The Noyes House
A few weeks ago, I asked one of my distant cousins, E.O. Lester, who has an exceptional knowledge of Vance family history, about an old house, always referred to by my grandparents as the old Noyes house, Continue reading “The white shirt”
Actually, I’ve been scared for a while, but the events compounding my fears seem to be piling up at breakneck speed. This morning, I woke to read where our Spray-Tan-in-Chief whipped out his Twitter machine and fired off a few tweets complaining about the investigation into alleged shady contact with the Russians by him and his posse. Continue reading “I’m getting scared”
Today is my dad’s 67th birthday, marking the 2/3 point on the journey to 100 (if you round up). I’ve been around for the last 39 of his birthdays and have watched his hair go from brown to gray and from gray to gray and white. Continue reading “Happy birthday, Gomer”
Today, Mississippi celebrates Robert E. Lee/ Martin Luther King Jr. Day while most of the rest of the country omits the first name in the title of their holiday observances. But, Mississippi’s gonna Mississippi, Continue reading “Is the dream still just a dream?”
This past summer I was lucky to have been asked to go to Nashville for a few days to be a model for a photo shoot for the company that made my new chair and the seat cushion I use, Permobil and it’s subsidiary Roho. The request came about because I answered a Facebook advertisement asking for folks Continue reading “My seat”
Preface-
I couldn’t write this without coloring the topic with my perspective no matter how hard I tried. But, after a dozen attempts to do so, I remembered that this blog is the view from my seat. It doesn’t have to be apolitical. As much as I am always going to try to be neutral on political issues, I won’t always achieve that goal, but I will do my absolute best to share my perspective without pointed attacks on anyone else or their ideology. You don’t have to agree with me, and I expect there are lots of folks that won’t, but remember that I am sincere and my views are shaped by my experiences just like yours.
The original family home
I’m from Mississippi, in case you didn’t already know that. In fact, both sides of my family, going back at least three generations on both sides, are Mississippians. I love where I’m from, and I love where I am. I also hate where I’m from, and I hate where I am.
I’ve been working on a post for a couple weeks trying to explain Mississippi and what keeps me here, or what keeps me from running away as fast as I can. After writing, rewriting, editing, cutting, and starting over a dozen times, Continue reading “The first step toward civility”
Most years around this time, I am laughing under my breath at all the new year’s resolutions that are showing up in Facebook posts about weight loss or spending time with family or some other worthwhile but tired promise that most likely will last about as long as a snowflake in Costa Rica. But, this year, I’m going to break with my tradition, join the crowd, and make a few resolutions of my own. Continue reading “Resolve”
Last week, I found myself having lunch with family members from Memphis. We picked a restaurant that was in a town that was about a two-hour drive for each of us and coincidentally also a restaurant I’d been wanting to visit for quite a while because it allegedly serves the best lemon icebox pie on the planet. Continue reading “The view from my seat: your view of me”
These days I feel more like Mr. Scrooge than Buddy the Elf. While I have no real disdain toward the secularized part of Christmas, in those immortal words of BB King, the thrill is gone. I’m not sure when it left or where it went, but the anticipation and excitement of the season was replaced with stress and responsibilities at some point.
Maw and Pop were my grandparents on my mother’s side. They were both born in the late 1920’s, grew up in the Murphy Creek community about 9 miles east of Louisville in Winston County, graduated from high school at the Bond Continue reading “Weekends with Maw and Pop”
(…continued)
In the summer of 2002, while I was dealing with the issues involved in getting my Master’s diploma mailed to me, I was also looking for a job. Unlike my previous job searches as a high school kid looking for a way to buy hamburgers and movie tickets, this time I was packing two college degrees earned with pretty decent GPAs. I thought there would be tons of employers out there looking for a guy with my pedigree.
Continue reading “It was time to take a load off: I worked my way up to it”
The View From My Seat 