Back when times were easy and the most difficult things were having to stop play and get ready bedtime I remember a near tragedy at my grandmother's house on evening when an uncle (her first born) had came to visit. Now you need to understand that my grandmother was a simple minded person that was kind and considerate of all those in her family. She was a church going God fearing soul that believed in being your Sunday best 7 days a week. She totally despised liquor in any form. It was the works...

First of all let me make it clear that the names of the following are not being divulged to protect the guilty. By the time a southern boy has achieved the age of 16 he has mastered the arts of creating a little suspense from time to time. Now I had some friends that would do a little prank now and again and yes I'm one of the guilty on this little "county fair" tale. We had a sweet little gal our age that was the picture of innocence. She was a perfect example of the girl next door and...

I hope my mom never sees this. If see does... Well let's just say I'm in a world of hurt. All inheritence just got left for the state to spend. To set the stage for this little diddy of a southern boy's adventure, I need to explain to even the modern southerner that back in the good ole days everyone new everyone in a small southern town and if you didn't have collard greens on a regular basis you weren't properly cultured. Along with collards, fish were another staple that went on the menu often...

Pets were never an issue with me because I had great pride in my ability to collect just about anything and call it my pet. Now one of my favorite uncles (they all could be a favorite when they came with something new for me) who was a highway construction foremen when the Tamiami Trail was being built came accross some little tiny catfish. Now these catfish were so small you really needed glasses to find the whiskers. Now these new found pets were center stage with the rest of my fishy pets. Now...

As the old saying goes "boys will be boys" is so true in my case. At the age of 16 I was 110% certified. Now to prove it I'll tell another tale of snakes. During a family gathering at my grandfather's place one summer afternoon, I and my new 14 year old girl friend and some of my cousins decided to go looking to see what we could find on the river a few hundred feet away. We jumped over the cypress knees like fools if ya can visualize that. Any way after one of those jumps I landed on...