Partial to Home: Marion Fairchild’s wonderful (racing) life
Late Tuesday afternoon five people are sitting in the living room of the small brick house Marion Fairchild shares with Joyce, his wife of 50-plus years.
Partial to Home: Rafting down the Tombigbee
About a year ago, four Mennonite boys from Georgia came up with the idea to build a houseboat and motor down the Mississippi.
Partial to home: The corner of Magazine and Erato
The sparrows here are insistent, expectant. Before I can get the laptop out of its case, two of them are at my feet looking up.
Partial to Home: Fredrick Jackson steps up
We had been talking about his growing up in Columbus and where he went to school, when I asked Fredrick Jackson what got him into politics. He held up his hand.
“First, let’s talk about my wife,” he said.
Partial to Home: ‘Weird’ pieces of pork
Facing a day of rain, I went to Starbucks Sunday, a week ago, and bought a New York Times. Regardless your politics, the Sunday Times can be a cornucopia of delights and — assuming you have two hours or so to devote to it — the best argument I can think of for hold-in-your-hands newspaper reading.
Partial to Home: Mrs. Sparrow’s birdhouses
About 20 years ago, when the Internet was in its infancy in these parts, Betty Armstreet Sparrow joined a Yahoo on-line craft club and met a woman in Hannibal, Missouri, named Jackie. The two became best friends.
Partial to Home: Rust is a color
Ben Kilgore would like to sell you a school bus. Not just any school bus, mind you, a ’57 Chevy 3800. Condition is, well, rough. Maybe even rougher than the pictures on craigslist suggest.
Partial to Home: A man on a porch listening to a radio
Late Friday afternoon on a whim I drove to Southside to see if I could find the man I’d seen earlier in the week sitting on his front porch in the pre-dawn darkness listening to a radio. The man had been wearing a white dress shirt, and I don’t know why but the image had stayed with me.
Partial to Home: Spring is in the air … and litter is everywhere
Tuesday afternoon after the rains, I had the good fortune to be sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of a just-completed small cabin at the edge of a pond in northwest Clay County. My host was Johnny Wray, a slow-foods farmer who embraces his vocation in the spirit of Wendell Berry.
Partial to Home: Steve Castanis’ long journey
In 1986, the late Mike Royko wrote a newspaper column titled “Shortage of short Greeks killing us.” Royko, a syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune, began by relating a bad dining experience at a cafe managed by a college graduate with a degree in hotel and restaurant management.
Partial to Home: A roadside visit with the Can Man
In 2011, Joel Johnson stomped flat 280,000 aluminum cans.
Partial to Home: Our Mother Goose
There was something rare and ineffably sweet about the gathering at the Trotter Center Saturday evening a week ago. “Goose’s Grand Gala” it was called, a party for Edwina Williams, known by many as simply, “Mother Goose.”
Partial to Home: Possums under the house
There are benefits to living near a firehouse. I hope the firemen there feel the same way. We’re a block away and always good for a laugh.
Partial to Home: A chance encounter with the past
A woman carrying a bag of cat food stopped and put a dollar in the red kettle.
“Thanks,” I said. “I hope you and your cat have a merry Christmas.”
Partial to Home: Christmas party downtown, everybody invited
Friday evening I felt like an Olan Mills photographer. I made snapshot portraits of more than 100 people with my digital camera.
Partial to Home: The need for conversation
A friend walked up to me after Rotary and stuck his hand out: “I know what you’ve been up to this past week.” We both laughed.
Partial to Home: Conversation under an oak tree
“I’m gonna miss that tree,” said Jimmy Cole. He was nodding toward a white oak that might have been a seedling when Lincoln took the dais at Gettysburg.
Partial to Home: Bob Nolan’s Trumpian encounter
A couple weeks ago, Bob Nolan and I were standing around in my backyard talking. Actually, I was doing the talking; Bob was repairing a crack in a rowboat made of polyethylene plastic with a heat gun. I was trying to stay out of his way.
Partial to Home: The bespoke Ms. Swift
Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Linda Swift sits in front of a large picture window with sagging Venetian blinds and sews.
Partial to Home: Two angels reeking of alcohol
Out of the blue comes an email from Larry Studdard. If you qualify for a senior discount at the picture show, went to high school in the area and paid attention to the sports pages of that time, you need no introduction.