Skiing On a Sheet of Ice
It was January 1998 and Sonny Bono had just died on Heavenly Mountain Resort in Lake Tahoe from a skiing accident. I was in Wisconsin, Cascade Mountain, looking down at my boots attached to skis.…
My Painful Parents
Let me start out by saying I truly loved my parents. They gave me life and they gave me a rich experience filled with amazing boyhood memories. I look up, smile and hope that they…
Why I don’t Ride
Motorcycles and I were never good friends. Every memory I have with a motorcycle is a bad one. I’ve prepared examples. When I was a kid we lived on Liable Road in Highland, Indiana and…
Pogo Sticks and World Records
Once when I was a young lad something changed my life. I went to my Uncle Johnny’s house. I always liked him and his wife Donna. They had three kids, my cousins, one named Brandy.…
What’s hiding in Your Past?
It’s a rainy day. You are staring out the window. You suddenly realize that it is another one of those rare moments in your life and you are actually caught up on your responsibilities. Well,…
Almost Busted in Three Kings
Some stories are fun to share and others simply need to be told. This one is the latter. Am I proud of it? I’ll let you decide. Let’s unpack this one… It was 1982 and…
Bullied at the Bears Game
If you were in Chicago in 1985, you knew one thing for sure. The Chicago Bears were becoming a serious force to deal with, worldwide. By Autumn they were winning games, all of them. I…
New Cleats Does Not Make You a Better Golfer
I started late in life learning the ever-frustrating game of golf. Some kids learn it very early and by high school are performing in leagues and mastering the most basic skills of the game. I…
Flippers and Stilts
My dad volunteered for an unusual mission when I was a teenager. His childhood friend, Chuck, and he belonged to a group of divers that retrieved bodies from boating accidents at Cedar Lake, Indiana. Chuck…
Caught Smoking
Like any curious teenager, I took up smoking, in a classic scene, three young boys walking down an empty railroad track in the wintertime. Literally, on a dare I took my first puff (menthol) and…