What is your favorite electronic gadget?

This is a once-upon-a-time story. Once upon a time, I owned a VCR. The decision to spend the money to buy our first such machine was no small event. Everybody we knew had one already. We’re not what you call early adopters either temperamentally or financially. But we...

Installment 14 The Corner Trumpet

Twenty-Seven March 1943   Daddy went to see the preacher and the funeral director the next day and they decided to have the funeral on Tuesday morning. The Navy said Charlie could have a full military funeral, but Mama just wanted a graveside service with the...

Installment 13: The Corner Trumpet

Twenty-Five March 1943 One day in the middle of March, Mr. Spooner was too busy to give me a lesson. Besides, he kept saying that I’d been such a fast learner that he didn’t have much more to teach me. I didn’t believe that. Anyway, since it was early and Daddy wasn’t...

Visiting Family Roots

A few days ago was my grandfather’s birthday. He would have been 124. He died 34 years shy of that mark, which means he still lived to a ripe old age. My mother grew up in Arkansas, and her family had been in Arkansas for at least a couple of generations before...