It’s common for me to start one of these stories planning on making it short and sweet, but then my imagination takes hold, and it starts growing. This is Part One … of something. Barney Parmenter thought it a pleasant surprise when he saw the kid thumbing at the entrance to Interstate 35W near …
Tag: football
The Lucky Break, Part One
The morning had already been bad enough. Five years earlier, Max Marberry had run the Crestwood office of the Warren Insurance Agency, that is, until Harry Warren had sold out to a Spartanburg agency owned by Leland Allin, who had installed his son as the manager of the Crestwood storefront. Now the elder Allin was …
Upon Further Review …
Until I did it occasionally a year ago and regularly this year, I hadn’t written about a high school football game in more than fifteen years. Back then, I thought myself quite the whiz kid. I could keep running accounts of the game and cumulative totals at the same time. Then I could talk to …
Gone Back There
I’m still not sure. It seemed real, as real as anything ever. It’s impossible to discuss. I’ve got close friends, sure, but none who would believe this. Among the reasons is I wouldn’t, and I’m more gullible than most. That this happened is inconceivable. It was real. It had to be. Either that or …
Named to Lose
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 …
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 …
