Send us a text Being young and stupid presents a many of opportunities to get beat up, arrested, and worse, killed. I have come to the conclusion I am indeed one of the luckiest people alive on this planet. In retrospect (20/20), I had all the opportunities to fail big-time. So, what could possibly go wrong at 1;00 AM in a Krystle's Restaurant on the Southside of Macon GA off Hwy 41 after a night of drinking at Whiskey River? Well, believe me I tell you,.....one can come damn near to get shot. I...
Mar 29, 2023•18 min•Season 2023Ep. 29
Send us a text Summer time brought many things to a young boy growing up in the South in the 1970's. Getting the heck out of school was indeed at the top, but the flipside was me having to get up earlier in the mornings to go with Daddy to work at the Grocery store. Truth be told, summer time meant hard work and long hours. But summer time also meant 4H Camp. And to attend 4H Camp at Rock Eagle was beyond fun. The excitement and challenges were life lessons that I'm grateful for. I learned many ...
Mar 22, 2023•27 min•Season 2023Ep. 28
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Mar 15, 2023•22 min
Send us a text A simple "in-and-out" trip to the Dentist. What could possibly go wrong? Tune in to this episode to hear me tell it. I'm guessing today with all the modern medical technology that's evolved, it would be darn near impossible to get an x-ray image backwards, whereby setting the stage for a Dentist to attempt to yank-out the wrong tooth. Well, back in 1981, this wasn't the case, and an up-and-coming young US Navy Dentist made the error of reading the x-ray backwards, thus was set on ...
Mar 08, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Send us a text In 1976 the small town of Butler Georgia was overrun with Blackbirds, and when I say overrun, I mean millions of them critters. It didn't take long before the local town folk done had enough of the noise and bird crap, thus someone on the City Council decided to purchase all the shotguns shells in the surrounding area, and give them away to anyone who came to town with a shotgun. Now of course the plan was to rid the town of these birds. All I can say is, that as a young boy havin...
Mar 01, 2023•19 min
Send us a text My years in the US Navy offered a many of great experiences and memories. Memories to last a lifetime (don't even know what that means), but we tend to say that a lot. Some of my memories need go no further than the distance between my ears, while others need be told and relived from time to time. Such stories that begin with: "this is a no-shitter." Like the time back in 1994 having to be rushed to the Bethesda Naval Hospital, you know the Hospital where they would do medical stu...
Feb 22, 2023•31 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Send us a text As adults we have a bound responsibility to employ intrusive leadership to help younger ones realize and reach their potential. Hindsight being what it is, I look back and see where several folks from Butler Georgia made an impactful positive influence upon me, whereby they had a hand in my career path. Mike Hammack, Vernon Reddish, Jim Willis, and for sure Everett Byrd were instrumental in guiding me onto a path I would have not taken if not for there mentorship. Getting past tho...
Feb 15, 2023•26 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Send us a text Back in the 60's and 70's, the Butler Courthouse Square was the place to be on Saturdays. Folks would come to town to do their weekly shopping. They'd come to their goods, gas, water, and food. Some came to grab a bag of them delicious Turk Burgers, or the daily special at The City Cafe. Others came to buy a new much needed pair of bib overalls at Mathews Store, or do their Saturday grocery shopping at the Butler Red & White. As for me, I always looked for the opportunity to r...
Feb 08, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Send us a text Life has a funny way of working out. I'm inclined to say God is without question the driver; however, I do believe when God isn't looking, luck may sway in on occasions now and then. Whatever the case, when I got the grade of being Senior at Taylor County High School, it was Lola Russell who convinced me that I really did need to learn how to type. Now mind you, this didn't sit well with me, as I knew I was going to join the US Navy, and I wasn't going to need none of the Sissy st...
Feb 01, 2023•34 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Send us a text It got a bit uncomfortable sitting under the US White House being drilled by some FBI Agent about the stupid stuff I had done while growing up in Butler GA back in the 70's. Yep, this ole' boy knew far more than I imagined. Hell, he knew things I done forgotten. But I wouldn't trade the night me and my great friend Dwayne H. Taunton got spotted painting the Butler Water Towner on a cold winter's night. Between that and selling fireworks at school, may have booted me out of the job...
Jan 25, 2023•29 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Send us a text Going to Panama City Beach back in the early 70's was just plain cool, and a ton of fun. Life back then was much simpler, and we had no thoughts or worries about being hit by a car, mugged, or accosted by some pervert. We walked at night for miles to get to the Miracle Strip. We ate hotdogs are Wiener King, we rode every ride a dozen times, and played Skee-Ball until our dang arms felt like they were going to fall off. But as a young fella full of mischief, and being pals with oth...
Jan 18, 2023•18 min•Season 2Ep. 19
Send us a text My lovely bride and wife of some 35 plus years has endured much for marrying a Southerner. Her being a Yankee and all, which Daddy never let up on her, always calling her "Yankee Girl" rather than by her name. If Daddy only knew how much that got under her saddle, and caused me a many of nights of going without, you know what I mean. Anyway, back in 1987, Mama took it serious to teach my young wife a few Southern tricks in the kitchen when she had Laura's attention. Making Cream T...
Jan 11, 2023•22 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Send us a text God bless Mama! On more than one occasion she caught me smoking between the ripe ages of 6-9 years old. Now, Mama smoked, and Mama smoked a lot. Most folks who knew Mama will agree, the old Gal' always had a cup of coffee and a cigarette had, and when she was mad at me, she'd put that smoke between her lips, grip it tightly (so as not to lose it), balance the coffee without spilling a drop, and hit me with whatever close by, e.g. fly-swatter, spatula, rolling pin, or one of them d...
Jan 04, 2023•24 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Send us a text Life is all about learning and applying what we've learned. And having to learn why not to aggravate and agitate someone's dog by poking sticks at him through a fence, well let's just say: "every dog gets his day." And my day came around when that dog settle a score with me. A score that was rightly so and just, and a score that needed settling that's for sure. Thank goodness Mrs. Standridge was home that day. And I sure hated to miss Woodmen of the World summer camp that year....
Dec 28, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Send us a text There wasn't a great deal of information regarding consumer safety and health back in the sixties. Hell, drinking hard whiskey and smoking was promoted and sometimes even recommended. One hasn't hasn't changed in the last ten thousand years, damn mosquitos are still a darn nuisance. I recall when Everett Byrd forced me to read the book Absalom Absalom, there was a part where it talked about how folks would rub mud all other their bodies to combat the skeeter bites. Well, in McRae ...
Dec 21, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Send us a text What are the odds? That on day one in the US Navy, I'd learn that my Company Commander's name is Daniels, he's black and wants to know if he and I are related. Also, I learned that racism was indeed alive and well, but I also learned that it was tolerated in the slightest. "Mama Mama can't you see, what the Navy's done to me." Jimmy Largent and Steve Cavanaugh were great friends in Boot Camp, and I'm sure glad I met these old boys. And I hope life has been good to Petty Officer Da...
Dec 14, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Send us a text Many have asked me to share how I come about enlisting in the US Navy. I'd like to say it was for just one reason: however, that's not the case. There were many reasons of motivators which lead for me deciding to leave Butler for the US Navy. I had all reasons to stay at home, attend some local college (if I could have even gotten in), and taken the grocery store, married local and raised a family right there. But God had other plans, and I'm sure blessed that He never gave up on ...
Dec 07, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Send us a text I'm sure Yellow Jackets serve a useful purpose, or God wouldn't have made these critters. And we all know that God don't make mistakes, but sometimes I think maybe the good Lord got a bit a distracted on the plan for these fellas. And unlike most hornets or wasps, they sap-suckers build their dang nests in the ground so some poor unsuspecting fella like me and Chris James can trample upon their homeplace, and pay dearly for doing so. I learned three things this day: Chris can run ...
Nov 30, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Send us a text I confess that my childhood is comprised of a many of events where I thought it would be funny, but others didn't seem to share my passion or enthusiasm at the moment of delivery. If don't believe, just ask Jack McGlaun, which is another story within itself. Playing Possum or putting a ghost in your Sister's room while she's having a sleep-over with some girlfriends was supposed to be just fun. Well,...the truth be told, it was for me....
Nov 23, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Send us a text Working for Mr. Walter Wilson at his gas station back in 1979/1980 was a highlight of my youth. Lots of great memories of my friends cruising the town on Friday nights. The glow of the lights from the Seven-Eleven store, the blinking railroad crossing lights with the train horn a blaring, and with bouts of Boston, ELO, Willie Nelson, and Lynyrd Skynyrd from which car was making the route on this end of town. If only the boobs were as frequent as us shooting taters at each other fr...
Nov 16, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Send us a text Good advise, "Don't pick up Hitch-Hikers." And be darn sure you don't pick up Hitch-Hikers what are Hookers running down the Interstate being chased by a fella wearing a cheap leisure suit firing a pistol. As my good friend Ralph Fitts would say: "What could possibly go wrong." If my Mama only knew.
Nov 09, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Send us a text Nope, children don't come with an Instruction Book, and in the pre-internet days we only had God, family, and Dr. Spoke to lend to what was to become. Laura and I being a career military family, we were hard pressed to go at this alone, and boy did we learn a lesson. Hell, I was a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy, and I figured that some muscles were just natural. Sorta' like breathing or blinking you eyes, them sorta' things just knew how to work.....well I was wrong....
Nov 02, 2022•13 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Send us a text As a young fella' not all things go as planned. At least not for me. Whether it was slapping the wrong girl on the tail, waking up Mama with Smelling-Salts, or putting a noise/smoke thing on a man's car, some things just didn't go as planned or as I had hoped. Well the same holds true for the time at the old age of six years old, I felt compelled to pay some hot gal a "cat call" whistle, thinking full well she'd be flattered. I quickly learned that timing is indeed important, but ...
Oct 26, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Send us a text Wouldn't it be great if all the Doctors had to experience what they performed. There was a time when after a particular surgery (a procedure most folks don't like to talk about), I stood mentally prepared for what the Doc said would be coming a day or two later. But believe me when I say, and to hear me tell it, that ole' boy obviously ain't never had to ride the horse he saddled. It's quite a scare to be on the verge of passing out, and the last thought in my mind was: I'm going ...
Oct 19, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Send us a text Anybody that's ever gone through enlisted military training knows all too well what happens the first week in Basic Training, a.k.a. "Boot Camp." Everybody catching and spreading the Crud and getting spread, poked, stuck, and examined from heat to toe. And it didn't matter whether it was getting the first hair cut, being issued your first set of uniforms and BoonDockers, or seeing one of them military Doctors or Dentist, it felt like what piece of livestock must feel at auction. A...
Oct 14, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Send us a text Sometimes Daddy and I learned things together. Whether it be fishing or bird hunting, I was learning a bunch and was he. However, I bet there times Daddy was wondering why the good Lord had punished him with a son like me. It was a blistering hot day in Butler Georgia, the grass needed cuttin' in front of the grocery store, and on this day it took two mowers to get the job done. Three countin' the one that wouldn't crank....
Oct 07, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Send us a text Truth be told, we did dumb stuff. Some of us got trophies, or nickel size knots on our heads, but whatever the case, we're all graduates of the School of Hard Knocks. And the fact that we it made out alive: well, that's on account we were just plain lucky, or God was training a new Angle and had given them a special project of protecting idiots on earth. Yep, you must confess that you too have a list of dumb stuff you've done , and was able to walk away with a valuable life lesson...
Oct 03, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Send us a text Life's lesson are treasures, and boy did I get some learning growing up at the Grocery Store back in the day. I learned many things, and some the hard way, but lessons nonetheless. Putting Baking Soda in Mama's coffee is never a good idea, especially on a busy Saturday at the Buter Red & White. And throwing raw eggs against the back of the store wasn't one of my greatest moments. But watching two Southern ladies go to fighting over the last pack of center-cut pork chops,...wel...
Sep 25, 2022•29 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Send us a text Like most siblings growing up, my Sister and I had our shares of spats, many escalating to all out brawls. I'm talking about duke it out bloody noses, black eyes, torn clothes and missing hair plug-knots. Fights that resulted in Mama having to slip on her Boxing Ref shirt,....sorta' like Superman putting on his cape, and jump in. Mama had a unique way of calling break, then re-start, and flavored the matter with dang hugging. Not really sure if this method would be accepted by tod...
Sep 25, 2022•25 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Send us a text How all this got started. My wife Laura decides that I needed to start a Podcast on account I tell so many stories from my lifetime of experiences. Growing up in "By God" Butler GA, the son of a very hard working Grocery Store owner, (The Butler Red & White), to pumping gas at the local Exxon Station, to running off and enlisting in the US Navy, where I served some 26 years on active duty. And believe me when I say,...I have just a few stories to tell. To Hear Me Tell It, simp...
Sep 19, 2022•15 min0
