The Pent-ultimate Christmas present for every Boomer boy was a Lionel train. And so it was with me. I was seven and a Lionel train was at the top of my wish list to Santa Claus. I simply had to have one, even though they were fairly pricey and my dad earned only a modest salary as an FBI agent. By boyhood friend, Billy Richmond, got a train for Christmas the year before. Billy was … [Read more...]

  I don’t eat a lot of cereal. I’m more of a sausage and egg kinda-guy, but I used to eat a lot of cereal. All Boomer kids did. After all, if you didn’t eat cereal how were you going to get any of those neat prizes? I read that Cracker Jacks recently discontinued putting premiums in their boxes, signaling the end of an era, an era of reaching to the very bottom of a new box of cereal to … [Read more...]

  About 25 years ago, I got a call from Neil Selby up in Remington. “Can you be up here about 5 tomorrow morning? We’ve got geese and lots of them.” Neil, a long-time friend, owns Shady Grove Kennels, a hunting preserve. Neil also is a master dog trainer. “Sure,” I replied. “See you at 5 AM.” It happened to be on a Monday in early February and I remembered I had not bought a … [Read more...]

  I was a little edgy the last time I boarded a helicopter. It was a chopper in Kauai on our last cruise. But this time I was excited to hop into the 6-passenger aircraft. The most spectacular views of Hawaii, I have discovered, come from the air. Our pilot spun us around and headed for the lava fields. We were in Hilo on the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii, the site of the 2018 … [Read more...]

  February 1, 1967 was an exciting day. I had packed my Camaro convertible with a few pots and pans, some linens, my guitar and stereo and headed to Charlottesville, my new home. It was a beautiful day, in the low 80’s and I put the top down on my drive over. This Virginia is a special kind of place, I thought. Two weeks later it snowed 16-inches, but on that first day of February, all was … [Read more...]

  My happy place? It’s on a dock, any dock or pier with water nearby. I can spend hours and hours on a dock and it’s as if time stand still. I suppose it all goes back to my early experiences as a ten-year-old boy on Uncle’s Sidney’s pier on Bogue Sound, across from Atlantic Beach. Uncle Sidney had built the pier by himself, no easy task for a man with a wooden leg. He had lost his … [Read more...]

This week, I had a chance to correspond with an old friend from Lewisburg, Bill Shaver. Bill and I go back a long way. Bill was the athlete, an excellent pitcher who could bring the heat while I had to give it all I had to make a throw from third to first. Bill hit homers, I hit singles. Bill and I played basketball together and took various trips to Myrtle Beach, but one thing that stands out … [Read more...]

On October 8, 1956, I was in 7th grade. At the 2 PM bell, they let students out of their classrooms and those who were interested assembled on chairs in the auditorium. A television set was on. The picture was a little fuzzy, but it was Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.  The Dodgers and Yankees. Vin Scully and Mel Allen were the announcers. Babe Pinelli was the ump behind home plate … [Read more...]

In 1983, my Dad gave me an English Setter puppy out of Walter, a great setter and family pet. We named him Hunter. But this was the skitziest dog I had ever seen. He was super-hyper and deathly afraid of the trash men who used to pick up our trash cans from the back deck. I thought he would be gun shy for sure and he was so wild when you let him go, I wondered if I would ever see him again if I … [Read more...]

Not many Boomers were able to avoid the scourge of hand-me-down’s – clothes and shoes passed down from older brothers or sisters, or from one family to another. Most Boomer parents were children of the depression, and recycling was a way of life, not a fashion statement. Moms were even known to cut off buttons from old shirts and coats, so you know they were eager for gently used clothing in good … [Read more...]