Indian Mall

The Indian Mall was, for half a century, the crown jewel of North East Arkansas shopping. Paragould, Batesville, Blytheville, nor West Memphis had anything even remotely like it. It was cool, air conditioned indoor shopping on hot summer days and warm dry shopping on cold, rainy winter nights.

Kill Ball

As an underclassman, I remember fear the first time we all walked onto the basketball court in Junior High to play kill ball. I had never played before. Most of the ninth graders were nine feet tall. Eighth graders werent that tall. They were only eight feet tall. Seventh graders, we were tiny. We were… Read more »

Interacting With The Spirit World

In Fall of 1994, I moved from Memphis, Tennessee to Allentown, Pennsylvania. After living in an Embassy Suites hotel for a few months, I finally committed to an apartment of sorts. It was actually the upper floor of a place called the Mauch Chunk Hotel. It was 200 years old and was located on Mauch… Read more »

The Best Thing About Waking Up

I have an ax to grind with the weasel who first conceived the idea of putting images and messages on coffee mugs. You know, coffee mugs that have pictures or phrases on them commemorating places you’ve been or offering some funny observation. Those are the ones. I have about fifty of them, and I can’t… Read more »

Friday Night in Pensacola

Have you ever been to a bar or restaurant that was so good or so much fun that you almost didn’t want to tell anyone about it so that it didn’t get overrun? I knew a place like that in Memphis and now I’ve found one in Pensacola. Upstairs above The District Steakhouse, there is… Read more »

The Importance of Reading Instructions

Recently, my wonderful wife and I have been reminiscing about the joy of trying to teach teenagers to read the instructions that accompany new things. Some things are complicated to operate, and kids tend to ignore the instructions and just begin messing with the ‘thing’ until they either break it, or it works. With Ipads… Read more »

Boxes of Crap

Boxes of crap always pose unseen dangers for me. I keep mementos. I have a spirit ribbon from a Douglas MacArthur Junior High football game in 1972. I’m sure it meant something at one time, but I seem to have killed the brain cells that held that memory. I can’t throw it away because I… Read more »

Memphis

I haven’t lived in Memphis for over 30 years. For many of those years, I flew in and out of Memphis on a fairly semi-regular basis. Holidays and birthday always brought me back. In those days Memphis was a hub and there was a direct flight on Northwest from the cold, gray skies of New… Read more »

Momma and The Senator from Arkansas

Come July, Mom has been gone for 14 years. Each time we visit Jonesboro, we visit the cemetery where she and dad, as well as Coachie and Miss Dot rest. We give each a little bourbon, and we have a drink with them. We’ve done this so often and for so long, I’m surprised that… Read more »

Always the Last to Know.

There are times in your life when you discover things that are shocking, completely unexpected, just out of the clear blue sky. People manage these moments in different ways. We all have friends who are blessed with grace and poise, a calm demeanor able to absorb difficult news with control and dignity. I’m not one… Read more »

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Latest

  • Roy’s First Chance/Last Chance

    Back in the day, Roy’s First Chance/Last Chance was where a lot of folks from Arkansas State had their first beer. Roy’s still exists, and is still little more than a shack that used to be held up by beer. Today I suspect it stands only because the termites are holding hands. It’s a small… Read more »

  • A Night at the Landmark

    In Paragould, Arkansas there is a bar called the Landmark Lounge. It’s a little out of the way place. A dingy, dimly lite dive where cold beer and lousy food is proudly served and where crappy local bands play really, really loud. When you are young, this seems like a good place to be. Cold… Read more »

  • Kids and Puppy Dogs

    Today I was working in the yard. I was pulling weeds from the gardens and putting mulch down. It’s not like I enjoy working in the yard. Some people enjoy it. Some people enjoy colonoscopies, too. I don’t enjoy either. I would almost rather have a tooth pulled than to have to work in the… Read more »

  • What is a TSR good for?

    Over dinner a few nights ago, we visited with new friends and had a great time telling old stories from our lives. Our new friends are an interesting couple who share a lot of interests with Landi and me. The husband works in Information Tech. This of course, led to shop talk. Shop talk leads… Read more »

  • One Hell of a Starry Night

    On a warm and starry night in the spring of 1954, a dashing young doctor met a beautiful young nurse on the Skyway at the Peabody Hotel and they danced. On November Sixth in 1954, they eloped and embarked on a wonderful fairy tale of a life. Through house fires, tornadoes, three children, and a… Read more »

  • Ashley’s Wedding

    Roughly 15 years ago my niece, Ashley, held her wedding on a sweltering evening in mid-August. Everyone thinks they know hot. Everyone thinks they know humid. If you haven’t spent an August in Jonesboro, Arkansas you know neither hot nor humid. In August, if the air moves at all, you feel more like a dog… Read more »

  • The Last Swim Meet

    In early August of 1965, I joined the Jonesboro YMCA swim team. I joined on a Friday, and the State Swim Meet was held the next day in Jonesboro. I won 3rd place in Freestyle and Backstroke, and would have had 2nd in Butterfly, but I was disqualified. Before that morning, I had never heard… Read more »

  • Blessings

    Every now and then, I pause and count my blessings. I’ve had a wonderful life. In my time, I have been a cowboy, a carpenter, a diving instructor, a sky diver, and a computer geek. I rode a bull exactly one time. I have had an office in my basement, and I have had an… Read more »

  • The Gin

    The Gin was to Ole Miss what Rick’s Cafe American was to Casablanca. It was more than a cross roads or a meeting place where libations flowed and inhibitions fell. It was a place where ideas were debated, and pretty girls were woo’d; a place where music rattled the the walls of the old building… Read more »

  • If that ain’t country, I’ll kiss your ass.

    The old Masonic Hall in Pensacola stands on the corner of Palafox and Garden. The ground floor has been converted into a music hall with a smallish stage and a balcony. There are bars upstairs as well as on the main floor. In the back there is an area with couches and small tables. We… Read more »