Ponderings by Dan Ponder

My father and my grandfather both retired at 55 years of age.  They both remained active, cultivated new interests, and embraced their new life without their day-to-day responsibilities.  Golf became a new interest for both.  My Dad acquired increasingly larger boats, learned to work on their diesel engines and along with my Mom, became Coast…

I recently heard a concert performed by Anaïs Mitchell and the Bonny Light Horseman at the Gogue Performing Arts Center in Auburn.  I must confess, I was not familiar with the artists prior to the performance though they were obviously talented and skilled musicians and songwriters.  Their long list of awards confirms their leading role…

We all have some special talents.  I was a prodigy in typing, surpassing the skills of the typing teacher in the seventh grade.  I had a semi-photographic memory, which aided me in tests during high school and college but is fading away quickly as I continue to age.  Finally, I was a math whiz for…

Fried chicken.  I could write a book.  Like most southern men my age, it is intertwined in who I am.  I cannot remember the first fried chicken I ever had, but I remember things from Mrs. Kelly’s Kindergarten when I was four years old.  My first chicken must have been some time before then.  …

Today was a wet, dreary day capturing all that brings us down as the Winter drags.  Mary Lou and I had gone to Compass Lake, hoping to catch a bit of Florida sunshine and perhaps a cruise around the lake.  Alas, it was not meant to be. We arrived on Sunday evening after dark.  The…

My maternal grandparents had four grandsons relatively early in their lives.  My grandfather truly enjoyed us all.  He liked the sports and our rough and tumble ways.    Boys will be boys was the natural order of things, at least in his mind.  Then my sister came along. Even at an early age, it is…

I will be honest with you.  I have always looked forward in my life.  I never wanted to be a kid again.  I never wished to relive my teenage years, my 20s, 30s and so on.  I have felt that the best was yet to come and for most of my life, I believe that…

Auburn fans found themselves in an unusual place during the College Football National Championship game on Monday night.  How do you pull for your greatest rival in such a contest?  What do you do if both teams are your greatest rivals? I moved to Georgia just a month after I graduated from Auburn University.  For…

To do or not to do.  That is the question, to paraphrase the famous line from Hamlet by William Shakespeare.  In my case, I am thinking about the New Year resolutions that I typically write about the first week in January of each year.  More specifically, I am thinking about the ways that I keep…