“My child just isn’t very smart!” So lamented an acquaintance of mine over coffee. “I mean, compared to my other children, this one just struggles. The others make straight A's with no effort but everything seems so hard for this one.” I couldn’t help but feel bad for this child because I’m “not smart” either. … Continue reading Not the Smart One
Category: Thoughts, Musings, and Memories
The Woods
I come from the woods. The woods is where I grew up running down trails slick with pine straw, where I explored through brambles and thickets, where I climbed higher higher higher on pine trees laid low by hurricanes and criss-crossed like so many pick-up sticks. Baw and I rode our horses through the woods. … Continue reading The Woods
Slightly! Lightly!
I’m troubled, y’all, troubled. It all started toward the end of September when I went to visit Sonny Boy in Chicago. I was flying Southwest, which I love, and I had scored “A” group status for boarding. I got on the plane and chose a window seat in the same row as a quiet-looking white-haired … Continue reading Slightly! Lightly!
Hurricane Memories
Brother and I huddled under the heavy, oak table on the old red corduroy chaise lounge cushion. It was a little more than a week before my tenth birthday, and he was only three and a half. We hadn’t been able to bring much, but I had my favorite teddy bear and Brother had his … Continue reading Hurricane Memories
It’s my birthday, but I ain’t no granny yet!
Did your granny rock a smokey eye? Mine either. My maternal grandmother looked like a granny. White hair. Sensible shoes. Always face powder and pink lipstick. Maybe a little rouge. Blue Grass perfume. Blue Grass smells like granny. Today I turn 49. Words like “age appropriate” and “sensible” have started creeping into my mind as … Continue reading It’s my birthday, but I ain’t no granny yet!
The summer, recapped.
I’ve been as busy as a one-armed paper hanger with hives this summer! It all started in May when I attended the Book Expo in New York where my new book They Call Me Orange Juice was on display. (Read what I learned from that experience here.) Sonny went with me, and we got to … Continue reading The summer, recapped.
Mosquitoes love me. The feeling is not mutual.
A mosquito bit me on the eye the other Saturday evening. Not on my actual eyeball, but on the soft flesh just at the corner of my left eye. Unfortunately, I’m pretty allergic to the little blood suckers, so by the next morning, I looked like I’d been in a bar fight ... and lost. … Continue reading Mosquitoes love me. The feeling is not mutual.
You Have to Float Before You Can Swim
Baw* taught me how to swim when I was four or five years old in Puppy Creek, a little tributary of Dog River just outside of Citronelle. We’d take the old truck and head off down the Prine Road and when it turned to dirt at the stop sign, we’d turn left onto the Lott … Continue reading You Have to Float Before You Can Swim
The Commencement Address — or — How Not to End in Bitterness
This is the season for graduations so I was wondering to myself the other day what I would say if called upon to give a commencement address. Now I'll be honest. I can't remember who spoke when I graduated from the University of Montevallo. Not a clue. Can't remember if it was man, woman, … Continue reading The Commencement Address — or — How Not to End in Bitterness
Best Friends and Mean Girls
Mean girls. They’re everywhere. All the time. Even today. But they were especially present in my life during middle school at the Julius T. Wright School for Girls. Yes, I went to an all-girls school. I joined a class of 40 young ladies in the 6th grade. We all looked alike in our maroon and … Continue reading Best Friends and Mean Girls