laura’s parent’s home. Ratboy is a pretty good cook. He understands that he has to bring something really good, and this is it. This isn’t a completely original recipe. I got the bones of it… Read more »

A True Story

In the July of 1976, I had just got my truck out of the shop after I hit a deer with it. A deer will do significant damage to a 1975 Toyota Hi-Lux pickup truck. I must say, Dad was not amused. The truck was in the shop for about two weeks while it was… Read more »

Aunt Lottie

Sometimes in quite moments, just out of the clear blue sky, a random thought brings a memory back to life. I just thought of my Aunt Lottie. Aunt Lottie was a tiny woman with a big laugh. She had an exasperated way of saying “Randy!” She broke it into three syllables: “RAY-AN-DEE!” She was right… Read more »

The Witches of Shrewsbury – the Wives of Richard and Thomas Garner

In 1636, a woman in Shrewsbury, England was accused of witchcraft and sorcery. In a trial by water, her death established her innocence. She died by drowning in the dunking stool in the pool at the Square in Shrewsbury. Her name was Katharn, wife of Richard and mother of John, and she is buried in the Old Churchyard at St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury, England. From this family, my branch of the Garner family was born.

Remembering Rocket

When I was a child, the 4th of July was always a special time to me. It wasn’t special because that’s the day the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia, or because it is the day Vicksburg fell in the Civil War. No, as a small child, I didn’t know about any of that…. Read more »

At Least I Can Sing

Fifty-some-odd years ago, a friend of mine, Jimmy Bolin, decided he wanted to open a guitar store. It didn’t matter that he was in high school or that he didn’t have any money to work with. He loved playing guitar and he wanted to open a guitar store. He taught private guitar lessons until he… Read more »

These Boots Weren’t Made For Walking

At lunch yesterday, I received a call that was a survey checking attitudes about smokeless pouches and vaping. Landi and I were at lunch with friends, so I stepped away from the table to take the survey. It was long and extensive. In our exchanges, I learned a lot about legislation and the positions various… Read more »

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Latest

  • Grimm’s Guerillas

    It’s a long road back to 1975. that was the year I graduated from high school. I was supposed to be in the class of 1976, but it was decided that graduating a year early was the right thing for all parties consulted. In my two years in high school, I found more than my… Read more »

  • JD and Me: Bad Ideas and Poor Judgment

    Writing is hard. It’s like digging a splinter out of your soul. Me, Boo and the Goob was a great success when I released it several years ago. It took a long time to write because three chapters from the end, I encountered writers block. I was stuck for about three years. Finally a friend,… Read more »

  • W.W.B.D.

    Roughly five years ago, I released Me, Boo and the Goob: A Southern Adventure. It was my first book, and I didn’t know much about marketing it. In my research I found a template for marketing a book. It seemed to make sense to me, so I followed it. I have learned from it. First,… Read more »

  • An Unfortunate Incident at the Breakfast Bar

    Tomorrow I begin prep for a colonoscopy. I’m not excited about it. I don’t so much mind the procedure as I mind the prep for the procedure. I do not like being hungry. I don’t tolerate it well. I always enjoy a big breakfast and without it, I get cranky. I am reminded of an… Read more »

  • Doctors and Dogs

    50 years ago, a single hit during a football drill at practice changed the course my football life. I had been a quarterback, and now I was not. From the brown and dusty grass of the Douglas MacArthur Junior High School football field to a very clean, cool and sterile OR at West Florida Hospital,… Read more »

  • There is Magic in Gumbo

    There is magic in Gumbo. That’s just a fact. There is no recipe for making gumbo, only a tradition and a culture. You can’t make it without wine and music. You can fudge just about everything else, but you gotta have wine and music. I start with some Cabernet, and some Waylon tunes, unless I… Read more »

  • May 10th, 1994

    May 10th 1994, Landi and I departed Jamaica much wiser than when we arrived there some ten days prior. We were there for our honeymoon. In our ten wonderful days there, we learned much about a wonderful island, its’ people, its’ culture and ourselves. I, for one, learned to never let a drunk woman put… Read more »

  • Memorial Day

    Fifty years is a long time. Sometimes it’s hard to remember details. Sometimes, as we age, dates drift further into the deep recesses of our memory and the details blur together. Things become indistinct. There are some things we can’t quite remember. There are some things we just can’t forget. Friday, May 26th I remember… Read more »

  • A Bachelor’s Party

    While visiting on the phone with my son, Catfish, yesterday, he mentioned that he was going to Nashville pretty soon for a friend’s bachelor party. He was excited about it because while in Nashville, in addition to bar hopping and general fun, they planned to go to a concert by some currently fashionable country singer…. Read more »

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    Beebe, Arkansas

    On a very hot and exceedingly humid September Sunday night in 1977, I lay sweating in an un-air-conditioned dorm room in Beebe Arkansas listening to a radio station from Little Rock as it was about play an album released by Willie Nelson. Though I had been a fan of outlaw country music (Jerry Jeff Walker)… Read more »