I turned 16 in 1986 and was given the family station wagon to drive. If you’re envisioning a large, clunking, gas-guzzling wood-paneled, Ford Country Squire in metallic peat, relax. My car wasn’t that eye-catching. My wheels were attached to a murky-white automatic-transmission … [Read more...]

The true meaning of Easter is a tricky thing to teach to a 15 month old little boy, so I didn’t even try. I was pretty sure the main thought in his head Easter morning was going to be, "Yea! A basket full of stuff for me to throw on the floor!" So I just focused on restricting … [Read more...]

So here I am, having turned forty years old, married with two small but growing children. I have no debts to speak of, I love my job at the bank, and I don’t have an ounce of fat on me. Thankfully, I am married to a nice enough woman. Or so I thought. She takes care of our … [Read more...]

Income from the tooth fairy was my last financial windfall. It was a whole quarter, shiny and solid found beneath my pillow one Sunday morning in the second grade. That year, with my extra quarter in my piggy bank, my school picture looked like a jagged-tooth wolf in … [Read more...]

My Mama grew up on a farm in North Texas during the 1920s, where one thing was always certain: Monday was wash day. Laundry was an assembly-line affair: A large metal tub filled with water heated on the wood stove inside the house was where Grandma scrubbed the clothes on a … [Read more...]