Ponderings by Dan Ponder

It was just over 13 months ago that the pandemic disrupted the normal routines that we shared with our extended family.  Holidays that had been celebrated for generations were suddenly no more.  Big family gatherings held on Memorial Day and July 4th at Compass Lake were cancelled.  Labor Day went by quietly.  Thanksgiving and Christmas…

It was almost 10 years after we met in Junior High School.  My best friend had become my girlfriend and that day we walked across the stage to receive the same honor.  We were graduates of Auburn University.  The year was 1976. Mary Lou and I received our diplomas in the Auburn Coliseum.  I sat…

Many things in life come in twos or threes.  You never have one child get a cold.  You almost never sneeze just once.  I even got traffic tickets in pairs; two in the first month after I turned sixteen and two in the same day after I got a BMW roadster that was too fast…

In the past four days, I have seen five sporting events.  I attended my first Auburn softball game which was an awesome experience even though Auburn lost.  What a great atmosphere on a sunny Sunday afternoon.   I attended an Auburn baseball game on Tuesday night.  Plainsman Park is such a great venue for college…

The tin of chocolate covered pecans came right on time, arriving around the first week of December.  Some years we would open the package upon arrival, and the pecans would be gone in a couple of days.  Some years we saved them for our Christmas Open House where they would certainly be gone long before…

Last week, I wrote about the loss of childhood friends and the many ways we find friendships in our lives.  Sadly, this week I will write for the final time about one of the friends at the other end of the spectrum.   Alfred Joel “Alf” Greene passed away this week at the age of…

You must pass through time to understand friendship.  In my life, I have had many types of friends.  There were those from my childhood, then high school and college.  I had friends from Alabama before I spent 40 plus years in Georgia.  In two years since I have retired, I have made new friends in…

Julius Caesar was stabbed on March 15th in the Roman Senate.  Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus led 60 conspirators in overthrowing the government and killing the Roman Emperor.  Caesar had been warned by the soothsayer to “Beware the Ides of March”, but he ignored the warning and regretfully met his fate in 44…

Spring has always been my favorite season of the year.  Given the challenges of the past year, the promises of the coming Spring seem especially rewarding.  Since March of 2020, we have lived with the Coronavirus, the nation’s economic challenges, racial turmoil and the disputes about the past election.   What do we do now?…

We met walking up the ramp to the gymnasium at Girard Junior High School.  We were both beginning the seventh  grade, the first year of junior high in those days. I had come from Cottonwood Elementary in the county school system and knew almost no one.  She had attended Highlands Elementary in the Dothan City…