Alphabetical
Audio Comments

The Football Hero

In the Great Depression people were eager to see a hero of any sort. They went to movies with heroic themes. High school football was a favorite escape in Pineville where I grew up, as in many other places no doubt.

Football was a different game in those days than it is now. Players played both offence and defense. Substitution was limited. Once a player left the game he could not return in the same quarter of play. A team could have triple-threats who could run, pass and kick the ball....(click to continue reading)

Estimated Reading Time: 4.8 minutes

The Miner's Wife

A valley in the hollow lay between a pair of partially cleared ridges that retained woods at their crests. Along the east side of the valley a pike gave access to the residents of Bum Holler. Along the ridge to the west lay the tracks of the Southern Railroad that hauled coal from the fields some twelve to fifteen miles away. The mammoth steam locomotives labored to pull twenty to twenty-five cars loaded with coal up the grade through the hollow.

A person running alongside a loaded trai...(click to continue reading)

Estimated Reading Time: 7.0 minutes

The only thing

The only thing I ever wanted was a fair measure of contentment in life.  To be always contented is impossible, of course.  Awareness of a need or a want will interrupt my contentment at least for a while.  Fulfillment of a need can go a long way toward restoring contentment, as can the hope of satisfying a want.  I consider it a high degree of contentment when I can overcome obstacles without great difficulty.  Some obstacles cannot be changed.  Some degree of contentment may be regained by acce...(click to continue reading)

Estimated Reading Time: 6.0 minutes

The Packard

“Come on in,” was the response to my knock on the door of Ruth and Bob Taylor, my wife Mary’s sister and brother in law.

“Haven’t seen you for a while. How’ve you been?” asked Mary.

“Fairly well,” Ruth said, and the conversation continued on into the afternoon, filling in each other on the latest happenings of potential interest.

An aroma filled the air teasing my appetite. I thought we should be moving on home soon, so as not to interfere with their suppertime. Bob ca...(click to continue reading)

Estimated Reading Time: 6.9 minutes

The Pet Cockroach

Retiring to my place of abode late one afternoon, I sat down in my easy chair for an after lunch siesta. My place is part of Catherine’s house, though it seems not so. It is a room set apart from the main part of the house, though sharing the roof and a common section of wall. A little porch, once occupied by the dog Jay, separates the room from the rest of the house, thus providing a bit of privacy and insulating it from sounds in the house, and vise versa. The porch faces the back yard which i...(click to continue reading)

Estimated Reading Time: 4.3 minutes

cockroach pet Louisiana

The Rescue

Could it have been a mass suicide attempt? Or, perhaps a sudden storm was the cause. The little boy and his mother had first noticed them, wearing their orange and black, floating on their sides just out of reach of the shore. Other lifeless bodies littered the beach.

It was an odd feeling floating on my side, unable to right myself. The sun warmed me from above, but at the same time I felt cooled by the water below. I liked the feeling of floating, so unfamiliar to me. Some...
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Estimated Reading Time: 3.7 minutes