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193 stories
I was an insider for about forty weeks but that was a long time ago, and I’d have to stretch my brain to find myself an insider since I was born. Wait, maybe I was an insider when I was a Boy Scout leader. A watermelon seed is an insider, I guess, but it must …
An item in the news a few days ago informed us that a bunch of people such a PETA, or some similar outfit, had demanded that a mayor of a small town change its name. As if it were any of their business, they went so far as to suggest a new name for the town. T…
The family arrived at a campground in Acadia National Park late in the afternoon. Rain was still falling, as it had all day. We carefully unloaded our tents from the Volkswagen minibus, erected them and set up the tent fly over the camp table. The rain slacked…
Going to Granny’s was always a special treat for my children so long as they could play outdoors. There were so many things they could get into. They all liked to play near or in the little creek. Bess lived just outside of Lima, Ohio on a 5-acre plot, bisect…
The trip had been longer than we had expected. Sarwar and Catherine had done all the driving. I was just along for the ride to visit my other daughter Susanna and her husband, Dick. We had arrived the previous day and had rested overnight. Yet the little pain …
On occasions I have noticed things that I thought could be done a better way, perhaps improved with a slight change, maybe to simplify it. I never considered that advice, but maybe it was. In a previous writing I did give what I considered real advice, and I s…
“He’s tall.” “Yeah, he is tall.” I looked around as best a nearly blind guy who’s still asleep could. I couldn’t see anyone fitting the tall description; just a couple of short women very close to me. Then I noticed that they had their arms about me, and in …
Assignment (as I understand it): Your alma mater has invited you to speak to them. What would you say? Answer: No, thank you. The following, however, is the essence of what I might tell them. Thank you for inviting me here to make a few remarks for the benef…
Momma was getting me ready for a special day at school. My second grade class was to have an Easter party before class was dismissed for the day but class would be over at the regular time. Momma combed my hair, as if it would stay combed for more than a few m…
In talking with Bill Rosenberg, a draftsman at Westinghouse, I mentioned my long trips to see Mardelle and wished she could come to see me sometime. He told me of a certain lake nearby in Indiana, where he went occasionally. “My wife and I will be going there…
After six months on the Westinghouse student course in Pittsburgh, I made my way to Lima, Ohio for my next assignment. With help, I got settled into living quarters and reported for work. My assignment was simple, assisting an engineer in the design of relays …
A soft breath of warm air under a crystal clear sky told of a late summer afternoon. It was indeed a mellow, lazy day with little activity in the neighborhood, and nearly suppertime. The roar and moan of lawn mowers had ceased for a time and traffic on the roa…
A summons came to report to the corner office. The corner office was that of the Division Manager at Westinghouse Aviation Division. In addition to Dan Yorksie, Engineering Manager, Don Baker, Mark Rosswurm and I were among the guests. The gathering turned out…
We’d had a good life together, Mary and me. From cutting wedding cake, to getting up in the middle of the night to attend to sick kids, to seeing four of them through high school we’d been a functional family. We had agreed or agreed to disagree on things that…
Outside the neighborhood dogs were excited and letting everybody know it. Such barking had not been heard since the dogs chased a fox through the nearby woods. “What’s their problem Jack?” asked his wife Sue Lane during a momentary pause in the noise. “Don’t…
“Good morning young man.” “Howdy.” “Come in and have a seat, we’ll get to you pretty soon. Where’s your pretty young woman this morning?” “Sent her to buy groceries. A feller has to eat.” “Dat’s right, one of d’ reasons we work so hard here.” …
“I’d be glad for you to use it,” I told David. “Get a group of your friends to go with you. If you don’t use it the time will go to waste.” “Ok,” he said, ‘Thanks a lot.” We were talking about a time-share villa on the beach at Tybee Island, Georgia. I…
“The Bakers are having an Easter egg hunt this afternoon in their backyard and they invited me. May I go?” Fred asked his mother. “How will you get there?” she asked. “I’ll walk, it’s on the other side of the woods. It won’t take long,” he said. The Bakers l…
Witnesses were not sure but thought that the old lady had finished her day’s work at Jack’s cafeteria where she tended the salad section of foods on display for customers’ selection. She may have taken a detour from her regular course to conduct some business …
Greetings to my Best Valentine. I’m writing to you to thank you for being my best. I consider you my Valentine because it’s the season for such. Otherwise I just think of you as a loving daughter. I well recall that you of all my offspring were the one …
“Could I chew your gum for a while?” a voice behind me asked as I was getting a drink at the water fountain. “What?” I replied. This was a new experience in my young life. “Can I chew your gum?” It was Betty Jean. She had apparently seen my jaw moving as she…
We were great friends in junior high school. Bill and I frequently hung around together after school. We did what adolescent boys usually do. We talked about all kinds of mysterious things, such as stars, machines and girls. Bill was a mild mannered guy and k…
“Looks like a letter from Ike,” Billy said as he sat down and opened the letter. A bit of sawdust fell from the cuff of his pants. He was a carpenter and sometimes he brought a little of his work home with him. “Billy, you didn’t brus…
Among my vast audience of readers I count you, Mary, as one whether or not you are. Although you left us half my life ago I still sometimes think of you with a warm heart. Now I wish you could have been with me at my last birthday party. Act…
Mothers are a hardy breed. After going through the discomfort and pain of bearing their young they then have to nourish and care for the babies until they can care for themselves. Of course some mothers are irresponsible, in which case the rule does not apply.…
“Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then.” Quoted by my boss B.O. Austin and I’m sure many others before him. The quotation applied to me on many occasions when B.O. assigned me a job that I knew absolutely nothing about or where to start looking for ans…
She was supposed to look after me in my old age, but she didn’t stick with me until I got really old. Dorothy, like my first wife, Mary, died of cancer. Now here I was in 2003 alone again and worse, going blind a little every day with ARMD (age related macular…
Winters in northwestern Ohio are less terrible than some folks claim. Yes, some days are cold and dreary, others sunny and colder, sometimes chilling the thermometer to less than zero. There are usually three or four snowfalls that seldom exceed six inches in …
“Martha Barnhart invited us to their house Saturday night to play Bridge,” Mary told me when I got home. “There’ll be two other couples, enough for two tables.” “Sounds OK to me, we enjoy the game.” I said. The Barnharts, parents of two daughters, were a fri…
Jim Harp reported for football practice along with several other freshmen. It was an exciting day for most of the boys. There was hope of making the team in a year or two and they were willing to practice with the bigger boys to learn the skills necessary to p…
The task of being executor of my father’s will fell to my sister Margaret who lived in Oak Ridge, Tennessee not far from Dad’s home. She looked after him in his last years. He suffered diabetes and as it turned out so did both my brother Jim and my sister. Dad…
Once upon a time in Baum Hollow (pronounced by the natives as “BUM Holler”), there lived a tiny lad, name of ”Bulldog”. Well, his momma and pappy didn’t name him “Bulldog” when first they laid eyes on him. No, that name came on him later… Bum Holler was…
The clutter on my desk at work was as I had left it on the previous day; nobody had dared clean up my mess. It was my mess and I knew where things I needed were. I continued with my projects where I had left off. I’d written a test letter specifying tests to b…
The cat gave me more attention than I solicited. I just sat and visited, otherwise minding my own business. The cat evidently wanted to visit too. He caressed my feet and legs with his chin. He walked away and then came back for an encore. He stood where I cou…
A few months after Mardelle and I were divorced, I was busy one Saturday afternoon with my weekend home chores when my doorbell rang. I answered the ring and to my utter surprise a friendly acquaintance stood there in the person of Dorothy Phillips. Dorothy w…
The Boy Scouts of Troop 30 were assembled at the canoe livery, ready to journey down the river. For some of the dozen boys this was their first experience with a canoe. Scoutmaster, George Anderson, gave the boys some instructions before they set off in their …
Our four children had been left at home under the charge of their grandmother. Mary needed a change of scenery from everyday chores. We were in Phoenix and planning a tour to the Grand Canyon. It was off-season and the regular tour buses were not in service. A…
“The hurrier I go the behinder I get.” Somewhere I’ve heard those words before and they seem to describe me sometimes. But how can that be? I seldom get in a hurry. I learned long ago that hurrying often leads to mistakes that make me get really behinder. My p…
On a bright, sunny day in late spring I happened to look out the window to my back yard, where I saw a wren. He was perched on a lower branch of a nearby tree, singing his heart out. He sat there for a little while, and then he was gone. As always, I was glad …
Christmas 2004, I opened a scroll of paper having a fancy border and bearing the following words: Santa really did come And he brought you a gift. No lumps of coal, But something that’s fit For the king that you are In the eyes of your girls. You’ll get on …
Football was a game that I looked forward to playing once I reached high school. As a young boy I played tackle in someone’s yard with whomever we could round up for a game. I went home afterward dirty and grass stained much to the dismay of my mother. I could…
Bud and I were busy scraping old loose paint from the wall of the college dining room and conversing about things not too profound. “You boys cut the talk and concentrate on your work,” came a voice from behind me. It was the voice of C. P. Williams, the busi…
The female half of the family was immersed in Girl Scout activities. On this fine summer day both mother and daughters, were away on training missions. The mother left early in the family car for meetings in Columbus, about ninety miles from home. The girls, h…
In my early days at Westinghouse, electric power systems used 28-volt direct current generators to provide the electric power required for airplanes. Control and protection devices were required to complete the power system. Our military business was involved …
He was a slim, six-foot tall man with curly hair that never needed combing, or maybe always did. In his more than ninety years he never lost his curl that showed some gray only in his later years. A kind and shy guy who seldom raised his voice in anger, Isaac …
The sweet scent of honeysuckle and roses, now and then overpowered by the chokingly pungent odor of the blossoms of a surviving red haw tree, wafted on the ever so gentle breeze. We lived in a recently developed neighborhood where some old houses, the ki…
Isaac Welch Jessee was the last of thirteen children born to my grandparents, James Abel Jessee and Margaret Bailey. Thus, it will come as no surprise that I tell you that I had many cousins born in the mountains of Virginia. Most of them were a lot older than…
Mary Elizabeth Werff Jessee On what would have been her 71st birthday Date: Thurs, 12 Feb 1998 From: djessee@eisl.eis.com.eg Subjec…
“Mom it looks like Dad is cutting down a tree in the back yard,” chimed the voice of one of Dad’s children. The speaker was peering out the window over the back yard of her home. The tree Dad was cutting down was a mulberry tree. Mulberry&n…
The late October sun in a sky unadulterated by any sign of a cloud beckoned me outdoors. On such a splendid day the sun reflected off the woods across the road revealing bright colors, red, yellow, and brown that are dulled on a cloudy day. Directly across the…
“You all have boys who want to be Cub Scouts. Is that right?” I said. “Yes,” came the reply from all the ladies. “Why does your boy want to be a Cub Scout, Jean?” “He has a friend in school, and thinks it would be fun,” she said, joined by other mothers. “…
A person or more are traveling by automobile on Interstate 75 and in no particular hurry. Should they be in a hurry why didn’t they take to the air? Maybe it was just to avoid the hassle of boarding an airplane. There are many detours one can take between Miam…
My family moved from a country place in Virginia to a Kentucky town when I was in third grade. It was not Momma’s choice. She had been reared in the country and would always remain a country gal. She dreaded the challenge of raising kids in town. There they wo…
My name is Dinah. Mercy, was I cold! I was chilled to the bone. I couldn’t stop shivering. It was so dark that I thought my eyes had sealed shut again. My brothers were on both sides of me. They were so quiet. After a long time I heard voices and then I saw li…
Upon arriving home one evening I noticed a cardboard box on the floor, near the kitchen door. “What’s this?” I inquired of Mardelle, my second wife. I answered my own question by looking inside the box. It was a very small, black pup, no longer than four or f…
Half asleep I made my way to the kitchen for my eye-opener cup of joe. My quarters are separated from the main part of the house by a small porch where the dog usually sleeps. I noticed that he was not there, but there is a large back yard for him to roam in a…
www.lcband.org Oct. 12, 2014 I just got home from your worst concert in many a season, and I am worn out. The performance was marred by many children who talked during the music that obviously didn’t interest them. When they tired of …
Dorothy Jean seemed to me to be a flaky character, her mind being somewhere apart from her body. Mardelle and I became acquainted with her while working at the Humane Society bingo games, formed by animal lovers to help support their animal shelter. Some of th…
Many times a day a freight train with twenty to twenty-five cars loaded to the brim and beyond with output from the coalfields just a few miles away, came up the hollow puffing tons of black smoke. My family lived across the narrow valley of the hollow from th…
There were several bridge players among my peers at work. Some played during lunch hour and others, with their wives together with other couples played the game. But that wasn’t enough bridge for some and it came to pass that some of the guys got their heads t…
The Sunday morning ritual had begun. Saturday night sleep came to an abrupt end when a young child gave voice to his discomfort, demanding attention. Everybody up! Dry diapers! Don’t be too slow with breakfast! We were off to a running start for the day. With …
We arrived at the Dayton airport after an hour drive down Interstate 75. I was with Jimmy Dell of our sales department to visit a customer to work out final details of an electric power system that we were manufacturing for them. Air travel was fairly new for …
Things went smoothly in first grade class for much of the morning of his first day. Miss Flannery executed her lesson plan. A great deal of the spoken word goes unnoticed by young minds. It’s not whether or not potty location and protocol were verbally explain…
The mile walk from school seemed a lot shorter than the mile walk to school early in the morning. There were things to see along the road that were not seen by morning light. Could it have been the rush to beat the final toll of school bell that made things in…
Does anyone like to remember the things he failed at? Not likely. Some failures one can’t forget even if he tries but those are few. Most failures are put in the back of the mind and are forgotten because they are inconsequential. Others are too painful and ar…
About mid-afternoon we arrived home after visiting Mardelle’s daughter and parents in Lexington, Kentucky. It had been a pleasant time and we would have enjoyed staying longer, perhaps revisiting some of the old haunts we had enjoyed in former years. “It’s go…
Like many small towns that have an annual event, a kind of signature celebration to attract visitors, hopefully ones with some money, Pineville has its Mountain Laurel Festival. Residents are encouraged to participate of course. The Festival begins with…
Several temporary shacks sat side by side in rows on either side of a street formed to accommodate them. Well, they were not shacks exactly, but would soon be for lack of maintenance. They had been built to house workers during WWII. After the war rental place…
Rain had fallen for two or thee days with no letup, but now it seemed to be slackening somewhat and it finally stopped. Daddy came home from work with a somewhat worried look. He had to cross the river bridge on his way. “The river is mighty…
“You sound high-schoolish. Please remember what I just told you. Now, let’s try it again,” Miss Minter said. “That’s an odd thing to say to a bunch of high school kids,” I thought “What could she expect us to sound like?” She was dead serious. She woul…
As a young teenager I usually spent some summer weeks with Grandma Wells and Aunt Tump. Tump visited her friends and cousins and often took me with her. On one such occasion we spent the afternoon with her first cousin Eva and husband Joe. Joe was a mail carri…
When I was a boy, my family went away on occasions and left me in the care of my grand parents. At that time two aunts and two uncles lived at home with my grannies. I didn’t mind staying with them for a while. I had fun with my aunts and uncles. They all pamp…
The old fox and the young duck walked the avenue to the theater to watch the people arrive for the latest Elvis show. The pair had become fellow travelers when the fox discovered the scrawny duck alone and looking lost and offered to help him find food. The fo…
I believe in freedom. Freedom is the right to be one’s self, to act in one’s own behalf without interference. Freedom provides wide latitude of action, but freedom is not free. It must respect the rights of all other people. Martin Luth…
From Cumberland Gap, where three states join, to the Atlantic Ocean there is The Commonwealth of Virginia. Looking for a place of varied interests to explore? Don’t overlook Virginia. From its mountains in the west to bays and beaches in the east many sights a…
Green is the name of a color. It describes the most obvious commonality among nearly all growing plants. This is something I learned even before I went to school. In school I had a green crayon. Later I learned that it was next to impossible to start a campfir…
We’d had an especially pleasant trip back home from Zion, Illinois where we’d spent a week for Dorothy’s monthly series of treatments for her cancer. After a week at the hospital it was a pleasure to go home. The four-hour trip was usually somewhat of an ordea…
Many people of my grandparents’ generation lived on farms away from towns with industries and stores. My grandparents were of this ilk. They lived pretty much self-sufficient lives with little money to spend, save what little they got for products raised on th…
My bride agreed to marry me because she wanted a man who was taller than she was. I wanted a good mother in law. Maybe we each had other reasons, but we admitted to these. The woman who was to become my mother in law was tolerant of me from the first, yes eve…
Growing up during the Great Depression was a unique experience. Many families were hard pressed to make ends meet while others were more affluent. My family was somewhere in the middle. Although Dad’s job as a railway clerk didn’t pay a lot, it was enough to s…
In less sophisticated times, before television, before radio, people entertained themselves and each other by talking. Telling stories was a great way to spend the evening. Halloween was an ideal time to tell stories of ghosts, goblins and witches. Some storie…
Little theater was her number one hobby. She had other interests of course, such as genealogy and The Humane Society, but the theater stood out above all others. Dorothy had been a member of Amil Tellers for well over forty years. During her tenure she partici…
“I’ve got my stuff all packed, how about you?” I said, as I zipped up my bag, “We have a long way to go.” “Just about, only a few things to pack,” she said, “I’ll be done in a couple of minutes. Load up the car and check out. I want to go down to the beach fo…
“Stephen starts to school this fall,” his mother said one day in a casual conversation with some other women. “Do you know who his teacher will be?” “Mrs. Headpole, I hear.” Upon hearing the name, one of the women broke into a broad smile, clasped her hands…
My company produced electric power systems using converters that made alternating current from a direct current source: this by switching the output terminals to the source in a unique way. We had built a few different models all having the same deficiency; th…
It was a giant magnet that sucked me in as though I were a tiny iron filing. It was a day late in August of my freshman year in high school. Boys were gathered at the school where I joined them. That giant magnet was football practice and I w…
May 1935: Another school year had ended but this one was different for me. I was no longer a junior high school student. I had graduated. It was all over except for the ceremony. I never figured out why, but the eighth grade class had to assemble for a final …
On a bright day in late spring, the family’s four pre-school children played together in their back yard. David and Stephen had taken on a project of making a flower bed next to the house, no doubt to try out their new toy garden tools. They had tu…
Visualize this: The night has been cold and crisp. A super cooled mist has wafted in on a gentle breeze and sunrise is at hand. A thin cloud cover blocks the view of the rising sun but presents a bright gray sky. The world has a ghostly appearance. Frost cover…
Development of the characteristics of my life for the first ten years was almost entirely family oriented. Of course there was some influence of school but not enough to reverse the influence of family. As a young child, my parents, my little sister and I liv…
After our divorce Mardelle had left town for a year or so and had moved back. Dorothy and I had been married for a couple of years. Both women worked for the Humane Society bingo games and were well acquainted. In fact they were good friends. Though divorced, …
Through my dinning room window I could see my next-door neighbor’s back door. Little more than a driveway separated the window from Dr. Wright’s house. So far, the Wrights had four children, the youngest, twins about two years old, the others school age. On wa…
“Forty, huh? Jess you’re really getting to be an old fart,” Jack Rosell said to me one day at work. It must have been near my birthday. How else would he have thought to remind me of my age? It wasn’t my birthday that made him think of …
At the Dayton, Ohio airport Mardelle and I boarded an airplane bound for Miami to visit our friends, Harold and Marti Kay. We were long time friends with the Kays. Marti was probably Mardelle’s best friend in Lima. Harold had been in the sales department at We…
“R. D., meet Dick Blake and Bill Spaven,” said my boss, “They’re here to show us an idea they have to replace the constant speed drive with electronic circuits.” We had been kicking around different ideas for replacing the drive for some time without much suc…
If someone asked me what I thought my legacy might someday be, I should answer that I had scarcely thought of such a thing. Of course I do wonder why anybody younger than my great grandchildren would have a single thought of me. Even the great grandsons who ha…
East Stone Gap, Va. June 6, 1918 Dear Isaac, Thank you for your continued interest in seeing me. Our last time together was indeed a pleasant one. I look forward to seeing you again. I know that our next visit should be just as rewarding.&…
Dear Mary, It has been a long, long time since we reveled in our passion for each other. The memories of our good times together have to a large extent faded from my mind. Now and then a scene from our past forms in my brain that reminds me of how good things…
Memory fades with age as with most all other faculties. Rather than to attempt to write a narrative about my life with Mary, I shall try to relate some of the things I remember pretty well. If I mess up the chronology, so be it. Mary’s family went to the Luth…
With four young children not yet in school Mary was a full-time mother as well as a wife. There were meals, diapers, laundry, skinned knees, hugs and kisses, grocery lists, trips to the doctor, and on and on. She was ever grateful that Granny was happy and eag…
“Get some Cheerios, Mom,” said Stephen. “We have plenty at home,” said Mom, and walked on down the aisle. “Could we have some chocolates?” came the next question. “No.” This answer came with a slight movement of Moms eyebrows and pur…
Buried among the junk mail I found a note from a long time pal and fellow engineer, the last person I would have expected to venture near Lafayette, but his note said he would be driving through on his way back home from somewhere out west. His note was signed…
Following a six-month assignment at the Marine Division in Annapolis, Maryland I returned home. The day after my return Mardelle and I were still sitting at the table in conversation when I heard her say something about a lawyer. “Beg pardon?” I queried. “I …
After ten years in our new house it wasn’t new any more. We had shrubs and flowers about, and a tree grew in the front yard. I had finished a room in the attic for two growing boys and one room remained unfinished. Since the boys occupied the upstairs room it …
Being a local girl, my bride Mary had a circle of friends with whom she had grown up. On the other hand, I was new in town and most of my friends were guys I knew at work. Most of her friends were busy getting married and although we got together with some of …
“Now that we’re in South Dakota we ought to stop in Mitchell and see the Corn Palace,” I said as we drove along in our Volkswagen minibus en route home from a month’s tour of the western parks of the USA. The minibus was loaded with camp gear that left just en…
After more than seventy years of absence from her, it is hard to recall in any detail things about Momma and me that would make a story that anyone would be interested in reading. In the beginning Momma was the proud parent of an extremely handsome and well-be…
The stock market had crashed. Many people had lost their jobs. To an employee of the railroad seniority was a very important thing. My dad had been hired by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad three days after his friend Duffy, and one day before Lawson. D…
As a young child I heard talk of Reds (i.e. communists), coal mine slate falls, suicides, hard times, hobos and depression. I didn’t know the meaning of any of this until my dad lost his job and had to move to Kentucky to find another. It was only then that I …
I live here alone now. I need some clean clothes. I gather my dirty duds and go to the basement. I sort the clothes and put a load into the washing machine. Something reminds me of my little dog, Dinah. I just arrived home from work and saw the poor little pu…
“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray Thee Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee Lord my soul to take.” This was my first prayer and that of millions of other children around the world. My momma taught me the prayer. It is a self-cente…
The house on Albert St. was comfortable, handy to work and affordable. We had agreeable neighbors who were helpful when needed and pleasant to visit. The problem was that my family was growing so fast. Once the two boys and their little sister were put to bed …
In light of the current assignment it seems appropriate to include “Bulldog” as part of it, even though it is the first story I wrote for this class. During my growing-up years I was called by many nicknames, but they never stuck for long, for less than…
On a dark night some eighty years ago while sitting on the front porch on a summer night a strange sound rushed out of the nearby woods alerting me to the formerly unknown. I thought it was an eerie sound. It seemed to be a kind of whistling sound …
What ever happened to my ninth decade? It wasn’t everybody’s ninth decade, just mine. It started on a tragic note. Two days before its start three thousand people lost their lives in the collapse of the twin-towers brought on by terrorists. The war on terror d…
“Pile into the car kids, we’re goin’ to Squirty’s, said Dad. Bill and I climbed into the back seat and waited for Mom and Dad. It was a Sunday afternoon and Uncle Don would probably be listening to his favorite classical music. It may seem a bit odd because fe…
Looking at old pictures I see things that are sort of familiar or perhaps ought to be. For instance here is one taken in the front or side yard of an old house. I see shades of gray in broad outline except for things that are familiar such as faces and certain…
As a new hire as a student engineer of Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company I traveled to Pittsburgh for the job. I had borrowed more money from Daddy to tide me over until my first payday. I hoped to save some money from each check until I had enou…
“Are we there yet?” comes a voice from the back seat of the car. That must be the tenth time I’ve heard the question since we left home. Here we are in the rolling hills of southern Indiana, headed for a state park, where we mean to camp for a night or two. “…
The Cornn family lived but a block past the schoolyard playground. Frequently kids lingered after school for a game of touch football or some other physical game. I was occasionally one of the participants but more likely I would go on by with my friend Billy,…
One day I began to wonder what was in the boxes that I had stashed away out of sight. Some of the boxes had rested where they lay ever since I moved to Lafayette seven years ago. There couldn’t be anything I needed in them. I’d had lots of help packing up the …
Asked to describe the most physically challenging task I ever completed, I thought back over a lifetime to see what I could remember. A few things came to mind but I had a hard time picking the most challenging. As a Boy Scout working on the life-saving merit…
Graduates of the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky in 1943 were few indeed. Westinghouse men interviewed graduates and hired me. They directed me to report at the Educational Center in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania in about a week. I arrived at…
“I’m tired of playing video games and computer stuff, Grandpa. Did you ever get bored with video games when you were a kid?” said Sonny. “Believe it or not I was once a kid, but I never got tired of playin’ video games. There were no such things then,” I said…
The sounds of an ambulance or fire engine in the distance growing ever louder break the relative quiet of the evening. The wailing scream with its slurring pitch is replaced by a whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop, then back to the scream. The sound, though muffled, inva…
“It’s quit rainin’ and the sun’s out again, but look at the sky. There’s a rainbow. Sure is pretty,” I said to Tump, my favorite aunt, “How can there be a rainbow when it’s not rainin’?” “”Oh, it’s still rainin’ somewhere over yonder. It takes both sunshine a…
It would be a century before anyone would make a call on his cellular telephone or play a video game. Nobody watched television, sent an E-mail message or used an I-pod. Nobody had to line up to be searched before boarding an airplane; there were no airplanes.…
While touring a secondary highway, the children were playing a travel game. They selected an object on the roadside and counted points when the object appeared on a team’s side of the road. The object of the day was a herd of cows. They made no distinction bet…
As I was growing up nearly every boy I knew wanted to have a toy train. It was his dream to find a train under the tree on Christmas morning. I was no different. I looked at the Sears Roebuck catalog and drooled over the pictures of trains in the toy section. …
The June night was clear with a bright starry sky above. We sat around a little campfire that was not for the heat but for the effect. We always thought a campout was incomplete without a fire to gaze into. It had been a daunting, sometimes frustrating task to…
Fred walked in, just arriving home from work. He greeted Fran with a friendly kiss on her lips, and said “Hi, Babe. Did you have a good day?” “Good enough I guess,” she replied, “I did a little dusting. The stuff just won’t stay outside.” Fred looked a…
Sam Camper was a craftsman who worked in the sample department at Westinghouse. He had built many sample devices to specifications of engineers of the control section. He frequently suggested better ways of making an item. He was a good-natured man, about twen…
There was a tap, tap, tap. The sound was coming from the water pipes in the house. I got up and responded to the sound with my own taps on the plumbing, and walked out the front door. Sara Bess and I had concocted a private communication scheme. The country wa…
"We’re late, everybody's leaving,” she said as they parked in the Church parking lot. In fact the service had been a little short with an early benediction. "But we can’t be this late. I set the clock back an hour slower before we went to bed, not two ho…
Prolog: The tranquil place that Kim envisioned was not available to me. Nevertheless I found a relatively quiet place to let my mind wander and it settled on nothing profound. So I just wrote what came to mind. Business flourished at Westinghouse Aerospace Di…
Upon leaving the highway it is a short drive following the creek up the hollow to Camp Campbell, the Boy Scout camp. It is a pretty drive through forest and clearings with the creek sometimes roaring, sometimes rippling over rocks, and sometimes running quietl…
On a dark night some eighty years ago while sitting on the front porch on a summer night a strange sound rushed out of the nearby woods alerting me to the formerly unknown. I thought it was an eerie sound. It seemed to be a kind of whistling sound that started…
Asleep until sundown, he stirs, yawns, peers about, stretches, scratches, shakes head to clear brain fog and waits. His nightly mission begins on silent wings, ever vigilant for movement on the ground. A twig moves, a sudden drop, talons grasp a vole or a mous…
Only a few weeks were left before summer vacation from school. The children were beginning to get restless and yearned for freedom from the constraints of the classroom. It was a warm spring Saturday, ideal for an outing in the park. Perhaps this was just what…
The elevator door opened. Sergeant O’Neal stepped out with his dog, trained to sniff out explosives. They headed straight to Sheriff Tate’s office and entered. “Good morning Sheriff, said O’Neal. “Good day O’Neal, I hope you’re bringing good news this time,”…
“Mammy’s little baby loves shortenin’ bread.” That’s my favorite song for singing. I used to sing it to my kids as we drove down the highway, that is until they got tired of the song and started singing something else. Actually they tolerated it for a relative…
“Make him quit, Momma.” Words such as these characterize much of my memory of my little sister during our growing years of the 1930’s. Margaret had lots of playmates in our early years, while I had to leave the neighborhood to find boys to play with. As we gre…
“What are we doing on an airplane leaving Tampa, north for Washington just when the weather is getting good again in Florida?” I asked my son, David.” “Because we have tickets for today,” he said. ”But it’s a national holiday. Have we no respect for the grou…
“Momma, I’m gonna take a little hike up the mountain if you don’t mind. OK?” “Are goin’ by yourself?” “Yes maam. I’m only goin’ where I’ve been before.” “All right, but be careful.” “I’ll be back by supper time.” I go straight up the mountainside. I wish …
Granddaddy Wells set his first grandson on his knee and sang to him when he was but a little tyke, not yet in school. I was the little tyke. I have no recollection of what song he sang. He may have made it up on the spot. I remember hearing it said that Grandd…
1931: I’m just getting home from school. Home is at Grandma Wells’ house until school’s out. That’ll be a couple of months yet. I no sooner get home than I’m informed of the most exciting event of the season. “Ol’ Pied had her calf last night. You can run dow…
They were truly dragging the bottom of the barrel. Why else should they be trying to recruit young engineers at the local Westinghouse plant? There was no other answer. A group of would-be thespians formed a little theater organization in the late 1930’s. The…
Headline of short item on page 3 of local paper: “Slick Eludes Police Again” The item stated in part, “Police response to tips by citizens proved to be too slow…..” Police may have considered the tips a hoax, or maybe they were on a coffee break, but it was n…
Twelve-year-old Jack and his little brother Tom, a couple years younger, had been fishing in the creek most of the morning. Now they were on their way home and they were hungry for lunch. It was a fine clear day in early fall. The fishing had been fun but the …
World War II had been over only a short time when a union at Westinghouse staged a strike against the company. The war had affected everybody in material ways. Supporting the military caused shortages in many things people had taken for granted. Besides the bi…
Barely a whisper of thunder slipped through the barrier of walls and windows of the house. A glance at the windows revealed a slight dimming of daylight, perhaps warning of a coming thundershower. Previous days had been dry despite the sound of distant thunder…
It was summer 1941. I had just completed my sophomore year at Lincoln Memorial University where I was enrolled in pre-engineering curriculum. I applied for a transfer to the University of Kentucky to complete my engineering degree. I didn’t have any money and …
“All right kids let’s load up this old Model T touring car. We’re just about ready to roll. It’s such a lovely summer day. We won’t need the mica windows to keep out the rain,” Daddy said. “Last one in’s a doodle bug.” “Mama’s the bug.” “How far is it Daddy…
“Key word: swing.” Write a story about swings? We did write about porches and that turned out all right, but swings? Well, I thought about the key word and looked it up in the dictionary. It took half a page to tell me about the word. Didn’t Kim mention someth…
“Is everybody ready to go? David, you and Stephen, get your coats on and don’t forget your hats,” said Mary, noting that Susanna and Catherine were ready to go. We all got into the car and started off. “Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s ho…
Ursula, one of my granddaughters, and I sat at the table with an old photo album open in front of us. It was not just old but old fashioned as well. It had black pages and pictures were held in place by those little corner pockets that were glued to the page t…
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…
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 …
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…
“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 afterno…
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…
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 th…
“Whatcha looking for? Did you drop something?” Catherine said as she saw me looking around my feet on the rug under them. “It’s just a ring that fell off my finger. I think it’s the wedding ring your mother gave me. I found it among some odds and ends unearth…
A tiny bird about the size of one’s little finger spent the morning looking at flowers. He wasn’t admiring their beauty, or even their fragrance. He was most interested in the taste treat he could find hidden inside the bloom. He was perfectly designed for his…
Telling the story of a Christmas day would be like telling the story of almost any other Christmas day. I can remember them only as Christmas days, not specific to any Christmas day. Of course there were specific events that I can recall but I can’t relate the…
It had been a good party and the hour was late. Charlie and his date got into his car and headed home. On the way to the girl’s house they approached a railroad crossing where the warning lights were flashing and the gates were closing. He glanced quickly to h…
HELEN: A pretty young woman. Brown eyes and a pleasant smile soft brown, shoulder-length hair. Married. Likes to flirt with men. GENE: A vivacious, blue-eyed, former Texan, democrat, opinionated, likable. Mother of four. MOE: A slightly overweight woma…
“How is your garden growing, Warren?” I asked. Warren, who was an avid gardener and kept some hens for his own eggs, ran the store where I was shopping. “Pretty good. Need some zucchinis?” “No thanks,” I said, “I just picked my gr…
“Nine-eleven” is a term that brings to mind a sad day in our nation’s history, one that should never have been. It seems to me that ample warning was available but the warning was ignored. Evidence not allowed to be shared between the FBI and the CIA is a prim…
Daddy had his dreams in the mid-1920’s of making the little house in Virginia a place of his own liking. He had a wife and two little kids to occupy the house. Before I was old enough to start school I noticed things such as grape vines and fruit trees he plan…
My late wife Dorothy was as pleased as punch to have inherited four children and nine grandchildren when we married. The children had all moved far from their hometown and far from each other. Both Dorothy and I wanted to be able to get them all to…
Before the Great Depression nearly all my aunts and uncles lived within a morning buggy ride of all their siblings. My dad and Uncle Billy lived farther from their kin than the others. Living close together made it easy and natural to keep in touch. Uncle Bill…
My grandson, Shawn, as a lad of three who lived in Texas, loved big trucks and was fascinated by dinosaurs of every size and shape. He was a curious young lad, eager to learn almost everything. One day he found a seed in his food and wondered if it would be re…
Almost everything in the design of control and protection devices had born B.O. Austin’s mark. Be it a voltage regulator, a power or control relay or the overall circuit design, his influence could be seen. B.O. was an innovator. He was always looking for a be…
Sometime I went through a transition from childhood to becoming a man. I never considered that there was a time when such a transition may have happened. I just grew into it without noticing the difference. Childhood had many phases, few of which were near to …
It seems odd to me to head west when our destination is east, but that’s how it was. Daughter Catherine and I left for Savannah via Houston on Saturday morning. Much earlier that day son David left northern Virginia in his car for the Savannah airport. He arri…
I’ve written about my mother’s family to some extent, but my children may be interested in more, at least their names. Granddaddy was Francis Marion Wells. The name sounded to me like a woman’s name, but not so. Grandma was Octavia Watkins Co…
In midwinter during my grammar school days a box with a slotted lid would appear on the teacher’s desk. (I think they’ve renamed it elementary school, but we really did learn some grammar.) The teacher explained that it was a box for valentines and…
The view from our airplane window was spectacular as we glided over Los Angeles toward the airport. Dusk was nearly upon us and the city lights were illuminated. The scene shimmered in a pale green glow, dotted throughout by jewels of light for as …
Our esteemed leader admitted that she comes from a goofy family. Well, ‘goofy’ was not her word for it but it’s close enough it seems to me. At any rate I wondered if she thought that she expected her students to admit to being goofier than her family. It’s qu…
The summer term of 1943 at the University of Kentucky was almost over. It had been a tough term. Courses had been compressed so that course material had to be covered in half the normal time. My main course met at 7:00 am, for two hours daily. That was particu…
The people in Industrial Relations at Westinghouse gave me the usual policy blurb for new hires, no doubt as a reminder, for I had heard the blurb on my first trip here. They were very good in helping a young single guy to find a place to live. Getting off the…
“We’ve done pretty well this morning,” Dick said as he put his folder back into his file cabinet, “I suggest we knock off for lunch now and come back and finish up after we eat. Does anyone have a preference where we go?” “It’s your town, so you pick the plac…
Money seemed to disappear when I was in second or third grade. Nobody I knew had any. People talked about having money before the Great Depression; so what happened to it? I didn’t have any idea, having had no experience with it. All I knew was that my daddy w…
“What you see is what you get,” is an old saying I heard somewhere. I don’t know where it came from or exactly what it means. Maybe it’s an old horse trader’s saying, meaning “let the buyer beware.” Maybe it’s another way of saying “seeing is believing.” From …
As a happy 24-year-old I was thinking of finding a bride and starting a family. I had a job and though I had no money, the job would provide. World War II was over; I no longer had to fear the draft as an obstacle. Plenty available young women shared my ambiti…
The Pineville High School football team had a respectable season up until the last game. They could not win the conference championship, but they could improve their standing in the conference by winning their last game of the season. The season always ended w…
Southern Louisiana, January, Twenty-ten: Since just a few days past New Years Day it seems that I can’t get warmed up. I heard many warnings on the radio to protect the plants, and it became wrap your water pipes with anything including newspapers, old tee-shi…
The mail had been delivered. I wondered what was here besides junk. Now and then some interesting junk would appear among the mass of stuff. I would like to know what part if it was worth looking at. Items with large, bold print on the cover …
It was an unsettled time of life for him, a time for discovery. He had earned a college degree, served his stint in the U.S. Army and had a steady job. The man lived in a comfortable room at the home of an aged widow who rented her three upstairs rooms to youn…
We got us a dog at the pound. He didn’t look much like a hound. He likes to chase squirrels Just as boys chase the girls, And he loves to dig holes in the ground. The dog from the pound we call Zeke. You might think of him as a freak. He’ll greet you with ki…
Like many a widower I tried to continue my normal activities in the community. I maintained my interest in the arts, in church and personal relationships as best I could. Though lonely for my mate, I was beginning to cope with a lifestyle alone in a house big …
Charlie Yohe seemed to be an easy-going sort of fellow who enjoyed life, including his job as an electrical engineer. He was about my age, or a bit younger, and roughly my size and better looking, according to some folks. Charlie and I both worked in the engin…
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