Cotillion instructor and student, Virginia, 1950's In my hometown of Catonsville, Maryland it was called Friday Assembly. In yours, it might have been Cotillion, a more favored term in the South. But the design and purpose were the same, taking middle school aged children and teaching them proper manners, etiquette, and ball room dancing. This is not to be confused with the whole debutante thing where young ladies aged 16 or so get their “debut” or formal announcement that th

In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus tells of the Pharisee who thanks God that he is not like the...

Almost seventy-three years old. Lifelong baseball fan. Never attended a Spring Training game. Sad. That was me. Until this week. A...

St. David's Window, St. David's Cathedral Happy St. David’s Day (Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus) * When you ask the Irish who is their patron...

My first real job out of college was with a division of the National Archives called the National Audiovisual Center. The director was a...

Toni Banks, Governor Spiro T. Agnew, John Constance at Baltimore Polytechnic High School. May 11, 1968 As I’ve mentioned before, I was...

I must truly thank Jerry Anderson for my years of freedom. He is a good friend from my Maryland years. He looked at my careful comb-over...

Gus "Honeycomb" Johnson playing above the rim against the New York Knickerbockers 1963 was a big year in Baltimore sports. The Baltimore...

Sometimes practical jokes that seem hilarious for an instant are pretty stupid in hindsight. Hayden and I were in Williamsburg this past...

In the Book of Proverbs we read, “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”. It is a lesson I have relearned...

The David after a one month Italian vacation My mom was very skinny. My dad was not. My DNA has been in a pitched battle between these...

My grandmother, Lillian Mackenzie Loeber, had one sister, Mary Clarke. Mary was married to Frank Clarke who, after the Great Depression...

In an ongoing effort to keep my blog new and interesting, I will be on assignment in Rome, Southern Italy, and Portugal for a few weeks....

(Brooks Robinson, by Norman Rockwell) What is it about baseball that has inspired poetry, song, art, storytelling, and writing like no...

(Capitol Reflections, photo by John Constance) Congress is broken. Politics is a vicious blood sport. There is no such thing as a...

My wife has been part of a group of women and men at our church who have been loyal volunteers for Meals on Wheels of Wake County for...

Funny word “positive.” It’s what we grow up being told to be. Our attitude should be positive, our outlook, positive. Our convictions,...

In the early 1990’s a friend asked me to join him for a round of golf at an iconic Baltimore course where he was a member. Sparrows Point Country Club was originally a 9-hole course built in 1952 by Bethlehem Steel on a 250-acre waterfront parcel in Southeast Baltimore. Designed and created by renowned golf course architect William Gordon, the club had 27 holes by 1961 and was sold to the membership in 1985. Immaculate, challenging, and unique are the words I’d use to describ

I must give full credit to a friend who after seeing my travelogue videos suggested maybe a walk down memory lane: Catonsville MD in the 1950's and '60's. While specific to a place, it reflects a shared experience with many of you. We were fortunate to be born in the post-war period of relative peace and tranquility. We saw an explosion of housing, manufacturing, and growth of the middle class in America. Some contracted Polio but most benefitted from the vaccine. We shared t

One of the blessings of my life is to have family in Wales. Thanks to my father's sister, Aunt Jean, correspondence was faithfully...