Stories from the Steps

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  • Year 1 ✔️, Year 2 ?

    YEAR 1 ✔️, YEAR 2 ?: So Miss Julie left for her pool’s first summer Saturday this morning. She departed with my traditional farewell of, “see ya’ Labor Day” & decompression arrived as I took my seat on the porch.… Continue reading

    Year 1 ✔️, Year 2 ?

  • The Dementia Talks #19

    Alzheimer’s, dementia, or any other alias this mind robber uses is difficult to navigate & I often question my choice to expose my family’s fight. One of my son’s football coach’s best summed it up with his catchphrase, “…that was… Continue reading

    The Dementia Talks #19

  • Vol. 3, Chronicle 13: Car Line

    MORNING CAR LINE, A RANDOM TUESDAY:“…Don’t let yourself go,‘Cause everybody cries, Everybody hurts sometimes…”“Everybody Hurts”  ~~R.E.M.~~      Powerful lyrics I think about sometimes as I participate in one of the unanticipated joys of my job, morning car line. Every morning,… Continue reading

    Vol. 3, Chronicle 13: Car Line

  • NOW

    VOLUME 3, CHRONICLE 12, NOW:      There is a scarcity of words. They are heavy, there’s a gravity as I pull them out of my soul trying to say something for Mother’s Day.       Earlier this week, I mentioned a friend that… Continue reading

    NOW

  • Vol 3. Chronicle 8, Redux

    A PERSONAL NOTE on changes & what you need to know from two years ago in what was known as Volume 1, Chronicle 14. CHANGES: 1)The day count is now 4,463, the years are at 13 & counting, & the… Continue reading

    Vol 3. Chronicle 8, Redux

  • Vol. 3, Chronicle 6

    STORIES FROM THE STEPS, THE GENESIS, SOUVENIRS: Four years ago yesterday, I walked in & out of the halls you’ll read about in what follows for the final time. The next day, I opened a notebook & my soul. I… Continue reading

    Vol. 3, Chronicle 6

  • DEAR DAD,     Today marks the 13th time I’ve celebrated your birthday without you. Before you left us in September 2013, we had taken advantage of time & said the things fathers & sons need to share.       The five years… Continue reading

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  • Vol. 2, Chronicle 35: Genesis

    FOREWORD: Three years ago, December 16, 2022, these steps met their final student footprints. In the past three months, they met their demise.      I didn’t know it lying on that couch in Pearl, Mississippi that “Stories from the Steps”, with… Continue reading

    Vol. 2, Chronicle 35: Genesis

  • Vol. 2, Chronicle 33 1/2

    SHALLOW THOUGHTS FROM THE DEEP END WITH MISS JULIE’S POOL BOY IN HIS P.E. OFFICE, 4 ½ days ‘til Christmas Break edition: This week, MJPB pondered a silent pool phone while side hustling in the physical education world. He pondered… Continue reading

    Vol. 2, Chronicle 33 1/2

  • Vol. 2 Chronicle 31

    LIFE ADVICE FROM OCTOBER, HOMECOMING 1976:        On the 26th day of October in 1976, it was Homecoming at a little school that now exists only in memories. This past week, as dementia opened another front in its dirty little war… Continue reading

    Vol. 2 Chronicle 31