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2 weeks ago | 
mainstreetmediatn.com | Ivan Aronin |Jack McCall
Not only did my recent column on sayings generate an excellent response from readers, but it also stirred my imagination. My brothers, my sister and I cut our teeth on these words from our mother.
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1 month ago | 
mainstreetmediatn.com | Ivan Aronin |Jack McCall
I suppose we all have stored in our memory a few favorite quotes and sayings of famous people and persons we have known. There are words that encourage us, words that instruct us and words of warning. It seems to me, as time goes by, fewer and fewer words of warning are being heeded.
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2 months ago | 
mainstreetmediatn.com | Ivan Aronin |Jack McCall
You’ve probably heard the 1972 novelty song “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.” Written by Loudon Wainwright III, it features the lyric, “You got your dead skunk in the middle of the road stinkin’ to high heaven.”I suppose most of us have encountered a skunk’s final demise on a highway or byway. Even in the darkness of night you realized he was there. Skunks have a way of leaving their calling card. Seems their final act of defiance is to unload their stores.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
mainstreetmediatn.com | Ivan Aronin |Jack McCall
In my immediate family, there are 15 of us now – three sons, three daughters-in-law, eight grandchildren (5 girls, 3 boys), and me. I am discovering that it becomes increasingly harder to try and fill the shoes of a kind and loving mother and grandmother. The following story is true. The names have been changed or omitted to protect the innocent … or the guilty. Last week one of my sons, acting as agent for his son, contacted me to see if a grandson could “spend the night” at my house.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
mainstreetmediatn.com | Ivan Aronin |Jack McCall
So, I probably listened to more Christmas music this past Christmas season than ever before. Several factors contributed to this new reality. Some years ago, as part of her Christmas present, I gave my late wife, Kathy, a subscription to Sirius XM Radio. Somehow, in the ensuing years, I continued to renew her subscription although she no longer considered it a part of her Christmas present. The subscription was tied to her Toyota 4-Runner.
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Dec 25, 2024 | 
lebanondemocrat.com | Jack McCall
I’ve often heard people say, as words of encouragement, “Take your time.” Sometimes it was advice given to a person recovering from surgery or an injury or an illness — “Take your time.” On other occasions it was offered to someone who was grieving over a great loss — “Take your time.” And I’ve heard it said when an individual was attempting a task which required their full concentration and focus — “Take your time.” C.S. Lewis, in his classic, “Mere Christianity,” observed: “The real problem...
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Dec 16, 2024 | 
lebanondemocrat.com | Jack McCall
You might say I was introduced to country ham and red-eyed gravy at a very early age. When I was five months old my mother began to tear the middle out of biscuits and soak them in red-eyed gravy for my breakfast. She declared that I could put away “some more” biscuits and red-eyed gravy.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
mainstreetmediatn.com | Ivan Aronin |Jack McCall
I’ve often heard people say, as words of encouragement, “Take your time.” Sometimes it was advice given to a person recovering from surgery or an injury or an illness – “Take your time.” On other occasions it was offered to someone who was grieving over a great loss –“Take your time.” And I’ve heard it said when an individual was attempting a task which required their full concentration and focus – “Take your time.” C.S. Lewis in his classic “Mere Christianity” observed: “The real problem of...
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
lebanondemocrat.com | Jack McCall
I’m not really sure when the commercialization of Christmas began to impact modern America in dramatic fashion. Maybe it was in the 1960s. If not that early, it certainly was underway by the 1970s. The first signs, I think, were when Christmas displays began to appear in retail stores as early as August. I was a young man when I first remember the subject being discussed among churchgoing people with no small amount of consternation.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
mainstreetmediatn.com | Ivan Aronin |Jack McCall
I’m not really sure when the commercialization of Christmas began to impact modern America in dramatic fashion. Maybe it was in the 1960’s. If not that early, it certainly was underway by the 1970’s. The first signs, I think, were when Christmas displays began to appear in retail stores as early as August. I was a young man when I first remember the subject being discussed among churchgoing people with no small amount of consternation.
