I found it appropriate that nearly seven years to the day that my mom passed away, a déjà vu moment occurred with my dad over the...

I never really liked playing chess. My Dad taught me how to play when I was a kid. For years, he won every game. Every game. To try and...

Springtime for a kid is like a practice game for summer. A warmup in many ways. In between thunderstorms and occasional winter remnants,...

In 1976, Richard J. Daley was the long-time Mayor of Chicago. Known locally and nationally, he might as well have been the president to...

I had witnessed this scenario before. My wife, Lori, and her younger sister, Lisa, crying together. They aren’t crybabies. Just owners of...

One minute before midnight. The party huddles closer together and the countdown begins. Everyone holds a drink, usually champagne. Not...

After what is amounting to a historically bad year for this country, we desperately need our national pastime to help us pass time. Given...

My topics usually do not include politics. Or serious health issues. Regrettably, the Coronavirus has found a way to fuse both. Though...

Things change with time. Every era has popular nuances unique to that period. It’s seen all the time in fashion, cars, hair styles,...

Sometime in late March, my wife, Lori, asked me what I wanted for my 60th birthday, which was coming in early May. I told her my 61st...

This time of the year is difficult for many families, as the fall semester approaches and it’s time to send children away to college. I...

I often see proud parents and grandparents letting the social media world know about the accomplishments of their children and...

Gathering with old friends to reminisce about the past is always fun. Every group has their stories, some that make for great...

For most of my life I thought that men were tougher than women. Men are usually stronger, bigger, and faster. If it came down to a fight,...

The year is 1980, I am seventeen years old and trying to look cool while cruising around with my buddy Eddie. Sweet Home Alabama starts...

Another season of intense shopping has passed. Malls and strip centers now recover like fighters after a main event. In retrospect, it is...

1979. 159th Street. Calumet City, Illinois. It was a short drive from my neighborhood on the Southeast Side of Chicago. Aunt Sally’s,...

Imagine that a team of aliens from millions of lightyears away stopped on Earth as part of a research project they were conducting. They...

At 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, our house was quiet, but that didn’t mean we were not busy. My wife, Lori, and I spent the past days...

It was early in the morning when a co-worker slowly came into my office. Bernie doesn’t stop by often, so it was clear she had something...