The RAM Blogs

Randomly Accessed Memories in a blog.

Neighborhood Watch

Neighborhood Watch

I love sitting outside when I’m home and the weather permits. In the early morning, I will take my coffee to the patio that faces...

Tip of the Spear

Tip of the Spear

August 10th is Agent Orange Awareness Day in recognition of that day in 1961 when the U.S. began aerial spraying of herbicides in Vietnam...

uncharted Territory

Uncharted Territory

When my sons were very young, they loved a TV cartoon called Phineas and Ferb. It was a show about two young boys and Perry, their pet platypus...

Helicopter Down

Helicopter Down

Twenty-one years ago, my obstetrician handed me my newborn son and sent me on my way...


Ninh Binh, Vietnam. Photo by Francisco Anzola. Taken on June 12, 2012.

Unintended Consequences

During the early days of World War II, four groups of scientists, two in the U.S. and two in Great Britain, were independently working to identify...

Kendrick (left, age 7) and Keaton (right, age 5) in 2008, the first year Keaton played soccer.

Sport Stories

For most of my life, I never understood the joy so many people get from watching other people play sports. Honestly, watching grown men chasing a ball for millions...

A recent photo of my Uncle Garry.

Legacy

Early in December I decided to write a Christmas blog. I envisioned a happy, funny piece for the holidays. In January in honor of my mother’s birthday, I planned to...

The Vanderbilt University ID I was issued in 1992. I have blurred out my social security number. Identity theft wasn’t a thing back then.

Reflections

Recently Vanderbilt gave me a gold pin that recognized my having worked there for the last 25 years. Apparently they only started counting after I joined the school as...

Six-week old Sasha (far right) with her littermates a few days before Kaylon adopted her.

Rescue

Years ago when I was still in college, my roommate adopted a puppy she named Sandy. She was a blondish cocker spaniel with...

Car Trouble

Something that you may not know about me is that when I buy a car it is a long-term commitment. I will drive it into the dirt before I buy a new one...

Kaylon in a magazine

Midnight Writer

By the time this article is in print, I will have published three novels. I never planned to write a novel, let alone a trilogy, but my brain just woke me up one night and...

Leana (left) and Kaylon (right) in 1966

Lucky

Today is my older sister’s birthday. I could have gotten her a gift, but public embarrassment sounded like something she would really enjoy. So here we go...

Moving Days

It’s the start of a new school year, and while most of my neighbors are sending their children off to one of the nearby middle or high schools, a few of us are shipping...

Not Quite Shakespeare

Life is full of unplanned moments. We are told to be prepared and to expect the unexpected...

My sons Kendrick and Keaton dressing up as fictional superheroes for Halloween in 2008.

Everyday Heros

Many years ago when I was still in college and thin enough that counting carbs wasn’t something I needed to worry about...

Kendrick (standing) and Keaton (in water) at the creek that runs by our neighborhood. Every time we went, Keaton “accidentally” fell in.

Transitions

I live in a large neighborhood in a suburb outside of Nashville. It’s a wonderful neighborhood that has been a great place for my sons to grow up...

Moments

There are moments in life that stay with you forever. Sometimes their significance goes unnoticed when they are happening...

Donna Tartt is the award-winning author of The Goldfinch and other novels. The attached photo is of the actual steno notebook she bought in 1980 that we used for our writing game. My mom found it in her attic when she moved in 2020.

Three Stars

I grew up in the seventies and eighties long before the internet and the endless number of online streaming options...

Kaylon working outside on her backyard patio

Not My Type

I love the word game Scrabble. Growing up my dad was kind of a jerk, but he was something of a wordsmith and we played a lot...

The Agent Orange Memorial in Springfield, Tennessee, USA

Some Gave All

As most of us know, Memorial Day in the United States is a day set aside to acknowledge and remember our servicemen and women...

Kendrick, age 3 months, with mom Kaylon in 2001

Thursday's Child

When my first child was born at 5:24 A.M. on September 20, 2001, he just missed being “Thursday’s Child.” As a human-interest story, a Nashville TV station ran...

The photo is of my youngest son and was taken when he was six months old.

Lost and Found

In 1999 at a Catholic church in Richmond, Virginia, this white, redheaded girl from Mississippi married a Vietnamese immigrant...

Despite all appearances

Despite All Appearances

Growing up in small-town Mississippi, my family was poor. Not food-stamp poor, but after my parents divorced and my dad walked away—our financial situation left...