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April 07, 2009
Bob Sanders: Spring means more than flowers
Bugs, bugs, bugs. Good bugs and bag bugs. Somebody mentioned June bugs. I suppose they’re around. There used to always be some at certain times in Aunt Lessie’s little apple orchard. We’d catch one and tie a string to its leg and let it fly around like a toy helicopter. Some of my science education took place when me’n Howard and Herschel were digging for bait around their barn, and I came across a grub that was in the process of morphing into a June bug. Sonofagun! Loookie here!
March 30, 2009
Bob Sanders: Airwaves much better with Harvey
I don’t claim to be an expert on Paul Harvey, but I submit that I have probably heard him more than, say, 95 percent of the population.
March 24, 2009
Bob Sanders: Ice cream music and the beautiful sounds of spring
Some sounds make you smile. I was in my backyard when I heard the popsicle truck on a nearby street. Wonderful sound, like a calliope at the fair.
March 09, 2009
Bob Sanders: Snowfall long ago still special
Woke up Sunday morning to see snow on the ground. Well, some snow, and more was falling. The temperature was exactly 32, so the snow wasn’t rapidly melting, except on the streets.
One church, at least, cancelled all services. Now, to northerners, that might seem laughable. But I went outside for a bit, and could see how somebody could slip and break a limb. But, ah, the falling snow. There are no phrases in the English language more beautiful (the first time) than, “Hey, look. It’s snowing.”
March 02, 2009
Bob Sanders: Calendars stand the test of time
I love calendars. Calendars come in all shapes and sizes with all kinds of motifs and pictures and photos. Some are so great you can’t throw them away.
February 23, 2009
Bob Sanders: It’s sweet to call Lamar my home
I’m luckier than most folks: I have two homes. First, there’s Auburn. I’ve been here for well over a half century. I’m an AU (well, API) grad, as are my two children; and a grandson is in the Honors Program there now. So, I think my credentials as an Auburn person are in good order — and I had to come through Tuscaloosa to get here.
February 16, 2009
Bob Sanders: We had no money, but we had fun
Got a couple of beautiful pictures from the daughter the other day, pictures of middle grandson and his date at a huge Christmas dance.
February 06, 2009
Bob Sanders: Attendants needed at check-out lanes
Change is not always progress. Examples: I don’t buy much at Wal-Mart because when I do, I spend way too much time and shoe leather trying to find a place to pay. They have lots of lanes, but you’ll notice at most of them, nobody’s there.
February 02, 2009
Bob Sanders: Vicks was a must-have growing up
Blasphemy! We’re talking about one of the cornerstones of our great nation. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it ... But, to the beginning.
January 19, 2009
Bob Sanders: Cleaning will help you find things
Thoughtful husband that I am, I bought my wife a new washing machine for her birthday/Christmas (her birthday is the 27th). She was so overcome with emotion that I thought she would break down; and when I topped that off with a bag of brand new clothespins, she did, had to go in another room to get a hold of herself.
January 12, 2009
Bob Sanders: Should’t have told the doctor I fell
I don’t like going to the doctor, but sometimes a body needs to, or is scheduled to. Thus it was that I went ... and committed a serious error. I know now where I made my big mistake. If I had only known then. Had to open my big mouth.
January 05, 2009
Bob Sanders: Nine bucks too much for a movie
Frosty got in her head the other day that we ought to go to the picture show. I fought it every step of the way. “We’ve been to the picture show, remember?
December 22, 2008
Bob Sanders: Day after Christmas too sad
I must have written close to half a hundred Christmas columns. I could just pick one out and run it again and nobody would know the difference. But I like to write about Christmas ... the way it used to be.
December 14, 2008
Bob Sanders: Time to head home for the holidays
Mercy. The days do dwindle down. Here it is, time for the annual pilgrimage to my hometown and preparations have barely begun. I have scouted the route and picked out a few likely looking rest stops.
December 08, 2008
Bob Sanders: We made the most of an old tire
The glimpse of a bright leaf and a session with Brother Anthony (Chaplain of the Geneva Street Think Tank) got me to remembering how easy we were to please, how little it took to make us happy.
December 01, 2008
Bob Sanders: American, foreign cars much alike
American car companies are struggling to stay alive. For all their faults, they are getting a bad rap in some ways.
November 24, 2008
Bob Sanders: Top 10 movies hard to choose
Again, if they’d only ask me before they make these ridiculous assertions ... Empire Magazine asked 10,000 moviegoers, 150 Hollywood directors, and 50 critics, and came up with a list of the 10 best movies of all time.
November 17, 2008
Bob Sanders: November now what October was
“The falling leaves drift by my window ... The leaves of brown come tumbling down, remember? That September, in the rain ...”
November 10, 2008
Bob Sanders: I miss those old westerns on television
Remember when westerns were all over the TV? Some lasted for years, some for only a year. “Wagon Train,” “Cheyenne,” “Have Gun Will Travel,” “The Rifleman,” “Maverick,” and on and on and on.
November 04, 2008
Bob Sanders: Good times in the big city of Columbus, Miss.
We were talking about my little hometown last week. The big city we went to when we needed things only a big city could supply was Columbus. Not “our” Columbus, but Columbus, Miss. Its current population is about 26,000. When I was growing up, it was about 14,000, although it seemed much bigger.
October 20, 2008
Bob Sanders: Hometown sort of way I described
Several people have visited my hometown out of pure curiosity, just to see if it’s the way I’ve described it. Is it? Well, yes and no. I really should have been there with you to show you where things ... used to be. While, physically, it hasn’t changed all that much, yet ...
October 13, 2008
Bob Sanders: Western Swing still taps my toes
In the early 1930s, in the heart of the Great Depression, there sprang up on the plains of Texas a new musical genre. It was a hybrid — part plain ol’ hillbilly country and part jazz. Spade Cooley named it Western Swing.
October 06, 2008
Bob Sanders: Goff gifted with talent
Tommy Goff is dead. From 1956, when he became Auburn High School’s band director, until he retired in 1988, literally thousands of young people spent time in his bands, and all of them, certainly including our two, became better people because of the experience.
September 29, 2008
Bob Sanders: P-40, P-32 were mean machines
A “Today in History” article got me to idly thinking about how warplanes were chosen. Sept. 4 marked the anniversary of the first flight of the B-32. The B-32? Not much reason for you to know about it, except to see how the military mind works. They would put out a set of specs: a plane must fly so fast, so high, carry so many bombs, etc. Then different companies would submit their bids and ideas; and, quite often, the military would pick not just one, they’d tell a couple or more companies to, what the heck, go ahead and build yours, too.
September 16, 2008
Bob Sanders: Tabernacle gone, except in memory
The other day, in the eternally inspiring “Peanuts,” good ol’ Charlie Brown was sitting in his soft chair with only the top of his head and the tips of his toes showing, watching TV.
September 08, 2008
Bob Sanders: Duplication a good form of flattery
It comes as no surprise that some basic ideas are used over and over in the movies. Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not” has been made into at least three pictures. Chandler’s “Farewell, My Lovely,” likewise. Etc. But I hadn’t realized until I watched it the other night that a movie with roughly the same plot as the all-time classic “Shane” came out the same year, 1953. It was “Ride, Vaquero.”
August 18, 2008
Bob Sanders: Gas shortages nothing new
Gas problems are nothing new. Some of us remember the War, when gas was rationed and you could buy only what your A, B or C sticker allowed. As we much later found out, there was no shortage of gas, we had it to burn. Rubber was the stuff in short supply.
August 11, 2008
Bob Sanders: Good ‘ol days at Mount Pisgah
It’s between laying-by and back-to-school time, therefore it must be protracted meetin’ time.
July 28, 2008
Bob Sanders: Stan the Man, Joltin’ Joe and Ted
With the All-Star game behind us, let’s look at how real baseball used to be. The year 1941 would be a good start.
July 21, 2008
Bob Sanders: I never grew a green thumb
Many people garden. A neighbor up the street has a nice vegetable garden. Luxapalila Rose gardens in a big way. She hands out fresh-picked goodies to her friends.
