Columns

It’s been a summer of reading and books for our family and I’m pretty happy with that fact. For the first time, the kids and I have actually stuck with an actual reading program plan and found success. It only took my seven-year-old a few weeks to read her age in...

This is the month of the test of the gardener. Were I running things I would simply cut August out of the calendar. Richardson Wright, The Gardener’s Bed-Book, 1929 Here I go again, quoting my favorite garden writer. You’d think the man lived next door and looked out...

I am almost certainly the first person in Lapeer County history to spend time in jail as a result of Kratom use. What is Kratom? Why did I spend 24 hours in the custody of the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Department because of it? Both questions are difficult to tackle,...

Right about now, I’m sitting on the pristine sandy beach at Fisherman’s Island State Park, feeling the strong summer breeze coming off of Lake Michigan, smiling like a maniac—chin turned up toward the sky. This is just about as good as it gets. Where my heart sings...

Most every July of my childhood, Dad drove our family to Kentucky for vacation. The summer he couldn’t leave his barbershop, Dad dropped Mom, my sisters, and me off at the Detroit bus station. In Ohio, we boarded a train to Williamson, West Virginia. That meant a...

I was the anomaly in a van packed full of orange sardines. The one sardine in regular clothes rather than county-jail-issued uniform. The process of putting one of those uniforms on is humiliating. It involves stripping naked, squatting, coughing, and following the...

Just six more issues to go, and the pendulum keeps swinging. For every—how shall I say—unsavory person I’ve met (such as described last week) there have been 10 amazing individuals to balance the scale. One of them is Doug Hunter. We have a little joke in our office...

I need help. The pink cloud I was swept up in has since dissipated. For the uninitiated, I’ll explain what a pink cloud is. It’s what happens when many individuals first get sober. Abandoning substance abuse and engaging in the real world can bring forth a surge of...

Well, the pendulum swings to and fro, and some things just keep cropping up like weeds. One in particular in the patch definitely merits mentioning on my trip down memory lane. In fact, he was in the headlines again just recently. Surprise, surprise! A federal judge...

Dear Reader, my parents were born in Appalachia in 1922. Dad completed eighth grade. He fought in Guam with the Marine Corps. Mom graduated from high school and riveted airplanes in Akron, Ohio. They married in March 1945. Thanks to the G.I. Bill, Dad earned his...