Hey ,When my adult son was starting high school, he was into some shenanigans. I didn't catch him red handed in anything, but I recognized some things from my own youth. I suspected he was raiding my liquor cabinet.For the record, my liquor cabinet w...

Hey ,When I was about seven, I was jonesing for a suede vest with fringes on it. That was kind of a big deal for me because day-to-day clothes were kind of drab in our family. Most of my shirts were hand-me-downs. I had two older brothers, and c...

Hey ,In the most recent Picayune, I told the story of my car problems in Middle-of-Nowhere, Ohio and the not-so-friendly farmer who let me use his phone. It was after ten p.m. when the tow truck showed up. After some basic trouble-shooting, he dragge...

Hey ,I drove from Columbus, Ohio back to Michigan last week. I hadn't made that particular trip in a long time. My first job out of college weirdly moved me to Columbus while my boss worked in Detroit. (Technically, he lived and worked in Taylor, whi...

Hey ,We got a cat when I was a little kid, like three going on four (me, not the cat). The cat came from Port Clinton, Ohio, so we named him PC, but it also stood for Pussy Cat, so that name worked pretty well as far as cat-names go. Being little kid...

Hey ,What a difference a single Mickey Picayune makes. Two weeks ago, my brother, suffering from COPD caused by chemotherapy, and wholly dependent on cannisters of oxygen, awaited a lung transplant. Today, if all continues well, he will walk out of t...

Hey ,The men's basketball coach at my alma mater lost his shit a few days ago at the end of the game. If you follow American sports at all, you'd at least have seen or heard a headline about Coach Howard smacking the opposing team's assistant coach u...

Hey ,My childhood was fine; I have little reason to complain: my parents were together and did their best for us, we felt loved, safe and secure. But there are some bad memories of dumb stuff I did that haunt me. I suppose some people can just shrug...

Hey ,As a little kid, I had a weird relationship with swimming. Due to a combination of fear and my mother's schedule conflicts, I didn't attend lessons at the city pool as had my older brothers. They started at the age of five and got the hang of it...

Hey ,When I was in ninth grade, a new kid moved into my neighborhood -- we'll call him "Joe" -- and I was hopeful that we'd be friends. There weren't any boys my age in the neighborhood; just two girls, and I was terrified of girls.Joe, being the new...