Luck evens out for most people. Sometimes, though, one bad break begets another, and it all goes into a death spiral. Such was the case of the Scheltonns of Roebuck, Oklahoma. Names were not Frank Scheltonn’s forte. It took a lot of thinking, but one could make a case that the decline and fall …
Tag: football
What I Ain’t Got, Part One
I don’t know where I am / And I don’t know where I’m going / I reckon it don’t matter anyway / What factories are left here are mainly hiring Mexicans / I reckon that they’ll work without much pay. Years ago, it had been the site of a filling station. Then it was …
Scuppernongs and Muscadines
Here's the whole shebang for those of you who haven't been following along. My daddy used to say / You gotta be a man / You gotta pull your weight / You gotta work the land / But every time I tried and failed / He turned away from me / By the time I …
Scuppernongs and Muscadines, Part Four (Final)
Now that I am old myself / It doesn’t seem so bad / Because sometimes simple rhymes / Are the only ones we have / I wouldn’t have name him Frank / But I never had a son / I sold my soul in different roles / Not to be outdone. One morning, five …
Continue reading Scuppernongs and Muscadines, Part Four (Final)
Scuppernongs and Muscadines, Part Two
Scuppernongs and muscadines / Bubble gum three for a dime / Orange Crush over ice / Sawmill gravy over rice / That’s the way / My world / Used to be. When Alan Reuss was a kid, a scuppernong vine stood at the edge of the front yard, just a few feet from the …
Ready to Play
Sports fans often oversimplify matters when their clubs fare poorly. If it gets clobbered in a big match, the fans assume the players were out drinking all night, or they were all smoking pot in the locker room. Sometimes it even works in reverse. About thirty years ago, I was sitting behind two elderly gentlemen …
Soccer’s Many Virtues
I’ve been pondering the reasons why soccer is getting more popular in the United States and why, in the rest of the world, it’s so popular, it’s called football. I’m told that in some remote, third-world countries, fans start chanting “SEC! SEC! SEC!” and no one even knows why. Yet, inexplicably, vuvuzelas have not shown …
The Plagiarist of Winfield Shoals
I hope you’ll enjoy my short stories enough that you’ll be interested in reading my novels, The Intangibles and The Audacity of Dope, which can be purchased online (yahoo.com, bn.com), from the montedutton.com web site and at several independent bookstores in the Carolinas. Here’s the full story of Eddy Dunnaway and Papa Jack. …
The Plagiarist of Winfield Shoals, Part Four (Final)
I hope you’ll enjoy my short stories enough that you’ll be interested in reading my novels, The Intangibles and The Audacity of Dope, which can be purchased online (yahoo.com, bn.com), from the montedutton.com web site and at several independent bookstores in the Carolinas. Here’s the fourth and final installment of the story of Eddy Dunnaway …
Continue reading The Plagiarist of Winfield Shoals, Part Four (Final)
And a Boyfriend, Too!
The highlight of the weekend was what I overheard at the Family Dollar. I was standing in line, which happens quite often at the Family Dollar with one register open and customers backed up down the candy aisle. The lady in front of me was talking with her grown son, and much to my surprise, …
Nightrider's Lament 