Mincey’s Musings
Year Two, Week Six

I write this article for you on the eve of Lincoln’s Birthday, 2019. It will be published for your reading pleasure closer to the eve of Washington’s Birthday.

Mincey’s Musings
Year Two, Week Five

Once again, federal income tax season is upon us. Perhaps nothing is worse than being deemed guilty when convinced of innocence, especially when it costs money.

Mincey’s Musings
Year Two, Week Four

My good friend Sharon MacDonald was a Type I diabetic. I did not know this until once I went to the movies with her. After we were seated, she began to act strangely. I didn’t quite know what to make of her unusual behavior. She retained enough presence of mind to ask me to go buy her some candy, and I did.

Mincey’s Musings
Year Two, Week Three

There are probably some older folks left who remember Art Linkletter. I barely remember him myself. According to Wikipedia:

Arthur Gordon Linkletter (born Arthur Gordon Kelly . . . or Gordon Arthur Kelley . . . (sources differ), July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio and TV for 19 years . . .

Mincey’s Musings Year Two, Week Two

A frustrated conductor once asked a band player with issues, “Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?” The player replied, “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

This is a slightly tweaked missive that came my way via email. It reminded me of a joke I once heard at a meeting which I shall attempt to embellish for your reading pleasure.

Mincey’s Musings Year Two, Week One Laughter and Silence

On a day when I was meditating on a eulogy I would deliver at a friend’s funeral, this poem appeared on Facebook.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Fifty-One

Welcome to 2019! If you are reading this, you have made it through yet another year of successes and challenges and are primed for another chapter of life’s adventure.

In her poem, Emily Dickinson was speaking of two life events that were as painful and devastating as death. The beauty of poetry, and literature in general, is the myriad of meaning that a poem or story can have on different people.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Nine

How many kids do you know who would like to have a file cabinet? You are reading the writing right now of a former child who not only wanted but craved one.

Of course, I wanted a file cabinet to complement my fantasy school teaching life. And when I got it, it was a doozy!

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Eight

It was forty years ago this very month that I received a Christmas gift that I would even now not trade for thousands of dollars.

I’m not even sure how it came about, but somehow my mother began saving S & H green stamps. At some point Hensley’s IGA must have issued them, for I don’t remember my mother ever shopping anywhere else. Perhaps she had my sister Anna Mae, my brother Jerry, or Cousin Lizzie Norton get them for her, as they lived and shopped in Knoxville.

It seems the greatest and happiest moments of our lives are tinged with a bit of sadness at the realization that they can’t last forever.
Every year on Christmas Eve, all of my sister Anna Mae’s family would gather at her house to eat, but mainly to exchange gifts. Mother and I were always invited, and Anna Mae always gave me most enjoyable gifts. I remember so many of them.
One was a candle lamp with a hurricane globe. I still have that lamp, though I broke the hurricane globe long ago and had to find a slightly differently shaped globe for replacement. Anna Mae also once gave me a wind-up carousel with many mirrors to reflect light. I still have it on a library shelf, though one of the three horses has broken off and been lost.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Six

As I was thinking of what to write for this week, I remembered an assignment I did for my Introduction to Education class at Lincoln Memorial University. I have many of my college papers in a file cabinet in my lawnmower shed.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Five

My church had a revival last week. It began on Sunday morning and continued Sunday through Wednesday nights. My wife was ill, so I sat next to Ms. Dot Johnson each evening. On Sunday evening, Ms. Dot offered me a cough drop just as the preaching began, not that either of us had coughs.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Five

I received an email from a fellow writer recently who was told by a family member of the person being researched that perhaps she could contact me for some memories. I was touched that my friend’s family would think that I was a good enough friend of Winnie McDonald to be asked to share memories of her. I shared a memory, but selfishly reserved one of the better ones to share with you.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Four

My wife has taken on a new interest—she is taking art classes from Betty Bullen, a fellow graduate in the Horace Maynard High School Class of 1968, I believe.

Of course, the interests of a spouse often have effects on the other marriage partner. On more than one Sunday after church and between Baptist meals, I have driven my wife to Jerry’s Art-O-Rama just off Kingston Pike to purchase supplies. On the first visit, I went inside the art store with her, but found practically nothing to interest me.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Three

Just a few days ago, I took a trip back in time. Of course, that is nothing unusual for me. I became the first person to open a package wrapped fifty years ago. Next week, I’ll share with you what that was.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-Two

Ah, dear Reader! You are probably reading this article the week of Halloween, 2018, or shortly thereafter. I’m sure you will be righteously amazed, as I was, that there are those who are afflicted with samhainophobia, the fear of Halloween. I learned this through the power of the Internet.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty-One

This is an old story that I heard a long time ago, by a little-known comedian named Cotton Ivy. It was on a 33 1/3 RPM record given to me by a blind man named Earn Hendrix who lived on Dotson’s Creek.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Forty

I have for some time been writing down words that people use in “quirky” ways. I find it interesting the way people often misspeak words unintentionally, often rendering thought provoking meanings. A few examples follow.

A country woman had an opportunity to eat in a fancy restaurant. Trying to impress her companions, she ordered a “ward off” salad. Though that was not on the menu, the waiter directed the lady to the Waldorf salad as an excellent choice to ward off unwanted calories.

Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Thirty-Nine

Most weeks I know by the end of the article what I intend to write about next. When I posted last week’s article, I had not one clue what my topic would be. I have been waiting, expecting inspiration to come to me at any minute.