Hard-working. Stubborn. Relentless. Competitive. Honest. All traits passed down through the years to the Webb men. Those I have. Good with their hands? Not so much. That’s been a long-running joke in my marriage, though I’ve managed to fix a washing machine twice and a few other repairs in the last 13 years. Typically, however, […]
Twelve Days of Christmas 2025 finale: So much for the handy gene Read More »
It’s funny how things change with age. At 26, being separated, living 14 hours from home and struggling in the workplace felt utterly hopeless. Now, at 49, I often think “Dude, you could have just quit your job and moved in with your dad back in Kansas.” Hindsight, of course, is 20-20. It would have
Twelve Days of Christmas 2025, Part XI: Giving McAllen a chance Read More »
One of my favorite memories with the old man is attending Missouri’s upset of No. 1 Oklahoma in October 2010. I will always cherish storming the field with my 65-year-old father (and about 20,000 other Mizzou fans). Now, the actual trip from Topeka to Columbia, however, does not rank as a favorite memory, though I
Twelve Days of Christmas 2025, Part VIII: Dad and the 100-mph turnpike chase Read More »
My last Christmas in Lebanon, Missouri, is one of my most memorable, highlighted by my favorite gift as a boy, the Nintendo Entertainment System that was the toy/gift of the 1988 season. Mom and Dad surprising my brother and I after all the presents were opened will always be the crown jewel in an upbringing
Twelve Days of Christmas 2025, Part VII: Christmas in Lebanon Read More »
A Brock Olivo jersey, hours upon hours of Sim City, an incredibly difficult college course and a relentless illness. Those were the “highlights” of Christmas in 1996. I’d been home from Kansas State for more than a year and was in my first semester at Washburn University, a place I fell in love with immediately.
Twelve Days of Christmas 2025, Part VI: Christmas with mono Read More »
One of my first experiences at an arcade came during a trip to Springfield, Missouri, in 1984. We had just moved to Lebanon when Dad and Mom surprised us with a trek to ShowBiz Pizza, at the time the coolest place an 8-year-old could be. ShowBiz hasn’t been a thing since the early 1990s, when
A few years ago during the annual Twelve Days of Christmas series, I wrote about my very brief second year at Kansas State. I learned a few weeks before returning to Manhattan that my roommate and best friend for life, Steve, wasn’t going back for our sophomore year. To say I was uneasy about going
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part IV: The movie ‘Dutch,’ a guilty pleasure Read More »
My first Christmas “away” was in 1999. That was my first year out of college, and though I wasn’t far from home, I was on my own and working at my first job at the Daily Reporter in Independence, Kansas. It was an exciting, fun time. I’m not even sure I’d heard of Independence in
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part III: Christmas in Independence Read More »
Only twice in 49 Christmases have I craved the toy/gift of the holiday season. The first I’ve written about in this space: 1988, the year Mom and Dad surprised us with a Nintendo after we thought we opened all the presents. The second came nearly 30 years later when, at age 40, I asked my
Twelve Days of Christmas, Part II: Craving an NES Classic Read More »
If you have any information on James “Danny” Hollinsghead, born in 1942 or 1943, please contact Ernie W. Webb III at erniewebbiii@hotmail.com. I’ve written numerous times in this space how much my late father loved the movie “Shawshank Redemption,” even if he had nightmares afterward due to his experiences in various boys homes, jails and
