Category Archives: Holidays

What I Got For Christmas: Fire Ants

Posted on January 2, 2009 by Terry Taylor

I have written about fire ants before. But things have changed in the South. Call it global warming. Call it a fire ant invasion. Call it an environmental rash, whatever. I have experienced fire ants up close all of my … Continue reading →

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This Year, I Was The Fat Man. Again.

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Terry Taylor

Many years ago when my nephew (now in his early thirties) was a child, I did something so stupid it has attached itself to me like a permanent holiday appendage: I wrangled a Santa suit and scared him so badly, … Continue reading →

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The Santa Fight

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Terry Taylor

I can still hear wounded Santa cursing and swinging a red bamboo stick at shadows in the dark. He was an unlikely hero, a bruised saint, a twisted fantasy. He was not what any child expects at Christmas, which means … Continue reading →

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Smoked House

Posted on January 16, 2008 by Terry Taylor

During the holidays, Dee Briggs had an idea. “I’m going to go to the grocery store and get a turkey and take it to Extra Billy’s (a local barbecue restaurant). They’ll smoke it. You want me to get you one?” … Continue reading →

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“I’ll beat you senseless with the little metal car!”

Posted on December 26, 2007 by Terry Taylor

People can hear the yelling six houses down. It’s violent and ugly and causes pain and suffering. I grew up in the middle of the Braveheart-like struggle. Oh the horror, the guilt, the fake money.

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Little Girl With The Bloody Lip

Posted on December 21, 2007 by Terry Taylor

{ NOTE: This story is over 40 years late. I referred to it in the previous, “The Invisible Holiday” story. As a child, I had a habit of concocting a story about the people I saw as we traveled. The … Continue reading →

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1965: The Invisible Holiday

Posted on December 19, 2007 by Terry Taylor

The backseat window glass of the 1962 Chevrolet Bel Aire was ice cold to the touch and I blew a frosty breath circle that clouded the passing of the Hall Brothers’ Dairy south of Montgomery. The receding amber of sunset … Continue reading →

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“Did I Do That?”

Posted on December 12, 2007 by Terry Taylor

I remember when the annual office holiday party was a bit like the aptly-named bar in that grisly-yet wonderfully-bad movie “From dusk til Dawn” – an endless night in a funky, dark room filled with drunks, debaucheries and more than … Continue reading →

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No Thanks For This Giving

Posted on November 21, 2007 by Terry Taylor

Back when Lyndon Johnson roamed the earth, we used to have a tradition in my family: No store-bought birds were allowed for the traditional Thanksgiving feast. It was a rule none of us questioned. It was as regular as the … Continue reading →

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Hallowsweat

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Terry Taylor

Jeff just sent me this website link featuring those old school, cheesy, plastic Halloween costumes like I used to crave as a kid: RetroCrush. These kinds of outfits (as Jeff admitted an affection for as well) smelled like the butt-end … Continue reading →

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