Fifty years ago, my father voted for and bet on Barry Goldwater, not to win the election but to carry South Carolina. He won. Goldwater lost. The election, not South Carolina. NASCAR’s greatest hero at the time, “Fireball” Roberts, was horribly burned at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He lived for more than two months, and every …
Tag: media
Between Short Stories
From whence do the short stories spring? The majority of the stories on this site began with songs I’ve written. “Facebook Friends,” for instance, began as a song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnmKXEPGCnU As a matter of fact, http://www.wellpilgrim.wordpress.com evolved into a depository for short stories. I split time between working on novels* – “Crazy by Natural Causes” is …
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 …
Buffaloes in the West
Sure, I tweet. I partake of the social media. It keeps me in touch, perhaps, to a fault. Nowadays it’s possible to get a job in which all that is required is to tweet. They claim it’s “devising a social-media strategy.” They’re too smart merely to “tweet.” I tweet. I tweeted. I have tweeted. I …
High, Wild and Handsome, Final Part
On race mornings, Beau Farnsworth always walked pit road, long before gates swung open and fans, armed with their “hot passes,” streamed into the garage. The sun hadn’t long been up. A cool breeze fought in futility against the gathering heat. Down near turn one, Beau sat on the whitewashed pit wall. He knew but …
High, Wild and Handsome, Part Five
Word spread quickly that the great, mysterious Beau Farnsworth had deigned to grace Charlotte Motor Speedway with his presence. It was approximately a quarter to five, and he hadn’t turned a lap since winning The Winston four days earlier. The veteran Billy Hargitson, winner of exactly one race in the previous decade, had dialed …
Furlough Blues, Part Five
This short story begins with a song and ends with a surprise. Months passed and the dirty feelings subsided in Jerry Lowndes. It was just another job, just errands he had to run, like going to the post office or shopping for groceries. It paid the bills. The packages had no smell. They were …
Furlough Blues, Part Four
The expansion of a song into a short story – by the end, one will have little to do with the other – continues with its penultimate part. As clueless as he had felt at any time in his life, Jerry Lowndes knocked on the door of Room 227 of the Nocono Lodge, where …
Furlough Blues, Part One
This is yet another short story that originates in one of my songs. When Jerry Lowndes checked his email, he discovered that his book on the heroes of the Atlantic Coast Conference wasn’t quite the blockbuster he had hoped. He had hoped the book would provide some aid in fulfilling his daughter’s wish to transfer …
Dominion Over The Language
You want to know how big sports is? It supersedes language. That was a serious offense when I was in grade school. Where is the past tense of “fly,” not “flew”? Baseball, and in this instance I concede the game has a good reason. When a batter hits a fly ball, it’s easy to imagine …
Nightrider's Lament 