Most of the compliments I get about my articles come with the qualifier, “My favorite stories were about your grandkids.” Here’s the problem: all but one of the kids are pushing hard on adulthood. While I was busy writing stories about them, they were busy growing up. Someday, if my ...
A few years ago, Henry Cook, the retired chair of Somerset Trust Bank, asked me if I wanted to help him throw a party. Since Henry and I had already survived at least five Laurel Arts Somerfest celebrations back in the 1980s, I said yes immediately. At our age, when somebody offers you one more ...
As I approach an age that is significantly older than dirt, I realized that even though I know more about everything, I actually know a lot less about anything. When I was younger, I thought wisdom would be the reward for staying alive this long. Instead, it feels more like a flickering ...
My wife has a cold. That’s not normal. Here’s the worst part, it is a “Nick cold.” You know, the kind where I usually try to dislodge a lung and crack a few ribs before it finally clears up. But, since this is about me, here’s where things got miserable. She asked me to go shopping. I ...
Having the courage to build a better future is a discipline. It’s not pretending things aren’t broken. It’s making the decision to look for what could be better and then moving things forward when it would be easier not to. After a lifetime of watching people in classrooms, hospitals, ...
My grandmother handed me a nickel, pointed toward the road, and sent me to buy an ice cream cone at a store named Grammy’s. I was 4 1/2 years old. It was a hot, humid summer night, the kind where the porch screen door sticks and even the neighbors’ dogs are too tired to bark. The memory ...
