Stories from the Steps

1970s

  • SPORTS STORIES FROM THE STEPS, SEASON 2, GAME 1: Let me tell you a story about a Baptist boy & a bet & what I learned 51 years ago today, as I got baptized in betting & a glimpse of… Continue reading

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  • Vol. 2 Chronicle 1

    BELIEVER’S TICKET: Today, thousands of tickets reside on cell phones with a QR code waiting to be used for admittance to college football playoff games like tonight’s Orange Bowl or tomorrow’s Cotton Bowl. There was a day however, when tickets… Continue reading

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  • Vol.1, Chronicle 51

    (FROM 12/16/2022, A GOODBYE LETTER TURNED GENESIS: We all have landmarks on our human journey, significant places or events like Peniel in Genesis for Jacob after a night grappling with an angel or Ray Kinsella in the Iowa corn after… Continue reading

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    (PREAMBLE: This was originally written two years ago today, 12/14/2022. As you read this memory, you might ask yourself, “How tough was she?”. So tough that I made a 99 on a test for misspelling a word. Every test had… Continue reading

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  • Vol 1, Chronicle 48FREE BASEBALL FLASHBACK TO 3RD & O’NEAL: As Juan Soto prepares to sign a deal that pays close to $125 a minute for his next few circuits around the sun & cause MLB concession prices to look… Continue reading

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  • STUFF, A BENEDICTION: I rounded another bend this weekend, a trip that both hollowed out & enriched my soul as we prepared my mom’s house for market & we prepped for moving her into assisted living. I mowed a yard… Continue reading

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  • Vol.1 Chronicle 42, Nat’l Coaches Day

    NATIONAL COACHES DAY ‘24, A STUDY IN BLACK AND WHITE OF WHAT YOU NEED: Yesterday, October 6th, was National Coaches Day. I’m intentionally late in posting on October 7th, but we’ll get to that. Coaches do so much that no… Continue reading

    Vol.1 Chronicle 42, Nat’l Coaches Day

  • Vol.1 Chronicle 40

    DUCATS WITH DAD: This was intended to be a rant against overpaid & overhyped coaches, the NIL & Tennessee’s “10% talent fee” on next season’s ticket package. I spent yesterday banging the keyboard between my ears foraging for nouns &… Continue reading

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  • Vol.1 Chronicle 39

    FOUR GENERATIONS: On one of the final 4 Sundays of September 1968, my parents, after escorting me & my sister up the only staircase (pictured) in our church at the time to 9:45 Sunday School & then down it to… Continue reading

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  • Vol.1, Chronicle 35

    INTROSPECTIVE INSOMNIA, ‘70s ANTENNA TV & MARCIA BRADY, SHALLOW THOUGHTS FROM THE DEEP END WITH MISS JULIE’S POOL BOY: This very Monday, only 3 days from children reporting for academic duty, Miss Julie’s Pool Boy disguised in his normal identity… Continue reading

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