Jockey suffers career-threatening spill

No one who saw Willie Shoemaker take that terrible tumble at Santa Anita Park on Jan. 23, 1968 would have believed the tough little Texan would ever ride in another horse race.

Not all pecans are bad

Six children. Two in the stroller. The other four bounced around their mother. She paid for one item at the Dollar Store, baby wipes. The children had whined for candy, asking for other things, and their mother had to say “no” at every turn. And yes, I listened in, wishing to know their story.

The Wall

If you are an avid reader of my columns, you may recall that several weeks ago, I wrote a column entitled Comfortably Numb, that equated our life to the Pink Floyd song of the same name.

Taking out the Trash

I heard a sermon a week ago that really struck a nerve and it is possible it would strike a nerve for most of us. The preacher spoke about how we should let go of the trash in our lives and instead grab onto things that have meaning and purpose.

An old car hunter’s dream adventure in Eastern Kentucky

“Adventure is in the eye of the beholder.” – Annie Andre, travel and lifestyle blogger. “Welcome to the city of Pikeville,” the travel booklet beckoned to me last week. “A beautiful gem nestled in the heart of Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains.

Marlows never knew when to quit

Four brothers busted out of the Graham jail on Jan. 14, 1889 and foolishly hightailed it for home. Recaptured the next morning over breakfast, they were back behind bars by noon. The Marlows were a tight-knit clan of footloose frontiersmen.

Duck tape for my mouth

Do you ever say something you shouldn’t? Well, one of my homeless friends encountered a verbal attack, and instead of retaliating, Nikki (not her real name) chose to read her Bible. I can say that’s a lesson for me. I hope to react like that, but I know that’s not always the case.

This and That for January 2022

To make one pound of honey, bees must fly 55,000 miles & tap two million flowers! It’s bad enough that Roundup is in 70-75% of our rainfall, but a recent testing of 20 top beers and wines found that 19 of the 20 had traces of Roundup in them. How lousy is that?

Fond memories about mostly good times together

“We don’t remember days, we remember moments.” —Popular saying, author unknown, but they could have been a pilot. It had many years since I thought about her. Even longer since I had seen any pictures. All I had was fond memories about mostly good times together.

Thank you for being a friend

On Dec. 31, 2021, the world lost an icon as Betty White passed away at the age of 99, just a few weeks shy of her 100th birthday. The world, it seemed, mourned the loss of the last surviving “Golden Girl.” I fell in love with the Golden Girls thanks to my father-in-law.