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Visiting the Ancestors
For Memorial Day, Joyce and I visited Bethel United Methodist Church near Denver, North Carolina. For those of you familiar with the area, it’s just down the road from Rock Springs Campground, where the Methodists (and others) have held a Camp Meeting every summer since about 1830. We went to Bethel because my ancestry.com robot Continue reading
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My (Brief) career in radio
One of the benefits of Dad’s sideline business in TV and radio repair was that it gave me access to lots of spare parts. Dad worked on old tube models rather than transistor-and-printed circuit models, so when someone offered him an unwanted TV or radio, he gratefully accepted and added it to the collection. Often Continue reading
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Uncle Marion
When his younger brother Marion became pastor of Sunset Road Baptist Church in Charlotte, Dad took all of us to hear him preach. As he began to speak to the congregation, he motioned toward us and welcomed us as visitors. “My brother Bobby was like Andrew in the Bible, for he introduced me to Christ,” Continue reading
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Uncle Ray’s Cars
I read recently that Volkswagen is resurrecting the Scout name, and it reminded me of Uncle Ray. Sounds a little odd, but here’s why: In case you didn’t know Ray Shelton, he was a born engineer, although he never got the chance to get a degree. On second thought, a degree might have just held Continue reading
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Side Hustles
When I was growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, money was usually tight. Although we didn’t use “hustle” to describe our extra jobs, almost everyone I knew did something or other to raise a little extra cash. Hustle, for those of you who don’t know the old lingo, was something your coach would encourage Continue reading
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A Marathon Trail
Joyce and I discovered the Pine Mountain Trail soon after we moved to Alabama. It’s actually in West Georgia, near Franklin Roosevelt’s Little White House. As it existed back in the late 1970s and early ’80s, it was just over 21 miles long, almost precisely the length of a marathon race. It snaked back and Continue reading
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Honeymoon for Four
My little brother Charles and I were very close throughout his life, and after I was married and moved away, we visited each other as often as we could. When he married Sophia Martin in May 1979, Joyce and I drove back to North Carolina from Opelika, Alabama, where we were living at the time. Continue reading
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Grandma Estie
Assorted memories A quick Internet search suggests this starting memory happened in 1962. Chuck Shelton was staying with Grandpa and Grandma Shelton for what we came to call his yearly sabbatical, although at age 10 or 11 I doubt we knew that word yet. Chuck and I are first cousins, both born in July 1951. Continue reading
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Grandma Iva’s cussing cat, part 2
It turns out Grandma Iva’s cantankerous cat is still wreaking havoc, even 60 or so years later. When Mom read what I had carefully written based on what she told me, she said I had it wrong. The cat never came in the house, she said. I protested that I wrote exactly what she told Continue reading
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How Bobby Met Marie, or The Year of Bobby Lineberger
Note: Because this piece is about Dad and Mom before they became parents, I have elected to call them by their first names. Keep in mind that Bobby turned 21 in 1948, while Marie was still a teen-ager. When Bobby returned home after his service in the Army, he declared that he had spent the Continue reading
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