Advertisement
January 07, 2009
Mary Belk: ‘Sunny day ... everything’s A-ok’
This column is brought to you by the Number 40 and the letter “S.” In case you haven’t heard, it’s the 40th anniversary of “Sesame Street” — the Children’s Television Workshop program that changed children’s programming forever.
January 02, 2009
Mary Belk: Time to clean up the annual holiday mess
The New Year. For some it will rush in like a racehorse on steroids. Others won’t notice it’s here until they write a check and discover they’ve put the wrong year.
December 17, 2008
Mary Belk: Best things in life aren’t things
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s almost Christmas again. Time to reminisce about Christmas traditions.
December 10, 2008
Mary Belk: Tuberville always had my respect
Not that you asked me, but I’m gonna tell you anyway. From the time I moved to Auburn as a snaggle-toothed girl until this very moment, I’ve believed that Shug Jordan was the best football coach who ever lived.
December 03, 2008
Mary Belk: Jones’ new novel offers new style
Auburn’s Madison Jones is one of the most widely acclaimed novelists writing in America today. Since the publication of his first novel, he’s had a solid literary reputation in the U.S., South America and Europe.
November 20, 2008
Mary Belk: Fall has its own scents
“You’d better wear a jacket,” my daughter hollered as I headed out the door for my nightly constitutional. “The air’s chilly tonight.” I’d been waiting to hear those words for a long time.
November 12, 2008
Mary Belk: ‘If you give up, you die’
Pick a metaphor. Steel Magnolias, Sisterhood, Iron Jawed Angels, or the Magnificent Seven. Whichever one you choose, there’s one group in Auburn that fits the likeness.
October 31, 2008
Mary Belk: C’mon women, get out and vote
My Granddaddy Corbitt said it was a sin not to vote. That was way before I was born, but I heard it all my life. Every time there was an election, Mama repeated it.
October 22, 2008
Mary Belk: Autumn brings ups, downs, and cool nights
Take a walk along a country road this time of year and the sweet, musky fragrance of scuppernongs is hard to ignore. They’re less showy than the leaves that are beginning to change color, dappling the countryside. The ripening of these wild grapes provides a more subtle sign of fall.
October 15, 2008
Mary Belk: Laughter promotes good health
Did you ever hear that a cheerful heart does good, like medicine? Or that a laugh a day keeps the doctor away? What about laughter is the best medicine, and laughter is good for what ails you?
October 08, 2008
Mary Belk: Molded by interesting educators
“Why do you always get the interesting teachers?” my friend asked me 40-something years ago. It was the first day of fall quarter and I had just described my English lit professor to her; told her about the man in khaki pants, plaid shirt and tennis shoes. About how awesome he was in a laid back kind of way. About his subtle sense of humor and his tousled hair. And about his unusual name — Oxford Stroud.
October 01, 2008
Mary Belk: Tommy Goff inspired, cared and led
Tommy Goff ... in raggy jeans, snapping his fingers to the swing of songs he’d cleverly arranged ... running across a parking lot at state contest holding up four fingers to share with his students that the band had again made four ones ... perched on a tall, wobbly platform yelling out instructions through a megaphone … sitting under a pine tree at band camp surrounded by a covey of teenagers.
September 17, 2008
Mary Belk: Wall Drug is nowhere to be found
Where the heck is Wall Drug? I started seeing the signs somewhere in Wyoming, dappling the shoulder of the road like the Burma Shave signs of the 1950s.
September 10, 2008
Mary Belk: English language not the same here
Sometimes I read British mysteries. And when I do, I’m amazed at how much we’ve altered the English language. Seems we don’t speak English at all.
September 03, 2008
Mary Belk: First Amendment’s twisted around
Have you ever said something without thinking? Blurted out words you wish you could take back? Acted without looking at the consequences?
August 20, 2008
Mary Belk: Don’t fiddle with Auburn’s music program
I’ve heard it said that life is what’s happening while you’re making other plans. And Shakespeare had something to say about the best-laid plans of mice and men going astray. I’m not up on the plans of mice, but I do know that some of the best things in my life just sort of happened.
August 13, 2008
Mary Belk: God bless Alabama, and Gomer too
Why is it that people have such outlandish ideas about Alabama? Alabama has always been the place that, no matter how miserable a person’s life was, he could always say, “At least I’m not from Alabama.”
August 06, 2008
Mary Belk: Cleanliness exists in eye of beholder
To bathe or not to bathe … ridiculous question? Maybe not.
July 30, 2008
Mary Belk: Yesterday’s kids’ games were better
I looked out my car window, waiting for the light to change, and spotted four teenagers kicking a little pouch-like ball back and forth and around. I think the game’s called Hacky Sack.
July 23, 2008
Mary Belk: Don’t call a woman phat nor fine
Abraham Lincoln — or maybe it was Mr. Rogers — once suggested, “Say it so simply a child can understand.” And Russell Baker followed right along a hundred years later, asking, “Why do we like our words so fat but our women so skinny?”
July 09, 2008
Mary Belk: It’s not so bad being short
“Short people got nobody. Short people got nobody to love.” Remember those lyrics from Randy Newman’s 1977 fast-selling record? Probably not, unless you’re, well, short.
Mary Belk: Walking home from school a memorable experience
I’ve always felt sorry for children who miss the experience of walking home from school.
June 25, 2008
Mary Belk: Nostalgia runs deep in my attic
I’m growing more nostalgic with each passing day. I didn’t mean for that to happen.
June 18, 2008
Mary Belk: Not everything that smells bad is bad
It’s frustrating to take my little bearded terrier to walk. She has to stop every 30 seconds to pick up a scent. Aardvark-like, she noses around the familiar neighborhood sniffing indiscriminately: garbage, flowers, people and bugs. She can’t help it. Terriers were bred to “go to ground,” smelling out vermin. Still, I’m struck by the way she uses her nose.
June 04, 2008
Mary Belk: We can’t get something for nothing
I was raised by a long line of puritan relatives who proclaimed, “You never get something for nothing.” But I’m a slow learner.
May 29, 2008
Mary Belk: Female’s perspective of baseball
Sometimes a well-known woman writer is asked to tell about her love of baseball. Sometimes.
May 21, 2008
Mary Belk: Cornerstone of the home is family
I can barely remember when I was a tiny girl with bobbed hair and baby teeth. But one thing that stands firm in my mind is the building of the family cabin.
May 14, 2008
Mary Belk: Time to push my personal limits
What would I do if I had nothing to fear? As a child, it seems I had no fears. Like a Marine recruit following a drill Sgt., I fell in behind my big sister Jane without question.
April 30, 2008
Who needs a drawer full of bathing suits?
I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. If that were the case there wouldn’t be all those magazine articles insisting that I can be a younger, lovelier me this summer.
April 16, 2008
Mary Belk: Cleaning takes the fun out of spring
Spring should be my favorite time of year. There’s the smell of honeysuckle in the air, the sight of newborn foals in the pasture, the taste of fresh peach cobbler, and the sound of umpires yelling, “Play ball!”
