Here’s what happens when you’re over 50 years old but interact with lots of people who are younger. You can’t believe they don’t know how great Johnny Unitas was until you realize that Unitas to them is Red Grange to you. How comes kids don’t ever seem to ride their bikes? Tattoos. Yecchh. What do …
Tag: writing
If the Good Lord’s Willing, Part One
Here’s the beginning of another short story. There wasn’t anything wrong with Red Hawthorn that a couple eggs couldn’t fix, or, at the very least, help. He got up Friday morning the same way he got up most mornings, which was stooped over and hurting. Coffee got his juices flowing, but thankfully, a blood-pressure …
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 …
A Nice Break From Desolation
He’d have never wanted anyone to know it, but, yeah, Jack Pinson was drinking, even though it wasn’t even noon on Tuesday, when he got a text message from Hank McGonigald. Hank wanted to get together and have lunch the next time Pinson swung through Atlanta. I hate to fucking tell you, Hank, but I …
I Got Cash Money
This story, also based on a song of mine, is very short. Harvey Phelan was stranded magnificently, holed up in the last place he’d expect to be on Thanksgiving. As best he could tell, the body of water outside the window was called Alton Bay. The little village about a half mile away was either …
Stuck In A Rut
About four years ago, I wrote a song called "Stuck in a Rut." A couple weeks ago, I decided to expand it into a short story. I wrote it and posted it in seven installments. Here's the whole story of Josie Swenson and Tripp Fallaw, at least for a week. It was a Thursday, but …
Stuck In A Rut, Final Part (7)
Yes. This all began with a song. I’m well beyond its boundaries now. “Josie, I want you to look at these fuckin’ … vehicles,” Tripp Fallaw said as they arrived at the country club. “Shit.” Josie was world-weary, cynical, burnt-out, and, of course, high. They said, Uncle Jed, it’s the place you oughtta be, so …
Stuck In A Rut, Part Six
Our heroine, Josie, inhales the culture shock of Los Angeles and holds it in. Josie Swenson spent Tuesday in a medicated fog, medicated being a popular cliché for using marijuana where it could be had for a prescription card and a song. Tripp and Wade said they had to “hone” their games, which meant they …
A Regular Fats Domino
I think I’m walking to New Orleans. I’m walking to New Orleans … Not really. I hardly walk to my mailbox. I’m driving to New Orleans, and I hope to make some stops along the way, and, quite possibly, the way back. I’m going to Texas with my guitar, not my banjo, in my back …
Nightrider's Lament 