Category: Americana

  • Grandfather Therapy

    Grandfather Therapy

    Now, for the first time on TheBuddyBlog.com is an updated version of one of my most popular Reflections, Grandfather Therapy. Since first published, the number of my grandchildren has doubled.  So have the therapy sessions. So have the lessons learned. I have concluded that grandchildren, or at the very least, the nine who call me…

  • Daisy Grace, Louis L’Amour and Fried Chicken Fridays

    Daisy Grace, Louis L’Amour and Fried Chicken Fridays

    The search is over.  I found it.  I bought it.  I brought it home.  My library is complete. Recently, I was able to meet, for the first time, Runelle and Ruth, first cousins of my mother.  We had reconnected through email and decided to meet and exchange memories and pictures of our common ancestors. I…

  • What Do Husbands Want for Valentine’s Day?

    What Do Husbands Want for Valentine’s Day?

    “I have a question for you.” That’s a sentence I hear a lot…from my wife.  While we dated, it was an expected comment as we both sought to grow in our relationship and get to know each other.  Now, as a married couple, it is often how she seeks to get my thoughts or opinions…

  • Make America Good Again?

    Make America Good Again?

    One of the most visual symbols of the current President is his red hat emblazoned with the letters MAGA, for Make America Great Again.  It is a hat worn by those who support him and mocked by those who disdain him.  Who thought a hat would become a lightning rod for confrontation? One only has…

  • Groundhog Morality

    Groundhog Morality

    Today, February 2nd is Groundhog Day when tradition holds that if a groundhog sees his shadow, he will return to his burrow and we will have six more weeks of Winter. Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Pennsylvania groundhog, saw his shadow this morning, so springtime in the North may be delayed.  Yet his Southern cousin, General…

  • Is Pink the New Color of Evil?

    What do the United States, North Korea, China, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Canada, and Singapore have in common?   Only these seven countries allow abortion after 20 weeks.  And if New York Governor Cuomo has anything to do with it, the United States will be in a class by itself.  The State of New York already…

  • Respecting the Opposition  – A Lesson from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Respecting the Opposition – A Lesson from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    This week, we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., the most visible leader of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.  Growing up in Atlanta during that same period gave me a front-row seat on the non-violent protest strategy used by Dr. King.  I must confess to not always understanding, much…

  • You Want Me to Buy What?

    You Want Me to Buy What?

    One of our daughters and her one-year-old son stopped by the house recently for dinner.  She had just returned from a visit to the pediatrician where she learned that her son only had a cold and not the flu.  While there, the doctor also determined he had a worse-than-average diaper rash. Hearing my wife and…

  • But Now, I See

    But Now, I See

    Today is January 1, 2019, the 250th-anniversary of….wait.  Before you start celebrating, a little background might be in order. It begins with a man named John. Born in 1725, he spent the first seven years of his life in England.  With his father at sea, his loving mother doted on her son, taking him to…

  • The Christmas Tree Fort

    The Christmas Tree Fort

    What is it with kids and forts?   I remember as a kid building forts and tree houses with my friends. I recall as a parent, my children using pillows and cardboard boxes to construct their make-believe hideaways.  Now my grandchildren seem to naturally want to use blankets over tables or delight in scrambling into…