Ponderings by Dan Ponder

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…

Like many of you, my wife, mother, and I seek different television series to help pass this time of isolation. Netflix, along with many other platforms, gives us almost unlimited ways to pass the days since we cannot pass the time in our normal ways. My mother, sequestered with us at Compass Lake, suggested “Designated…

I walked back to my truck twice today.  The heat index was over 100 degrees and it was truly a pain to return to my vehicle to retrieve what I left behind.  I had not forgotten my shopping list, my wallet, or my glasses.  No, it was something perhaps even more important than that.  It…

My mother broke her three-month quarantine this week.  She lives in an independent living facility in Atlanta.  Her meals have been delivered to her apartment each day since the pandemic closed their dining room.  For the past month, she has finally been allowed to walk on certain days for 30 minutes on a path on…

It was a good-sized crowd that gathered in the old Donalsonville Fire Department building on Tuesday.  People mixed and mingled, enjoying the food and the moment.  History was made as Ron Johnson was sworn in as Donalsonville’s Mayor, the first black person to hold that office in the city’s 123-year history. The short ceremony belied…