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The Alpine Theater on Main Street in Ripley, WV. Yup. I donât remember the movie. I do remember that DAY. Pretty much the ONLY time in my life a haircut ever mattered to me. As a 10-year-old boy growinâ up then, my hair was ⌠well, like it is now. Whatâs on my head. But… Read more
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I had that window today. Not enough time to drive somewhere or make anything that needed boiling, baking, or preheating. Just âtake off the box, insert in microwave.â But there was enough time for a step up from the peanut-butter jar. No leftovers. So I went back to what I call my college meals. I… Read more
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When I say strong ⌠support ⌠what comes to mind ??? Steel? Concrete? Superman? Now the other kind. Mom? Dad? Preacher? Teacher? How well does a concrete belt work? How about hugging a steel girder? How about asking your mom to hold up a building, or your preacher to be the foundation for a… Read more
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My childhood was WAY different than my sonâs. Not the âuphill both ways, cash-only dinosaursâ different ⌠the West Virginia hills different. Mom and Dad would plan, scrape, save, beg, borrow, and â well, not steal â to get us to where the good ole U.S. ended and the Atlantic began every other year or… Read more
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Gonna take a poll. Raise your hand if you ever had a mom (or a mom-type). Keep âem up if you had a dad (or a dad-type). Keep âem up if you are one. Keep âem up if you even know one. Alright, everybody can put âem down. No, Iâm not omniscient ⌠but I… Read more
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No, no, no ⌠Iâm not goinâ anywhere. The CE halls of Westminster will still be just as full of zaniness as they always are. Thatâs not what this is about. Itâs about the Church Triumphant ⌠the Church of New Jerusalem. Toni and I are at an age where a LOT of the folks… Read more
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Some folks can flat spin a yarn. Yâknow, some people can somehow make the recipe for pound cake sound like the most interesting 10 minutes of your life (and never tell it the same way twice!). While someone else could tell you about a 17-car pileup involving nuns and school kids and firetrucks and Gabriel… Read more
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Iâm gonna start with my two grandfathers on this one ⌠Pappeye and Papa. When it came to wrenches, cars, and teachinâ folks how to put one to the other, there was none better than Pappeye. He had this way of just LOOKINâ at a bolt or nut and then sayinâ, âHoney, go grab me… Read more
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Growinâ up in WV meant that country music was⌠well, institutional. Even if we didnât want to listen to it personally, it was on in restaurants, grocery stores, relativesâ homes⌠heck, everywhere. Personally, my mom did listen to some of it, and so did some of my relatives, so the young lady from Tennessee wasnât… Read more
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Gotta question for ya⌠Do you have any songs that, when you hear them, INSTANTLY take you back to a place and time as if hopping into that Delorean that Doc Brown built? For me, âUndercover Angelâ by Alan OâDay will instantly take me back to the over-chlorinated pool at âRippling Watersâ⌠a pool we… Read more
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Whilst drivinâ my sweetie to school this morninâ, the morninâ show I listen to had an interestinâ question come up during a âreading Redditâ segment. Without gettinâ into the details, a woman was talkinâ about her grown daughter makinâ a decision that she wasnât all that jiggy with and wanted advice. The show did what… Read more
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Ok⌠for those that say I donât only HAVE A.D.D. but Iâm a carrier, this may be your best proof yet. What do my grandparents, a pizza with peppers, a cistern, pancakes, Joseph in the pokey, Pharaohs not sleepinâ well, and hangry Egyptians all have in common? Gimme 3 minutes and see if it makes… Read more
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Our pastor has a really cool thing he does with the kids. Thereâs this âmystery boxâ that gets sent home with a kid each week, and that child gets to select something special and put it into the mystery box. Pastor John then builds his Childrenâs message, on the fly, based on whateverâs in the… Read more
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Beinâ a child of the 70s was a weird time. Things that by the time the 80s were out were illegal or definitely considered âbadâ for you were considered, heck, Tuesday during that time. For example, athletes regularly came on TV to tell us that smokeless tobacco was a safe alternative to smoking. I picked… Read more
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Ya know, when I was a whippersnapper in school (back when we walked 7 miles in 10 feet of snow, uphill, both ways!), one of the classes they had through the 7th or 8th grade was âspelling.â âCause they told us we âwouldnât always have a dictionary handy.â HA!!!! They also told us we had… Read more