It's been going on for 28 years, the Lawler Easter Egg Hunt.  It rivals the City of Mt. Pleasant's Easter Egg Hunt which is on the same day, at the same time.  But there's plenty to go …

It started by tearing out Buddy's dog pen, which was right outside our kitchen door.  We had to put Buddy to sleep.  Walking out the kitchen door and seeing his vacant pen was too much of a …

On the farm, pets tend to be of the wider variety than for urban folks.  Pigs make good pets, as do chickens, horses, ducks, geese, cows, sheep, llamas, or anything alive on the farm.  For …

For most dog lovers, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in Madison Square Garden, New York City, is the Super Bowl of dog shows.  This year, since it was the 150th Anniversary, was a special …

There are three crosses on the hillside, above a pond, with crops of soybeans or corn in the background, and the rising sun if you should pass by early in the morning.  They're right at, …

When I was in the throes of cancer treatment and so miserable with nausea and the lower GI's, I ran across this aphorism: “What Cancer Cannot Do!  Cancer is so limited...It cannot cripple …

Vacations for farmers in the early 70's, especially dairy farmers, were few and far between.  Cows had to be milked twice a day, seven days a week.  But when Stan Helling, a dairy farmer on …

I was so light headed and unstable on my feet, I had to use one of those electric carts at the supermarket.  A first!  Geesh.  I felt like an old man.  Oh, I am an old man!  …

When I was in college, unbeknownst to me at first, my academic advisor was gay.  His name was Henry, but everyone called him Hank.  He taught screenwriting, and that's where I met …

The irony of it all.  November 3, 36 years ago, I was so drunk I fell through the glass top of my coffee table at 2:00 am in the morning, cut myself to smithereens, and almost bled to …

I call Richard Russo the male version of Elizabeth Strout.  He writes with sensitivity, brashness and feeling, deals in family/human issues, and writes a complicated plot, like life itself. I …

Ah, Halloween.  My memory flies back to small town Monroe where I grew up.  The local yokels (me included) loved to go about town tipping over outhouses, moving farm machinery to the town …