Ponderings by Dan Ponder

The Auburn – Penn State game last Saturday was quite an experience.  My wife, Mary Lou, and I used the game as an excuse to take our first true road trip since the pandemic began.  We left a week ago traveling to Knoxville.  We woke up on Wednesday and walked all through the University of…

At the end of last week’s column, which was posted on Facebook, I asked what lessons from their childhood the readers of this column still remembered all these years later.  There was a huge outpouring of comments, both on Facebook and to me personally.  While there were many comments that reminded me of my own…

One of the things I love about our new home is grocery shopping.  The largest Kroger I have ever seen is just over a mile from our house.  There is a Publix less than two miles, another just over three miles, and one under construction just over a half mile from our driveway.  That results…

In the 11 years I have written a weekly column, I have had writer’s block less than a half dozen times.  All day long today, I have struggled with what I wanted to say.  If I am honest with myself, I do not have a writer’s block at all; I just do not want to…

The slate blue cloth draped down her back almost to her waist.  It was framed by a background of black trimmed in red.  Originally it was a hood to cover the head in the wind and the weather.  Later, the colors began to tell a story, the story of an academic life.   The hat…

Returning last night to Auburn after an extended stay at Compass Lake, I walked the campus this morning.  Unlike my walks during the height of the pandemic, the campus was bristling with life.  Fall semester is about to start, one of the biggest annual changes in the life of any college town. I passed by…

I walked into the cavernous room not exactly sure what to expect.  I had a vague recollection of Nerf guns but having had daughters, these toys were not at the top of our list.  However, this was the occasion of the eighth birthday of my middle grandson, Will Faulk.  Make no mistake, he is all…

I fought it.  We all did.  It crept up on us slowly, almost like a curiosity.  This will never work we thought.  For some years we were right.  Then the powers that be, corporate America, decided enough was enough and fought back.  Today, they finally won. I was in one of the neighborhood Walmart’s.  It…

I have been a lifelong reader, but it is only since I started listening to audiobooks while taking long walks that I realized the number of chapters different books have.   Some will have 70 chapters and some just a few.  There is not a right or wrong way to write a book, as they…