By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Each August I think of my father’s service in Japan, specifically Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recently I came across one of his base passes that had been hiding from me all these years. Dad was stationed in Yokohama. The date on his pass is AugustContinue Reading

By Radley West Let’s be honest. Exercise is hard. Getting up early is hard. Choosing a salad when everyone else ordered fries is hard. Doing one more squat when your legs are already complaining is hard. But here’s something I’ve learned after years of coaching: Everything is hard. Life isContinue Reading

By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net When I see photographs of Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park I want to explore a desert right then. Until I do, the fragile deserts along the Atlantic Ocean will do just fine. Wind, it shapes the earth, yet we never see it, justContinue Reading

Photo: Cool, comfy, and a tad literary. That’s seersucker.  By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net Seersucker. A cool word, and cool is the word. Before AC came along, a Southern gentleman worth his salt wouldn’t be caught without a seersucker suit. Just one gentleman back home wore seersucker. With hisContinue Reading

By Radley West A few years ago, if you had told me that one of the most freeing lessons I would ever learn was that nobody was coming to save me, I probably would have rolled my eyes. But it’s true. We spend a lot of time waiting. Waiting forContinue Reading

Photo: A stack of 1964 Reader’s Digests, a trip back in time. Courtesy of Brenda Bancroft. By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net I read my mother’s Reader’s Digests from cover to cover. It’s hard find one today, but if you do, it will take you back to another era. And itContinue Reading

Photo – Winnsboro’s clock tower, the country’s longest-running clock By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net In my journeys across the South, Georgialina, in particular, I take note of clock towers, watchtowers, and steeples. How can I not. They command the eye. They set me to thinking. I’ve written many timesContinue Reading