Sunday, February 12, 2012
Columnist wrestles with generational changes his family is going through.
They say worrying causes gray hair, but since I got gray hair, I worry a lot more about things I never paid much attention to. Like this evolution thing. Just the other morning, my TV went blank all of a sudden. I was in total panic mode and ready to throw on my jacket and hit Best Buy. Then I got to thinking, "What would my dad have done?" Of course, he would have gotten out the manual, pulled out a screwdriver and figured out how to repair it. Fortunately, I had just removed the power cord from the wall. Still, as I went back to my granola, I got to thinking about how times have changed for men in my family. While I was deep in thought, the light bulb above the kitchen table went out. Now, this usually involves a call to my outstanding…
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Twenty years ago today, my daughter entered this world and my life.
She hates it when I write this column. My daughter turns 20 Sunday and her stepmother turns, well, we're not going there. Two of my favorite girls share the same birthday. My wife and I found this fact out early in our relationship. It was a balancing act when they were younger, but that's changed. My daughter is a sophomore in college, so she's staying with her friends this weekend. My wife gets the birthday on the day, and my daughter will be home in a couple of weeks, so I'm writing about her today. Katie is looking forward to a big weekend with her college friends, but I'm taking it personally. I think she's just avoiding my yearly tradition of talking about her birth. Katie has heard the story for 19 years, because it's one of my …
Sunday, September 25, 2011
A friend's newborn son brings up memories of a dad's journey.
My friend had a baby boy the other day. In this day and age, we were tracking the baby’s birth online through email and Facebook. His mother was even sending out photos of her newborn son right after he was born. It’s exciting for them, their families and their friends. The good news is that mom, dad and the baby are all fine as they start the journey of a lifetime. In the middle of all of the day-to-day craziness of the world, it makes you stop and think, even for just a minute, about life and how fast it goes. Cut to a local chain restaurant on a busy Friday night. My 16-year-old son is sitting across the table from me, getting ready to give a hamburger a beating. Food is an endanger species around teenagers. In between bites, we’re …
Saturday, August 13, 2011
The box contains memories of a lifetime.
Inside the box, there’s a bunch of old people. I’ve kept them there for a few years now. They’ve survived two moves and have stayed in the same old cardboard box. I know the people. In fact, they’re my family. It’s my grandparents, my aunts and uncle, cousins, my sister and me, her kids and my kids. Black and white photos capture holiday get-togethers, births and deaths. It’s the circle of life, family style. You can tell by the dresses and the suits that these are old photos, but the people look like people in my family these days. My 30-ish niece looks like my sister. My son looks like a teenage me. I look like a 50-year-old version of my dad. My sister looks like my grandmother. But, for the most, the people in the photos have died, …
Michael Hardman
11:20 am on Monday, February 13, 2012
Lorna: My sister can do the canning thing. With all the boiling water and cleaning things, the microwave is more my speed. Now, if you can only come up with something that is a little faster. Thank you for reading the column. more ›