The folks who are proud of you

About a year ago, Tink and I were visiting our friends, Don and Debbie Reid in Staunton, Virginia.In their living with the over-stuffed chairs and sofa, the four of us had settled into a long, easy conversation. The kind you have with people who are your kind. Don’s phone beeped with a text.

And they’re off

Our father, my sisters and I spent the better part of three-years with our mother during that slow, halting walk into her sunset. There were of course moments of joy and memory, good days and bad...it was hard with almost each visit, finding a bit less of our Shirl was still there.

Trusting your gut

It’s one of life’s hardest lessons to learn and then, just as hard to make it stick: Trusting an unseeable force – intuition.Daddy preached it.“Stick to your gut. It’ll never fail you.

Get schooled by a job

It did not feel like Christmas morning, or even a birthday, that late afternoon when I received my first job offer. It was 1974, I was 13, and before the end of the year I was paying Social Security taxes.

Who are the good ole boys?

Someone – a non-Southerner – asked me the other day, “What is a good ole boy?”I’m happy to answer that question. Let me tell you about the South’s good ole boys: First of all, you will probably see him at every Friday night home football game.

The tears that wouldn’t fall

Huge tears pooled in my eyes but, amazingly, for 15 minutes, they did not fall.They were stoic.Just like my friend, John Jarrard.As I sat at a table in a sequined dress for a black-tie event, I watched the video that honored that wonderful man.

Knowing when it’s time to go home

I first had the pleasure of meeting U.S.SenatorMitch McConnell of Kentucky in 1987 at Scottsdale, Az., roughly six months into his first term.McConnell was energetic, vibrant, quick-witted, and very thoughtful in his public policyposition statements.McConnell is now retiring as U.S.

What to know before ‘reversing’ retirement

If you’ve retired, you may have thought you closed the book on one chapter of your life. But what happens if you need to “reverse” your retirement?

Attention all fathers

I have been called a lot of things in my long life, and not all of them flattering. A few years back, I was referred to as an “Obama bed-wetting liberal,” and a “racist redneck.” Both in the same week. Go figure.What I like being called most of all, however, is “Dad,” as well as “Pa.

Celebrating good fathers

A friend of mine and I were talking once about a crook we both know.As my Daddy would say, “He wouldn’t know the truth if it hit him between the eyes.”The stories about this crook are endless. It seems like almost everyone has a story about a lie, illegal transaction, or some such.