Ponderings by Dan Ponder

“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the Fall”.  These were the words of the famous writer, novelist, and playwright of the early 20th century, F. Scott Fitzgerald.  He is most widely known as the author of The Great Gatsby.  Fitzgerald, whose full name was Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, wrote about the…

My grandparents would occasionally visit my West Coast cousins.  My grandfather would come back saying that it rained every day of their two-week visits.  Then he would say the cumulative total of the two weeks’ worth of rain was just a quarter of an inch.  That was his description of the wet, cool weather of…

We live in extraordinarily unusual times.  Changes are coming faster than we can process in our minds.  Things that would never have been a consideration of ours just months ago now command full page articles in national media.   For instance, the Wall Street Journal’s Sunday edition this past week had a full-page article rating…

I stayed up several nights watching the conventions of the two political parties.  I was mesmerized by what was happening.  The different opinions.  The different visions of the future.  The year was 1964.  I was ten years old. Over the years, I have repeatedly admitted to being a political junkie, though this year may finally…

For the past few days, I have been totally immersed in the book “The Boys in the Boat”.  As the dust jacket states, it is about “nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics”.   My wife suggested I read the book several years ago.  It is about nine unlikely…

Mary Lou and I were on our way back from one of the many Auburn – Georgia football games we have attended during our married life.  We had the maps application on our Volvo.  On her phone she was running Apple Maps.  I had Google Maps on my phone.    Returning home, we came to…

I waited patiently at the lake for the guys that were going to finish installing the green chain link fence.  I did not know that having green as the color would delay production by months and was anxious to be through with the last repair item from Hurricane Michael. When no one showed up, I…

Occasionally your words take you where you had no intention of going.  As a white person that grew up in the segregated south, I would never have dreamed that my path would cross with the two civil rights giants that died this past week. Reverend C. T. Vivian and Representative John Lewis both were at…

Facebook can be delightfully entertaining and incredibly frustrating, all at the same time. It is a source of misinformation and insightful commentary.  It is a connection to long lost friends and to people trying to scam you or take your last dollar. Today I came across a re-post from a friend in Auburn.  I do…

I stood on the front steps with my cousin Martha.  I had on blue jeans, a t-shirt, and sported what looked like a freshly buzzed haircut which emphasized my large head.   Martha was in a dress, with shoes and socks.  The picture revealed that she had on two different socks, which has brought her…