Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, July 12, 2019, 1:28 p.m. My mother, 79 years young, and I chat on the phone most days. It is my theory that the relation between generations is all mathematic. When I was born, Betty Davis Dutton was not quite 18. When I was 4 and she 22, we were miles …
Tag: hometown
Home at the Waffle House
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, February 16, 2019, 12:14 p.m. The Waffle House was hopping this morning. I could barely hear Olivia Newton-John over the din. You’re the one that I want, you’re the one that I want, uh, uh, uh-uhhhh … Keith and Robert Wooten – for some reason, everybody called Robert “Dan” in high …
The Fog of Doom Descends
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 12, 2018, 10:37 a.m. I have started to confront the possibility that the world has passed me by. I am losing touch. When I write about high-school sports, it makes perfectly good sense that I don’t understand the kids. Their music. Their clothes. Their tastes. Hell, I remember when the …
Oh, a New Novel … Jerry Lewis … a Total Eclipse … Just Another Week
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, August 20, 2017, 5:40 p.m. What a week. My new novel, Life Gets Complicated, is out, weeks ahead of expectations. The 2016 western, Cowboys Come Home, joins Lightning in a Bottle in audio production, meaning that you will soon be able to listen to those two novels while driving your car, …
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The Eve of Ruination
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, January 12, 2017, 11:50 a.m. I am in a state of paralysis. I haven’t ground completely to a halt. In half a day, I’ve written 305 words of fiction. They’re 305 decent words, so, like Bill Murray in Caddy Shack, I’ve got that going for me. I am depressed. Not clinically …
A Fable of Raised Expectations
During the heyday of high school football in this town, lots of fans used to watch the team practice late in the evenings, after the mill shift ended. It was the late seventies, and that was a decade that saw Clinton win four state championships and reach the finals twice more. One day I was …
They Shut Down Easy Street
Big cities have no monopoly on anything. Here in my town, we like to think we don’t have similar problems, but we do. The folks who used to work in factories now ask me if I’d like to try the new Three-Cheese Double Bacon Burger on the fresh-baked bun with curly cheese fries and a …
A Comedy of Errors
In a small town, it’s impossible to avoid people you don’t want to see. There may be many more annoying people in cities, but this decreases the intensity of annoyance in each individual. Here in the sticks, there are people you really don’t want to see. You hear the voice echoing down the supermarket …
Nightrider's Lament 