Waiting for Hank Aaron: Reflecting on 1968 Fifty Years Later
I waited, listening to AM radio, for Hank Aaron to hit a home run. We were a baseball family–Minnesota Twins’…
Tag: family
What I Learned from Laura Ellard Sievers
Laura Gladys Ellard Sievers grew up on a stifling, hand-pricking, East Texas cotton farm with ten siblings and a whisper-voiced…
How I Almost Became a Professional Wrestler
When I was 5 years old, I decided to become a wrestler. The All-Star kind, not the Olympic sort. My…
Dear San Antonio: What Have You Done for Me Lately?
The duck that bit my leg had no problem communicating with me, despite the differences in our species and styles. My…
Not My Grandmother’s First Rodeo
I figured out that my grandmother really loved me on a bitter winter’s afternoon in St. Paul, Minnesota when I…
Big Fat Problems
My dog Gracie has been complaining a lot lately. Like many people I know, she complains about the government, which…
Resolutions: Prison is Not the Life for Me
I am marvelous at making resolutions. Intentions, commitments, pledges, and aspirations are like the promised land to me. Rarely do I…
Christmas With the Family: Vodka and Variations
Christmas-celebrating families all have their ways of making merry. Those members of my family who still speak to each other…
Making New Friends in Ireland
Earlier this summer while traveling in Ireland I met Mickey, an Irish gentleman who came into Con & Maura’s Bar,…
Reinvention Through Travel and Why I Never Wore Those Stupid Green Pajamas
In a Dispatch a while ago, I mentioned an Irish radio show I listened to one morning while driving from Ireland’s…