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

  • A Good Kid

    Several years ago, a kid about 15 years old punched Catfish.  The Fish was about 8 at the time.  As you would expect, I was not happy and I went to have a chat with the kid’s parents.  On asking one of the neighbors where the kid lived, I went there.  When I found the… Read more »

  • Payback Is Hell

    Sometimes, I still hear him laugh. Several years ago, while mowing the yard, Catfish somehow failed to see a 6 foot umbrella lying in the yard.  He destroyed both the umbrella and the hours old lawn mower. I heard him laugh then.  I could see him tilt his head back just a bit, and look… Read more »

  • 37 West 65

    Sometimes you run across something that really puts life in a new perspective. You pause for just a moment, and reflect on the blessings that you have been given. Several years ago, Catfish and I had a wonderful weekend of diving. We dove in deep, dark, cold water.  He was only 14 and he accomplished… Read more »

  • Twenty Three Years in LandiLand

    Wedding bells in Bethlehem. Condo Hell. A House in South Plainfield. ‘Landi, did you pick this color?’ A dog named Buckwheat. A boy named Catfish. Jordan arrived in Jersey. Chaunti. Fish pond in the back yard. Jenn went to Australia and came home to Jersey. The Jersey Shore Hello Wardlaw-Hartridge. Good by money. Barbeque Professionals… Read more »

  • Don’t try this at home. We are professionals.

    Well, you’ve heard the saying ‘at least we weren’t DAL’? We don’t use that expression anymore. The event was ‘Smoking on the Square’ in Pensacola, and site was great….. except for the reserved Port-a-Potties.  We didn’t know anything about them, so we didn’t reserve one.  Let me just say that would have been a right… Read more »

  • Memories of Christmas Past

    I miss them most on Christmas Eve. Every Christmas Eve they came to my parents house and we had quail for dinner. When he and Dad were younger, they would go quail hunting on Christmas Eve.  The quail they killed that morning were the quail we would have for dinner that night. They were quail… Read more »

  • A Tough Day at Work

    It will soak in at about 9:30 or so that the Catfish has gone back to school. Throughout the summer, if he was not working that day, it would be at 9:30 or so before he would wander into my freshly cleaned kitchen and begin the slow motion process of cooking breakfast and watching something… Read more »

  • In Memory of a Friend

    Moments of clarity. Singleness of thought. Focus. In a world broken up into 12 second sound bites, we have few moments of clarity. We are torn from one screaming crisis to another until something gives us pause, and we take that moment to think. It is sometimes said that youth is wasted on the young…. Read more »

  • Womens Volleyball

    Nearly everyone I know has spent at least a few minutes watching the Olympics.  My wife and I have watched more than our share of swimming.  Last night, we watched Women’s Beach Vollyball.  It brought back memories of a picnic and a volleyball match in Memphis many years ago. I was young, maybe 28 or… Read more »

  • Beware the Hookers

    I was excited about going to a casino, especially a casino in the Bahamas. I had never been to a casino anywhere, and all I knew about them I had learned from watching James Bond movies. I was excited at the prospect of playing roulette and baccarat surrounded by beautiful women. I was going to… Read more »