Ponderings by Dan Ponder

This week finds Mary Lou and me in Dallas, Texas, a city that we have never spent much time in during our travels.   Mary Lou came to a Cotton Bowl back in her college days and years later we attended a wedding held at Southern Methodist University’s beautiful chapel.  Together we landed and changed planes…

Each year around this time, I write a column about the peanut harvest.  I can’t help it; it is part of my DNA. Though it has been over 30 years since Beall Peanut Company was sold, my early life around peanuts remains part of the very core of who I am. There are certain recollections…

Several years ago our company undertook a massive project in renovating the Hay/Webb House for our offices at the corner of Highways 84 and 91 in Donalsonville.   It took two full years, three contractors and several discarded budgets before it was finally completed.  We have never regretted the move for a moment. The home was…

Today’s column comes from Savannah, Georgia where I have the good fortune of joining the Carl’s Jr. franchisees that are holding their annual meeting in this gem of a city.  Carl’s Jr. is Hardee’s sister company with locations mostly on the West Coast.  I could not let these good friends come to Georgia without welcoming…

Almost exactly 44 years ago, I made a decision that would change my life forever.   On the last day of registration to begin my Freshman year at Auburn, I decided that I didn’t want to be an architect after all.   With less than an hour left to change my mind, I walked across the campus…

Auburn had five different people take the snap from the center during this past week’s tough loss to the #2 Clemson Tigers.   While their defense lived up to their preseason hype, the offense sputtered and left many in the stands scratching their heads in bewilderment.  I don’t think the Auburn Family cares who their main…

To all the people who believe there is nothing to global warming, I have a hamper full of sweaty shirts to offer as Exhibit A.   I was a kid that grew up working in the watermelon fields, didn’t have air conditioning until the eighth grade, and knew how to blow gnats away with a slight…

I never took Georgia History, since I grew up in Alabama.  Living in Southwest Georgia my entire adult life, my orientation has always been towards the Gulf of Mexico and the sugar like beaches of the Emerald Cost.  It was closer, my parents lived in Panama City Beach for 25 years, and it was the…

Half century.  Five decades.  Two score and ten.  Any way you cut it, 50 years is a significant amount of time.   In particular, August 1966 was a meaningful time in my life.   In fact, the single most important event of my life happened that month.  A fair warning:  you have to read the entire…

Each day seems to be the highest temperature of the year, the thunderstorms roll in from the Gulf, and the humidity will make you sweat as you head off for work.  Some talk about global warming.  Others discuss the Dog Days of Summer and how they survived as kids without air conditioning.   For true…