Archive for June 2025
Counting Votes and Baking Bread
“All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian.” – Pat Paulsen for President, 1968 By DAVE BERRY I love the smell of ink and newsprint on Election Night. It has a special appeal after midnight – especially on…
Read MoreMy Road Less Traveled
“…I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere in ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the ones less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.”- Robert Frost By DAVE BERRY Life would indeed be a drag if we all stayed on the main road. Sure, the…
Read MorePassages and Transitions
Life is one big transition.” – Willie Stargell By DAVE BERRY The alley between the newspaper and the church holds many memories. That nondescript stretch of concrete connecting Erwin and Elm has been a familiar passageway for decades of journalists, salespeople, pressmen and the others who use the side entrance, gathering each day rain or…
Read MoreSky Vu In My Rearview Mirror
“Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”– Oliver Wendell Holmes By DAVE BERRY The crumbling marquee of the Sky Vu Drive In is all that’s left; just a perch for a hawk. I was happy to see it, but not surprised the rest was gone. I…
Read MoreKnowing When to Get Off
I love the feeling of shredded wheat. I love healthy bird food with a fun-to-eat feel. Then you spray them with sugar, and I’m there.”– Penn Jillette By DAVE BERRY I have only bailed out early on one job in my life. It was the summer of ’69 and I grabbed a job that sounded…
Read MoreThe Power of Encouragement
“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.”Johann Wolfgang von Goethe By DAVE BERRY Yes, I remember the last time I visited with Anna Mitchell. She was pushing her walker and laughing at some forgotten comment as I escorted her back to her daughter Victoria’s booth at the Cherokee Art Market in 2011. I towered over…
Read MoreThe Finer Points of Plowing
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”– Dwight D. Eisenhower By DAVE BERRY There’s something calming about plowing. Maybe it’s the repetition, the ever-shrinking patterns carved in the ground, the throaty roar of the tractor engine at full throttle, the warm breeze in…
Read MoreI’ll Be Home for Christmas
“I’ll be home for Christmas,You can plan on me.Please have snow and mistletoe,And presents on the tree.” By DAVE BERRY “I’ll be home for Christmas,” made my mother cry – every Christmas for 70 years. Few things made Neva Berry so emotional, but the words to that song, first crooned by Bing Crosby in 1943,…
Read MoreThe Nuts an Bolts of Life
“You know Deets is like me – he’s not one to quit on a garment just because it’s got a little age.” (Spoken by Augustus McCrae)”– Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove By DAVE BERRY Peeling back the layers of a lifetime, Dad’s workshop was slowly being emptied. Years of debris, crumpled boxes, trays of old tools……
Read MoreCousins, Kindness and Enos Slaughter
“Stan, this one is for you.” By DAVE BERRY For some reason, when I think of my cousins, I think of Enos Slaughter. Enos was a right fielder. He played for four major league teams, but he is best known for his stint with the St. Louis Cardinals. A ten-time All Star, he played 19…
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