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Dollars and Sense

October 27, 2025 | Non-fiction, Remembrances | Comments
Reflections on the Cost and Value of Education I entered college 70 years ago at age 16. It was at Hampden-Sydney College. Room, board, tuition and laundry combined were $1,000. I had it only because of a bequest from a childless aunt. I traveled to and from campus by thumb. Home was on a farm in Montgomery County, Virginia. Read more

A Passing of the Torch ~ Part 1

October 13, 2025 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Sam Nixon MD had endured a troubling week. He felt the need to talk it out with his pal, Ben Reach, at their customary Friday afternoon meeting at Ben’s office to plan the weekend’s fishing. “Ben, I have a problem, or one of my patient’s has: Al Scales has congestive heart failure.” Read more

Two Scout Adventure

October 4, 2025 | Poetry | Comments
The heat ended with  Both dogs unseen  The senior judge said,  “Time’s up, you got twenty minutes” The scouts on the flanks Cantered ahead To search for their dogs Pointed they hoped Read more

A Simple Life

September 17, 2025 | Poetry, Remembrances | Comments
When I was young And saw how much My father loved our little farm I formed the wish To farm there always for my living Then he died When I was fifteen Net worth $29,000 My mom and I soldiered on For seven years more Farming just as he had Read more

Denny and Joe and Lucky

September 8, 2025 | Remembrances, Short Stories | Comments
Two more different individuals ever lived than Denny Poole and Joe Prince. Yet they were best friends. Joe was a Virginia bachelor grain farmer (peanuts, soybeans, corn, wheat). He worked at it seven days a week, March through October. November through February, Joe was a quail hunter, six days a week. Sundays he walked puppies and looked for quail hunting territory. One word described Joe: intense. Read more

The Plan

September 3, 2025 | Ben Reach, Short Stories | Comments
Ben Reach and Sam Nixon MD had long shared Ed Hale as a client-patient. They liked and admired him, but saw him as a victim of the ill effects of extreme wealth, especially in circumstances like Ed’s where there were three species of offspring—his, hers and theirs. Read more

The Hardest of Times

August 20, 2025 | Remembrances | Comments
My father’s life was a continuing battle with failure. He was sustained in his struggles by a sense of humor. Born in 1897 to an Appalachian farmer-livestock trader father and a direct descendant of Shawnee abductee Mary Draper Ingles mother, his formal education ended with high school, from which he did not graduate. In 1915 he bought in partnership a livery stable in Christiansburg, Virginia, its business ferrying drummers between the Cambria train depot and the hotel on Christiansburg’s courthouse square. Alas, Henry Ford’s Model T quickly felled it. Its assets were auctioned for creditors May 1, 1917 on the courthouse steps. Read more

Harley and Fred

August 11, 2025 | Short Stories | Comments
Harley had been a for-the-public trainer-handler thirty years. He’d had some good years, more not so good, when lack of talent or injury or illness of dogs in his string took their toll, or owners he’d counted on lost interest, or went broke, or died. Nothing surprised him anymore. But he still got a thrill when a puppy or derby in his kennel showed promise. That had kept him in the game. His income was meager, but he was frugal, so got by, if barely.  Read more