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Career planning

If you want to strike up a conversation with a kindergartener, just ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Most 5- and 6-year-olds will slip their imaginations into overdrive and lead on you a fascinating journey in the future. Kindergarten is that wonderful time before we have to come to grips with reality or, worse yet, before we are pigeonholed by well-meaning adults. Kindergarteners can usually list two or three things they would like to do when they are adults. Fifteen years later as college students they may have difficulty defining their career goals. When I was ...

It’s the heat and the humidity

It was one of those humid 97-degree days in August and I was sitting at a drive-in restaurant patio table sipping an ice tea when I heard a familiar voice behind me. “So this is how the retired city boy spends his afternoons… sipping on ice tea? Can’t handle a cold beer like a real man?” It was my prickly old pal, Ebenezer Griper. “Well, howdy, Eb. No, I’m not much of a beer drinker. Gives me gas.” “So?” “Never mind. How are you handling the heat?” “I ain’t. Heat don’t bother me much but it sure makes a grouch out of Hilda.” “Have a chair, ...

Love from a child’s point of view

Some things kind of slip up on you. I got to thinking the other day that I have been a married man for more than two-thirds of my life. I was blessed to have more than 43 years with Cindy, my first wife, before she passed away. Julie and I have been married for more than six years. I’m not complaining, mind you. God has blessed me with two beautiful women over the years and I am very content to live in a state of matrimony. By the time you reach my age it is difficult to remember exactly how you felt about love and marriage when you were a youngster. As a 10-year-old I denied ...

Fall fishing memories

Many anglers across the Midwest declare late September and October to be their favorite times to fish and I would mostly agree. In the fall, the fish catching can be so good, for quality and quantity. In addition, the surroundings are pretty spectacular as well. The trees are in full color ...

Troll to find fish in the fall

To catch fish, you’ve gotta’ find them. That’s true at any time of the year. However, in the fall season, they can be in a lot of places, especially early in the fall. In the spring, the fish will usually be shallow. It’s spawning time, and the shallows are where they spawn. In ...

When you are loved by a child

Many men my age are grandfathers; even great-grandfathers. I have no biological grandchildren and I’m okay with that. There are always little ones who can use some grandfatherly love and indulging. Cindy and I had two little grandnieces who we loved like grandchildren. Before Cindy passed away she loved on Charlotte and Meredith like a doting grandmother. Those two little charmers are now pre-teens. I still love them, of course, but their lives are much busier these days and I don’t get to see them often. When I married Julie I inherited her two grandchildren and in the six years ...