The older I get the more I appreciate parents. Fathers and Mothers. The closer Mother’s Day gets, the more I’m grateful to my mom, bless her soul. This year I channeled my inner Julio Iglesias to come up with the start of a Mother’s Day column. So, here we go. To all the mothers […]
You all know I’m a sucker for a good story, especially when it involves parents doing right by their children. (And, “doing right by” does not mean giving their kids everything they want.) So, it will not surprise regular readers that when I overheard an area waitress telling a patron that when she was just […]
You have to admit driving the highways and byways around here these days you get to see lots of wildlife. It doesn’t matter if you’re tooling down M-15, or up M-24, driving on Clarkston Road (which used to be Clarkston-Orion Road), Baldwin Road, Seymour Lake Road or Oakwood Road, or driving in any number of […]
This Sunday many around the world will celebrate new birth, renewal and Easter. More than anytime of the year, this is the time of renewed hope, something we can all use. Sometimes that hope comes in an expected form. Just last week I heard a song I’ve heard hundreds of times since it was released […]
God, help all us sugar freaks! Oh Lord of Confection, give us strength in this time of grief and wanting. This I pray, Amen. If you haven’t heard, there’s a panic going on all over the area and it has nothing to do with banks crashing, inflation killing our savings accounts or the cost of […]
I actually like the month of March. The weather, while unpredictable, is gearing up for warmer days to come. March is a time when folks start to think spring in Michigan may actually arrive. It’s also a time when car dealerships and furniture stores have Irish-themed sales for St. Patrick’s Day – my son Sean’s […]
I loved my dad. My dad loved me (I know, because he told me so). I love my sons. My sons love me (I know because they tell me so). I love the dynamics of father/son relations — the ebbs and flows of emotions from idealizing to eye-rolling to friendship, all bound with love. […]
I don’t know about you, but this weather thingy has got me all discombobulated. We’ve been bamboozled out of a decent winter and I’m kind of flabbergasted by the whole thing. It’s like I’ve been gobsmacked. (Yeah, yeah I know many of you are saying, “Don, you always look dazed and confused, so what’s the […]
I live a swinging bachelor lifestyle. You know how it is. Each week night I watch Jeopardy, see how much I don’t know and then I turn the TV off, turn off the lights, start up an audio book and go to sleep. Sleep comes in about 13 minutes, so I don’t really know […]
Last week I was honored to be the guest speaker at Oxford Township Senior Citizens Coffee and Conversation. A handful of local seasoned citizens sat around me at a table with coffee and pastries to ask me questions. For about an hour they asked questions about my history (growing up on the mean streets in […]