I don’t really know why we chose Wages Funeral Home in Stone Mountain to handle a family tragedy several years ago. Perhaps it was because we often visited the village and drove by their place of business. I liked Billy Wages the moment we met. When the next need arose we naturally returned to where the service was wonderfully compassionate and professional. Billy Wages and I became friends and I would sometime stop by just to talk. Among his interests he said he liked chess. I took my favorite set to his office and we often played. He wanted a chess set like mine so I gave him the one with …

I guess for a man who was never a good enough player to turn professional I was fortunate to have been introduced to golf at an early age. During summer months I would ride along with my father while he was delivering milk for the Bainbridge Dairy Farm in Terre Haute, Indiana. His route took us into Allendale, a small town just south of Terre Haute. The community surrounded the Terre Haute Country Club. I was mesmerized by the huge homes with magnificent lawns and landscaping. Living on a farm during my earlier years I had no concept of how wealthy some people were. As a matter of fact I was …

When I was a small boy I became fascinated with shadows. I could stay cool during hot summers in Indiana simply by staying in the shadows of trees. I could find out how tall an object was by measuring its shadow, then measuring the shadow length of an object with a known height, and then doing the math. Shadows revealed the approximate time of day. A shadow could expose someone coming close. I learned that shapes and sizes of shadows were caused by a position of the sun, the moon and by different kinds of lights. Spooky shadows were created at night by kerosene lamps when wind caused the …

I don’t remember my exact age but I was probably in the second grade when Billy Bob first hit me. I was born on a farm and had chores to do. At the age of 11, I plowed eight-acres with a team of mules. Helping heft bales up in the hay loft and cleaning out the barn stalls put on muscles, so I never knew why I was bothered by someone no bigger than me. But I was intimidated. Billy Bob always had a couple friends around him and they bullied other boys. I tended to be a loner when I was young. Rather than hang out with gangs I preferred hunting and fishing all by myself. I figured if I objected …

It is 600 miles from Georgia to Indiana where I was heading to my 63rd high school reunion. I kept looking in my mirror concerned that I looked my 83 years. Reading signs kept me from worrying about my age. I began reading advertisements on billboards and watching for easy egress from the highway if I needed gas or became hungry. About the time hunger pangs hit, I saw messages on some billboards telling about a free breakfast. Many of them served continental breakfasts. Trees hid some of  the words but I soon realized that at none of the motels was there the requirement for people to have …

I walked into the bank to cash a personal check. I had been a customer of the bank for maybe 20 years. It was not the branch where I normally go. Where I bank the cashiers usually give me eye contact and greet me in a cordial manner. I counted five employees behind the counter. There were five people waiting in line for a cashier. There was one cashier assisting a customer. The others were standing near a computer and seemed to be having an animated discussion. I heard murmuring among those waiting. They were complaining about the bank having only one person cashiering and others apparently …

If you are an aficionado of flowers a trip to Calloway Gardens in the spring will blow your mind. Bo Calloway created a national treasure for people to enjoy. Having been mesmerized by the abundant display of flowers in Portland, Oregon, and Key West, Florida, I decided to duplicate that magnificence on my half-acre in Stone Mountain. This morning at 7:30 I took my cup of coffee outside and sat on my front porch, spellbound by the beauty around me. It’s a daily routine for me. I need 30 minutes watching for the coming of hummingbirds. I have one feeder in front. I cater to them because …

I'm not sure when it started. It is incremental unless accidental or otherwise traumatic. Life was so filled with activities that I had no time for concern about my aging. In the face of adversities I have always felt somehow indestructible. I had survived naval fracases in WW II.  I canoed a few rogue rivers, capsizing once because I chose to shoot a rapid I should have hand-lined. I got in a ruckus with a crotchety grizzly. The bear came out second because of my Ruger 30-06. Winning 29 medals in the Gwinnett Senior Games in 10 years thrilled me. I shot archery competition with re-curves and…

There was an era when it was special, memorable, an event, getting all gussied up to go to a favorite store for shopping and lunch. In Atlanta it was Rich’s with the Magnolia Room, in Indianapolis it was L S Ayres, in San Francisco it was I. Magnin, it was Marshall Fields in Chicago and Maier and Frank in Portland. Every city had its shopping Mecca, maybe two. Opulence, class, you didn’t go just to buy something, you went for an experience, a time of being catered to by employees who appreciated your patronage, refinement; wonderful chandeliers, luxuriously thick carpeting, long-time …

I admire genius. I am intrigued by brilliant minds. The people who developed computers were geniuses. Werner Von Braun was a genius. Jonas Salk was a genius. I wonder why few people are so gifted.  And they might live quietly right next door. Not all smart people are famous. The person who invented safety pins is one of the smart people in the world; paper clips, ink, plastic, glasses, Velcro, duct tape, the list is endless. Ten years ago I was going broke buying White Out, attempting to write my first novel. I put reams of paper in a shredder because I couldn’t complete a chapter on my …

Negative this and negative that. The world seems like it is giving impetus to negatives every day. Most everything on the evening news has a negative connotation; road rage, multiple car wrecks, three people murdered, serial rapist in DeKalb, factory closings, foreclosures increasing, marines killed in Afghanistan, and so the list goes. It is mind-numbing. In my dream an apparition with a long tail and with horns and fiery eyes emerged from a stygian blackness, deep underground, where bad boys go, I was first told as a child. The boogieman ran a close second. Television has run amuck with …

I wasn’t looking for anyone. I had avoided meeting women. I had ended my eighth year as a single parent with custody of four rambunctious teenagers. One was now married and another was in the navy. That left two to go. It had been an arduous eight years but preferred to the pain of a fragmented marriage. I was determined to die single. But then an angel came into my life. That was thirty-seven wonderful years ago. Now as I talk with widows and widowers in the course of my work I detect that their world has dramatically changed since losing their adored spouse. I see emotionally dispirited …

I asked his name. He said, “I am known as J R Stallworth.” I continued to enjoy a scrumptious lunch at the United Methodist Church on Rockbridge Road in Stone Mountain. I had almost forgotten I promised a friend I would come to his church to hear a piano player, “A man who plays the oldies from the 1940s,” he explained. Having jitterbugged many nights away during the 40s I had accepted the invitation. I will likely never turn down an invitation ever again. The chicken had a flavor that made me want to secret a couple chunks in my pocket for later. Pie was never one of my favorite delicacies …

Solvent means you have more than you owe. Insolvent means to owe more that you have. My 1994 Buick Park Avenue has 125, 000 miles on it. It runs like a dream and looks like it just came from the showroom. My wife’s car has 179, 000 miles and drives great. The combined cost for license plates and taxes is less than $100.  We purchased a house from a bankrupt builder in 1974 and while ostentatious mansions have been going up all around us, our ceilings are high enough for us to get around so we decided we did not need more debt and higher taxes. I find no reason for several bedrooms when only …

In a perfect world no child would ever go to bed hungry; no parent, when checking out at the grocery store, would have to tell the cashier to take the peanut butter back because the money for groceries doesn’t stretch far enough. No mother would have to send her child to school without a warm coat when it is snowing and no dad would have to explain to his child why he won’t get a birthday present this year. Families would not be evicted and have to live in their cars. Today, our world is far from perfect, but thanks to the Lilburn Cooperative Ministry and Stone Mountain Cooperative Ecumenical…

Upon entering the Side by Side Brain Injury Clubhouse in Stone Mountain village I was both disheartened by seeing so many people suffering varying degrees of brain damage and soon heartened when I listened to an explanation of the success the staff was having  improving the outlook on life for the members. The term miraculous comes to mind. I had decided to go to the facility to ask about services they provide. Fortunately I arrived during lunch. There were possibly 40 people having lunch. The aromas piqued my appetite. I was asked if I wanted to have lunch. I looked at a pot of turkey chili…

A personal friend got conned out of $10,000 because she was trusting. Seniors are being scammed by crooks on a level unprecedented in history. To avoid becoming another victim, zealously follow the "Don'ts" advice listed below. A list of "dos" were published last week. Click here to see the article. - Don’t open your door to anyone you do not know. - Don’t invite strangers into your house. - Don’t provide critical information over the telephone. - Don’t impart personal information over the Internet. - Don’t expose your credit card number to anyone. - Don’t reveal your PIN number to anyone. - …

A personal friend got conned out of $10,000 because she was trusting. Seniors are being scammed by crooks on a level unprecedented in history. To avoid becoming another victim, zealously follow the "dos" advice listed below.  "Don’ts" will be published next week. -Do install a wide-angle peephole in your front door. -Do talk through your door if you don’t know the person. -Do install reinforced extra-strength dead-bolt locks. -Do install keyed locks on all doors and windows. -Do install a monitored security alarm system. -Do have automatic security lights strategically positioned. -Do have a …

I stood in a checkout line at Kroger in Stone Mountain. I watched an elderly lady in front of me fumbling in her purse. I heard her tell the cashier that she had the amount in a bag where she kept her change.  After a lengthy delay the lady told the cashier she would have to leave the bananas, explaining that she didn’t have enough change. I stepped forward. “How much is she short?” I guessed the woman’s age at maybe 85. “$1.80,” the cashier said, smiling, embarrassed for the customer. “Put the bananas in the cart,” I said. I handed the cashier $2.00. “Oh, no, sir,” the woman said. “You don’t…

After the invasion of Southern France was completed with the German forces escaping northward, my ship was directed to go to Marseilles and see what we could do to assist the people in the city. They had been under Nazi rule since being occupied. We entered a narrow channel that led a half-mile into Vieux Port harbor in the center of Marseilles. The channel was lined with towering medieval fortresses that had been built when Moors conquered the Romans who had conquered the Visigoths who had invaded France centuries before. Someone was always conquering somebody thousands of years ago. As we …