I didn’t know how to bake a pie. I was more into hunting and turning a wrench under the hood of my old red truck. The cinnamon-sugar-encrusted latticework of a warm, homemade apple pie slice sitting next to a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream persuaded me to learn. The crust snapped in my teeth. […]
An Education in Apple Pie Read More »
The right scent can teleport you. The breakroom in one of the old courthouses I frequent smells just like the old farmhouse. When I’m in that county, I make it a point to go in there and let it take me back. Baking bread. The laundry detergent and soap Grandma and Grandpa used. Coffee. The
In this season of our children growing into adults and driving and graduating and moving away, I’ve had a lot of conversations with them about life stuff. Adulthood. Beliefs. Being careful. Heavy stuff, as they say. The other day I was looking at photos on my mother’s shelves. I looked at mine and caught my
Things I need to tell you Read More »
“Did you want to show Bobby the rock wall that killed your Grandpa?” Mom asked. “There it is. I guess it killed him. He fell asleep and hit it. Was a long time before anyone found him. He died at the hospital. That’s where his car hit. See that newer patch right there?” Dad laughed
When They Were Saplings Read More »
I SEE YOU IN THE FAMILY PHOTO ON MY OFFICE WALL. Flanked on your right by three younger siblings, on your left by an older sibling and your parents. You were eleven. Elementary school. Pre-braces. When your teeth were still crooked and gave you that little turtle smile that you wouldn’t mind until a few
WE IMAGINED A CAMP. Eight hundred to twelve hundred years ago, it would have been on the flat plain behind the cliffs above us. We dug. Fifteen minutes in my fingers found an arrowhead lodged sideways under eight inches of damp earth. Twenty minutes later, Slade found another. The Edwards arrow point he spotted