Showing category "Life" (Show all posts)

A BIRTHDAY LETTER TO MY GRANDDAUGHTERS

Posted by John Allen Small on Thursday, June 1, 2023, In : Life 

Dear Zoey and Willow:


I realize that you are both too young at the moment to understand most of what I’m about to tell you. Zoey, after all, won’t celebrate her fifth birthday until late October - and Willow is only a couple of months old now as I write this. (Roughly the same age that your Uncle Josh was when we moved here from Illinois all those years ago, now that I think about it.)


Even so, it occurred to me the other day that now was the right time to write this letter to you - and...


Continue reading ...
 

AN EXPERIMENT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY...

Posted by John Allen Small on Friday, February 17, 2017, In : Life 



Faster than a speeding bullet? 


Ha!! Hardly… 


More powerful than a locomotive? 


Nope. Guess again. 


Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound? 


Not even on my best days back when I was young and thin and full of energy – and even if I could, I'd most likely crash on the way back down. So, wrong again - but thanks for playing.


Who am I?


This is not a question which can be answered simply, for I have worn many hats within the space of what seems to have been a relatively short sp...


Continue reading ...
 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

Posted by John Allen Small on Thursday, September 26, 2013, In : Life 
My father, John Robert Small Jr., with me (left) and my younger brothers Jerry (on Dad's lap) and Jimmy, back in 1970. The inset picture is Dad during his brief "mountain man look" period in the mid 1990s.




When it comes to compiling a list of some of the most interesting and eventful years of the last century, there can be little argument that the year 1938 should be placed somewhere very near the top of that list.


Consider some of the noteworthy events of that year:


• Nazi Germany annexed...


Continue reading ...
 

ZEN AND THE ART OF CROTCHETINESS

Posted by John Allen Small on Thursday, March 21, 2013, In : Life 

I never really pictured myself becoming the stereotypical “crotchety old man” back when I was a wee nipper and “old” meant anything over the age of about, oh, say, 25. But now that I’ve moved to within spitting distance of the “Big 5-0,” I’ve come to the conclusion that becoming crotchety must be not only something of an inevitability but, in fact, a badge of honor. 


I remember my parents telling me when I was younger that people pretty much earn the right to get persnickety ...


Continue reading ...
 

"Egads! He Got Old!"

Posted by John Allen Small on Friday, June 1, 2012, In : Life 

For a fellow who today is officially one year away from being a half-century old I'm feeling pretty good in spite of the increasingly creaky joints and graying hair. 

I may not be rich or famous but that doesn't matter to me. I've got a family that loves me (even if they occasionally have trouble tolerating me); I've got friends who seem to accept me as I am and whose kinship means a great deal to me; I've managed to have the career I wanted when I was a kid, and have been relatively successfu...

Continue reading ...
 

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW...

Posted by John Allen Small on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, In : Life 

Recently – and quite unwillingly, I hasten to add – I found myself making my first real, true, honest-to-goodness genuine concession to the unfortunate reality that is the aging process.


I got bifocals.


To be honest, it kind of surprised me that I took this development as hard as I did. After all, I’ve been wearing eyeglasses since the third grade, so it’s not like there was any kind of period of adjustment like I'm sure my father went through when he had to start wearing reading gl...


Continue reading ...
 
 
blog comments powered by Disqus
blog comments powered by Disqus
blog comments powered by Disqus

About Me


John Allen Small John A. Small is an award-winning newspaper journalist, columnist and broadcaster whose work has been honored by the Oklahoma Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, the National Newspaper Association, and the Oklahoma Education Association. He and his wife Melissa were married in 1986; they have two sons, Joshua Orrin (born 1991) and William Ian (born 1996). Mr. Small is the News Editor and columnist for the Johnston County Capital-Democrat, a weekly newspaper headquartered in Tishomingo, OK. He obtained his nickname, "Bard of the Lesser Boulevards," from a journalism colleague - the late Phil Byrum - in recognition of the success of his popular newspaper column, "Small Talk." (In addition to the many awards the column itself has received over the years, a radio version of "Small Talk" earned an award for "Best Small Market Commentary" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1998.) John was born in Oklahoma City in 1963; lived in the Bradley-Bourbonnais-Kankakee area of Illinois for most of the next 28 years (with brief sojourns in Texas and Athens, Greece, thrown in to break up the monotony); then returned to his native state in 1991, where he currently resides in the Tishomingo/Ravia area. He graduated from Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in 1981, and received his bachelor's degree in journalism from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais in 1991. The years between high school and college were a period frought with numerous exploits and misadventures, some of which have become the stuff of legend; nobody was hurt along the way, however, which should count for something. In addition to his professional career as a journalist he has published two short story collections: "Days Gone By: Legends And Tales Of Sipokni West" (2007), a collection of western stories; and "Something In The Air" (2011), a more eclectic collection. He was also a contributor to the 2005 Locus Award-nominated science fiction anthology "Myths For The Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe," edited by Win Scott Eckert. In additon he has written a stage play and a self-published cookbook; served as project editor for a book about the JFK assassination entitled "The Men On The Sixth Floor"; and has either published or posted on the Internet a number of essays, stories and poems. He has also won writing awards from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the National Library of Poetry. He is a past president of the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce in Tishomingo; was a charter member and past president of the Johnston County Reading Council, the local literacy advocacy and "friends of the library" organization; served as Johnston County's first-ever Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator in 1994-95; served two terms as chairman of the Johnston County (OK) Democratic Party; and has taught journalism classes for local Boy Scout Merit Badge Fairs. He is a member of the New Wold Newton Meteorics Society.

Tags

Blog Archive

blog comments powered by Disqus
blog comments powered by Disqus
 
 
 
 
blog comments powered by Disqus
blog comments powered by Disqus
blog comments powered by Disqus