Dear Readers: This is the first Mother’s Day column I ever wrote, almost 30 years ago. It was published in the "Lenoir (N.C.) News-Topic" on Thursday, May 5, 1983. Today I am retyping it in the dining room of my parents’ Richmond, Va. home, where I am lucky enough to be spending Mother’s Day 2012.

Today, not far from the eve of Mother’s Day I would like to reflect upon my “mean” mother.

I love to reminisce about the crazy and wild times of my 20s:  how I rode with a motorcycle gang for a summer, got tattoos on every limb and lived in Thailand for a year.  NOT.  While I had a good time during that decade, I’ve always been pretty wimpy if I’m pressed in print to be truthful and admired women who just went for it.

When I get a group of “girls” together at night I’m amazed at the stories that come out, usually prompted by something in a wineglass and the unspoken permission to open up and be creative, so I’m left thinking “When can we do this again?”.

Some days you just 'feel like a nut'

When it comes to technology, There is an old candy bar jingle that went, “some days you feel like a nut, some days you don’t.”

Remember it? It had to do with your chocolate and coconut candy bar having an almond on it or not having an almond on it.

But today it has been ringing in my head all morning … and believe it or not, not because I am hungry. It is because today, when it comes to technology, “I feel like a nut”.

Part 13 in a series on discipline and teens

Developmental Considerations for 9th and 10th Graders

This is the first period of adolescence where kids are old enough and potentially cognitively mature enough to deserve some true freedom.  They will mess it up but they deserve the chance.  They are starting to get the hang of logical, higher order problem solving. 

The Great White Hunter returns

Some time ago I wrote an account of my forays into the wilds of my backyard in search of the elusive skunk. I caught eight of the rascals that summer and became quite well acquainted with the personnel of the Williamson County Animal Control service.

Family vacations: First or last, all are special
With the end of school almost here and summer looming, families are no doubt making vacation plans. The last real family vacation we took was in 2008 when our oldest graduated from college. We went to New York City.
Prior to that, we went on an Alaskan cruise during the summer of 2006. Before we left, my wife pronounced it to be our “last family vacation,” assuming that inevitable careers, marriages and other distractions would soon render such trips improbable.