One of the casualties of the suburbanization of America is the front porch. People build decks instead – and they hide them at the back of the house. In the summer twilight, folks used to stroll down the street and pause to chat with other folks. If you sat on your porch at that time […]

My Cub Scout den mother has always been one of my favorite people, and time has done nothing to diminish my affection. I’ll never forget the day she took us on a hike, five miles round-trip, to Crest Lawn cemetery – just to see the American flag flying there. Mrs. Blohm was a tall, beautiful […]

The names in the stone are strangely old: Josiah. Trevie. Narcissa. Louphemie. But the Scottish surname makes them familiar. Generations of Craigs are carved in rock and marble behind the Philadelphia Methodist church outside McDonough, Georgia. I’m standing at the grave of William Alexander Craig, who saw Sherman’s troops march through Henry County and heard […]

My earliest memory of church is a loud, disembodied voice invading my sheltered space in the pew. Looking up from my grandmother’s lap, I could divine the source: a blur of snow-white hair and waving arms belonging to the Reverend John Maxwell, pastor of Collins Memorial Methodist Church. Now and then he would smack his […]

The old man stood patiently in the narrow space between the conveyor belt and the rack of impulse buys at the checkout counter. At a glance, you’d have noticed something was not quite right. You’d have wondered who had brought him to the grocery store, who had helped him put his clothes on, who had […]