One of my biggest regrets is not taking up an instrument. Actually, that’s not entirely true. In the fourth grade, after a musician came to our classroom to show and demonstrate our instrument options, I decided on the flute. (I should have chosen the drums or clarinet.) While I’ve always maintained that I chose the …
For the past few weeks I’ve been on binge watching the sitcom Cheers on Netflix. After all of these years, it’s still funny. Sam Malone, still cool; Carla, still hilarious, Diane, still uptight; and Coach, still dumb. A few weeks prior to the show’s debut on September 30, 1982, I was wrapping-up my first season …
Near the end of my junior year at Independence High School in 1984, our wrestling coach, Jesse Barajas, let the team know that a young stud, Marco Sanchez, an eighth grader from one of the feeder middle schools (Sheppard), would be coming to join the 76ers at IHS the following year. We didn’t know a …
About a week ago in New Jersey, Trader Joe’s customer, Karma Lawrence, thought that one of the clerks working at the store resembled the affable character, Elvin Tibideaux, from The Cosby Show of the late ’80s and early ’90s. After a quick internet search, she realized it was in fact, Geoffrey Owens, the actor. Lawrence …
There’s something about being held in times of need. Sometimes a short hug is enough, other times a much longer embrace is needed, and sometimes people need a human touch for much longer periods — hours, days, weeks, and even months at a time. The picture you see on the left was taken on June …
This story stinks. Back to that in a moment. Any time my family and I take even the shortest of road trips, it doesn’t take long for my son, Atticus, to ask: “Are we there, yet?” And no matter our response, he usually has some follow-up questions — to which answers are never adequate. At …
“You’re coming, too. I’ll wait for you.” As the youngest boy cousin on my mom’s side of the family, I constantly worried about being “left out.” And because I was the youngest, I couldn’t always depend on my older brother to extend an invitation. To that end, I habitually hoped that one of my older …
For the past few days I’ve been thinking a lot about a person whom I never met: Thomas Gregory Griffin, Jr. Just 17 days ago, Thomas took his final breath. His wife, Orianna Dixon Griffin was in a familiar place: by his side. Back to Thomas in a moment. I’ve known “Ori” for about 38 …
Hotel, motel … I bet plenty of y’all know what comes next. Back to that in a moment. In second grade I had a crush on the nurse, so I pretended to be sick. My teacher sent me to the office; the nurse sent me home — for two days! In third grade I stayed …
Of all the memories people recall, childhood “firsts” have to rank near the top: first day of school, first time riding a bike, first crush, first kiss, first dance. More on that in a second. Back when I was a child, before life removed all the innocence, there was something that I both loved and …