Ponderings by Dan Ponder

 I bought my first house in August 1976, just three months after graduating from Auburn. It sat on a dirt road about a mile from downtown Donalsonville, Georgia, the town I would call home for the next 43 years. Eighteen months later, after we married, Mary Lou joined me there. The one-acre yard was filled…

One of our discussions at our annual 4th of July family gathering at Compass Lake this year was about languages.  Specifically, we were sitting around the table after dinner talking about what languages some had taken in school.   Two of my grandchildren have taken multiple years of Latin.  Others had taken German and Spanish. …

This will be my 71st year to celebrate the birth of our nation.  At least 65 of those years have been celebrated at Compass Lake, Florida.  This week’s column comes out on July 2nd, which would have been my Grandmother Catharine’s 116th birthday.  It will also be our first Independence Day at the Lake without…

Today is the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time within the Liturgical Calendar of the United Methodist Church.  Growing up as a Baptist, I had little knowledge of the liturgical calendar.  I am not sure how much of that was because of my age and how much was that it was not emphasized by my church.…

I am a lifelong fan of baseball.  It was the only sport that I might have had a bit more talent than my brother, Ernest, who was a superb athlete in any sport he played.   I avidly followed major league baseball as a kid, listening to the Cubs on clear channel radio station WLS…

People my age might see the title of this article and think of the iconic movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft.  “The Graduate” was a movie that captured the cultural events of the time.  Two of my all-time favorite songs, both by Simon and Garfunkel were in the movie, namely “The Sounds of Silence”…

Mother’s Days are different from year to year.  I was blessed to have grandmothers into my 40s.  I have been even more blessed to have my mother as part of my life into my early 70s.  Blessed is not a word used lightly in my case.   This past week I could not write a…

My mother, Josephine Ponder, celebrates her 71st Mother’s Day this Sunday.  As her firstborn, I asked if having a 71-year-old child made her feel older.  She simply said she is glad to be here. I recall our earliest Mother’s Day celebrations.  We often attended church with my grandmother Catharine.  Typically, mothers wore corsages provided either…

At long last, it appears that pollen season has ended.  As much as we love our front porch, it is nearly impossible to endure the yellow dust that seems to coat every chair no matter how often you sweep or wash them down.  The only happy people this time of year are the carwash establishments…