There is a program streaming now on Netflix – Queen’s Gambit.  It is a fictional account of a young orphaned girl who becomes a brilliant chess player. If you have Netflix, it’s a must-watch series. If you don’t have Netflix, it’s a good reason to sign up. Nancy and I watched each episode, spell bound, sometimes 3 episodes in a single evening. It reminded me of the chess mania that swept this … [Read more...]

My youngest daughter was always something of a tomboy. She tagged along with me on dove hunts and delighted in floating and fishing the James River. When she was in 5th grade, a fellow in the local Jaycee’s approached me about sponsoring a youth BB gun team. “Sure I’ll buy them a gun,” I said.  Daisy made some special target air rifles that were deadly accurate at 5 meters, and they cost about … [Read more...]

I was 5 when my family moved from Pittsburg to Beckley, West Virginia and I immediately made friends with a 6 year-old boy across the street – Billy Richmond. Billy and I had countless imaginary games of Army, Navy and Air Force. A hill on a vacant lot became a German fortified position we had to capture; an old log behind Billy’s house was a pretend submarine; and a big apple tree in a neighbor’s … [Read more...]

Some like to fish. Some could care less. I was born to fish. Some of my earliest recollections are of the old “Henry” comic strip. Henry was forever fishing and carrying stringers of big fish that he caught. I saw those cartoons and stared in envy. How I wanted to catch fish like those. I didn’t get much chance to fish until my family moved to Beckley, WV when I was about 5 years … [Read more...]

What time is it? I don’t know. I don’t have my phone with me. Phone? Where’s your watch? What’s a watch? Time was, everyone wore a watch. A right-of-passage for a young girl or boy was their first watch. It was a big deal. I think I was 7 when I got my first watch. It was an inexpensive stopwatch. I was constantly stopping and starting the watch, which also reset the time. So I never … [Read more...]

Boomers own Beach Music. Those of us who lived in Virginia or the Carolinas, or those Boomers who may have vacationed in those spots in the late 50’s, the 60’s, and a little into the 70’s, remember Beach Music. We remember beach clubs and dance halls along the oceanfront at places like Cherry Grove, Ocean Drive, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach in SC, or in Atlantic Beach or Carolina Beach in … [Read more...]

I was still 4 when we were transferred to Beckley, WV. Daddy worked in an office with two other FBI agents. His territory covered 4 counties and he often was gone for several days at a time, often to the home office in Pittsburg. As I would come to learn, a lot of the work that Special Agents for the FBI did was investigative. If a woman from one of his counties applied for a Federal job in … [Read more...]

I was four years old. Daddy George had proposed to and married my widowed mother and the FBI gave Special Agent Patterson his marching orders. We were headed for Seattle. I can’t remember what kind of car we had. It was an FBI car with a big engine, and it was black, probably a ‘48 or ’49 model Plymouth or Dodge. I can remember that it was a very long drive from Raleigh, NC to Seattle – every … [Read more...]

  My father, James E. Brewer, was shot down in WW II over Burma just a few days before I was born. I grew up in a home on Sewell Avenue in Raleigh, NC with my widowed Mom, Mama Ida, my Aunt Jodi, Aunt Pearl and Uncle Sidney. Mama Ida worked at the Department of Vehicles and my mother took a job in the office of North Carolina State College. During the work hours, I spent time with a large … [Read more...]