On an April day in 2019, my father and I stepped out of his house in rural Osage County to take a walk around his property. As we stepped onto the gravel 20 feet in front of his house, two sheriff’s deputies pulled into the driveway and stopped in front of us. Given my dad’s […]
Twelve Days of Christmas 2024, Part XIII: The old man and Uncle Wayne Read More »
Christmas has always been a big deal to my family, and there have only been a handful times where I wasn’t with mine through the years. All of those were tied to my decade-long career in newspapers, one that included six publications and cities and 12 residences. Talk about your nomadic existence. I wasn’t away
Twelve Days of Christmas 2024, Part VII: Christmas away from home Read More »
“As long as you’re alive, Dad is alive.” My old man said that several times on Father’s Day in 2012 while talking to John Henry, an uncle and my late grandfather’s brother-in-law and best friend. I’ve thought about that statement occasionally in the 12 years since. For my father, John was the last connection left
Twelve Days of Christmas 2024, Part IV: The old man and John Henry Read More »
We lost another member of the Webb family Sunday morning. My Uncle Don, one of the old man’s two brothers, passed away. Sadly, he was the fourth Webb sibling in the last four years to leave us. I’m not going to sugarcoat it and say Dad and Uncle Don were close. As far as I
Dad and Uncle Don, who passed away Sunday Read More »
Last year, when my brother and his wife built a new garage, they devoted a section of it to my father’s work. It’s a nicer work space than Dad ever had. All of his equipment, including a gigantic clicker and several sewing machines, are there. A large portion of the section has shelves loaded with
Webb: Dad and the old Ford van Read More »
The last time I saw Angie West, my family was visiting Missouri for the annual Lebanon Christmas party several months after we’d moved to Burlingame, Kansas. As I’ve written on this blog, moving from Lebanon to Burlingame at age 13 was rough. I, along with my younger brother, had plenty of friends and had settled
Remembering our family friend Angie Read More »
The first time I tried to find my father’s best friend, I was 20 years old. That was around Christmas in 1996, just a few days after Dad bought our first computer. At the time, it was a top-notch system and cost $3,000 at the now-defunct Circuit City. That was at the beginning of the
Twelve Days of Chirstmas, 2020, Part XI: The search for James ‘Danny’ Hollingshead Read More »
On Day One of this year’s Twelve Days of Christmas series, I wrote about spending the holiday season with the Hall Family while my father worked a craft show. As I wrote, there were several years during which my brother and I stayed with family or friends while our parents worked the shows. One of
“Son, you’re a good person, and you’re smart as a whip. You should never be surprised that any woman likes you. She sees that you’re a good man. That is why she’s interested in you. Believe in yourself.” Dad told me that in the first week of January 2011. I’d called to tell him that
Twelve Days of Christmas, 2020, Part IV: Dad and my wife Read More »
October 1991. I was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school. I remember that year because it was a difficult one. My parents’ marriage was falling apart, my grades were as bad as they ever got, and I was your typical irritable, moody teenager. The highlights included being fired by my father and
Webb: The story behind the book I’m writing about Brenda Keller Read More »
