Ponderings by Dan Ponder

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…

The sports medicine clinic was widely known and on the cutting edge of the medical field as it related to athletes.  On a single day in 1968, the doctor performed nine surgeries.  Eight of those were college athletes suffering from torn ACLs mostly, but also going under the knife for other sports related injuries. The…

The paper ballots were drastically different.  One was white, large, and full of print.  The other was blue, the size of a small note pad, and had just a few options.  It was my first election after moving to Southwest Georgia.  My new bride was working at the polls, trying to meet people in her…

The most difficult thing about writing a weekly column is timing.  That is especially true these days when there seems to be a crisis or two every week.  This week there is an impeachment trial coming yet again.  My deadlines are before the trial has started and my column will be read after it is…

Our daughter, Catherine, gave her mother and me an unusual gift this past Christmas.  It is called Story Worth.  Each week, Mary Lou and I get a question selected by Catherine in our email inbox.  We are supposed to write the answer, attach a picture if we like, and send it back to an embedded…

The cork went down almost instantly.  It did not bob up and down, it was totally under water.  I grabbed the reel on the end of the dock and fought the fish as hard as I could.  The water level was a bit down that year at Compass Lake and I was by myself, so…