Gaston Alive! Magazine

Here’s my latest column in the July 2020 edition of Gaston Alive Magazine. Enjoy!

I saw a random tweet the other day asking a simple question: “What were you driving twenty years ago?”

It got me to thinking about my first truck: A 1986 Ford F-150.

It wasn’t flashy or fancy. But it did the job – getting me safely between point A and point B. That’s all you can ask for in a vehicle.

Sometimes the most memorable days are the ones when things don’t go quite as planned.

Like that Mother’s Day lunch last year when my Dad found a way to turn hamburgers into burger nuggets.

Timing is everything. When I wrote this at the end of February, I knew there was going to be March Madness. I just didn’t know it would be this kind of March madness.

There’s one thing I do know. The coronavirus can take away our sports and our indoor/outdoor gatherings, but it can’t take away our Spring.

“There’s only one mission – and that’s to keep the fire going, just a little bit longer. The longer it stays burning, the longer I can stay outside and relax. It’s about soaking in the warmth and the glow. It’s about getting through winter one day at a time.”

“I don’t attend a luncheon all year long, and then the calendar turns to December, and I instantly have invitations to three.”

Don’t let the holiday highway beat you down. Pull over. Rest. And while you’re at it, find your Christmas Bliss. This is YOUR Christmas story, after all. How will you write it this year?

Becoming your parents is not a bad thing. It’s just that you don’t exactly see it coming. It’s subtle. It’s sneaky. But believe me, you know it when it happens. For me, the vest was a dead giveaway. There’s no turning back now…

It’s the end of an era. My beloved Dallas Dairy Queen has closed for good.

It’s impossible to sum up nearly 50 years in business into 759 words, so I didn’t. Instead, I wrote about what this place has meant to me since I moved here nearly 20 years ago…

There’s two things I’ve learned recently:

You can’t quote a movie unless you’ve seen it. The other is that you can always return home. But you can’t stay.

McDonald’s may not be the best for building muscles, but it’s mighty strong when it comes to making memories.

And the best part? Everyone is welcome…