I received a Marx farm playset for Christmas on the very first year I have memories of a Christmas. I remember that year as much as I do because we have home movies of me getting presents from under the Christmas tree. The farm set had a metal barn and silo. It also had plastic …
Author Archives: elvisgumby
Time for a Break
I walked into the breakroom to get some hot chocolate. I hadn’t been at work that long, so it was to early for anyone to be taking a break. The only other person in the breakroom was the temporary employee. She spent half of her day cleaning parts and the other half cleaning the breakroom …
Corduroy Goes to the Doctor
My wife and I always read to our kids. There are a handful of books that I remember reading to them that stand out. When I read to them from an illustrated children’s Bible, my oldest daughter would always ask for the story of the wedding in Cana and my son enjoyed the story of …
Dating Disaster
I was going on a first date with a girl I barely knew. This was the first time I had ever been to her house. When I pulled up in her driveway, I saw concrete steps leading up to the stoop in front of the door. There was a screen door in addition to the …
House Hunting Trip
I changed jobs in 1996 and moved to middle Tennessee. The town where we were moving was about 4 hours from our home in West Tennessee. We only had two children at the time, but our daughter was only 2 and our son wasn’t even a year old. We were going to spend a weekend …
Meeting the Captain
I think it’s great that fast food restaurants hire people with special needs. One of the places I go to regularly has a girl that washes the same place on a counter every time I’m in their store. She never speaks but always smiles. I’m all for programs that find places for people with limited …
Birthday 2020
This is the 5th March that my wife has given me a birthday gift every day of my birthday month. The main difference in this year’s celebration from previous ones was the COVID-19 pandemic coming into full swing in the middle of the month. Plans for spring break travel and a party with lots of …
$5 Buck Box
In 2010, Taco Bell came out with a new promotion called the $5 Buck Box. They promoted it as part of a tie-in with the NBA with commercials featuring Charles Barkley. In the ads, Charles would say things like “There’s lots and lots in a five-buck box.” The Five Buck Box was a good value …
Social Distancing at Walgreens
As I write this story, we are in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many businesses and institutions are closing, modifying their hours or limiting access to parts of their building. Social distancing is a behavior to help reduce the risk of exposure for people when they need to go into stores, to work or …
Vine on the Mailbox
At our previous house, we had a mailbox at the road next to our driveway. When we moved to the house, it had the traditional style mailbox except that it opened on both ends. That way, we didn’t have to walk into the street to retrieve the mail. There was a flower bed around the …