I recently had the privilege of attending the Troup Chamber of Commerce banquet honoring city and school employees. The guest speaker was Whitehouse resident John Moore. During his speech he recalled trying to get his father to write down some of his memories, his stories. He told the audience that his father’s reply was, “Who’d want to read that?” more

A few years back, you guys all read my column as I walked through my oldest daughter’s senior year of high school. I was in a constant state of emotional sappiness. Every single thing she did that year made me cry. I am pretty sure that I spent the majority of the year dehydrated from all the tears I shed. Every milestone, every “last” thing she did, everything about her senior year made me sob. However, somehow, I made it through graduation day without needing intravenous fluids. more

Waxing biblical comes easily when one visits beautiful Colorado. If we “looketh up”--as the psalmists did--we can do them one better on the topic of elevation. In Psalm 121, they “lifted their eyes unto the hills” from which “cameth” their strength. How about gazing even higher--yea, toward the mountains, for relaxation and refreshment? (Colorado leads the nation with 53 peaks towering more than 14,000 feet, well ahead of Alaska’s 29.) more

Have you ever heard the word synaesthesia? I first heard it years ago on a news program. Synaesthesia is defined as a rare but broad neurological phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sensory or neurological pathway automatically stimulates a second sensory pathway. more

Let’s start this off by making a few things clear. We are not wealthy people. We are not fancy people. We are not the type of people who enjoy shopping endlessly. Not only do we not have the money for that, we’re just way too practical to spend gobs of money on things. If the items don’t have significant, long term, or eternal value, we generally skip them. It just isn’t how my family functions. more

Songs are often slathered in over-simplification. We’ve generally gone along with the musical proclamation that our smiles trigger the rest of the world to smile with us. Wait a minute. The world ignores, remaining ambivalent, whether we’re smiling or not. more

I recently made a long overdue visit to my hair stylist. For some reason I just couldn’t find the time to have my hair cut until I finally became so frustrated with it that I was just about willing to take a pair of scissors to it myself. I made an appointment to have my hair cut on the first free Saturday I’ve had in a long time. Even before my hair was dried I could feel the lightness of it. more

Recently a friend asked if I could reprint a story that originally ran in March 2015 because she’d had so many giggles from it the first time. I hope you enjoy it the second time around as well. I walked into the Dollar General in Whitehouse closely behind a young mom. She looked to be about twenty-five. She had a baby on her hip, about eight or nine months old, and a darling little blonde curly-haired daughter. I grinned as I watched them walk just ahead of me, more

One invites correction when declaring folks to be champions of anything. I learned this lesson 60 years ago as the editor of a small-town newspaper, when a local farmer lugged in “the county’s largest watermelon.” more

Music can calm or stir the soul, depending on the type. I personally like many styles of music and can listen to a variety of rhythms and sounds from classical to southern gospel to contemporary Christian – which itself varies widely. What I listen to at any given moment often depends upon my mood at the time. more