Possumhaw: The grab bag family

You don't get to choose your children. You can choose to have them or adopt them, but you don't get to choose who they are.

Out of the Blue: A son's salute

During the summer of 1978 I got a chance to salute my mother with a fly-by, of sorts, near her childhood home of Somerset, KY.

Roses and thorns: 5/13/12

Birney Imes: The trumpets of angels

A.J. Steverson wants to set the record straight. It's the Hitch Lot, not the Hitching Lot, as it is often called. A.J. should know. He grew up in a white clapboard house near the southwest corner of the Hitching ... I mean Hitch Lot. He can remember when farmers hitched their horse-drawn wagons there and walked up the hill into town.

Shannon Bardwell: Fried bream tails

She lifted up the spiny tail and put it in her mouth. She grinned and said it tasted just like she remembered, crispy like a potato chip.

Roses and thorns 5-6-12

Partial to Home: Highway 61 (Coffeehouse) revisited

Twice a week Harry Walker and John Jones meet here for two hours of chess. Here is the Highway 61 Coffeehouse, a hole-in-the-wall on a sloping street two blocks above the Mississippi River. Both men are retired, Walker from Entergy and Jones as IT specialist for several Fortune 500 companies.

Shannon Bardwell: Passing time in the Prairie

When I stop by Lenora's house she offers some exquisite pastry she or daughter Emma just made, served with a cup of tea steeped in silken bags. When she comes to my house, it's a cup of Folgers decaf and a granola bar.

Shannon Bardwell: Second Samuel

"What did you think of the play?" Pamela Parker, the playwright asked I knew exactly what I thought of the play but I thought better of saying so.

Adele Elliott: Exodus

Roses and thorns: 4/29/12

Birney Imes: Rheta, Hank and the first hummingbird

Best of the Triangle 2014

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Dining Guide 2015