Paul Marchant

My son is a senior in high school. Through 27 years of raising kids, I’ve discovered the path through the teenage years is fraught with peril for both parent and child. One of the latest perils we’ve faced is a book report for his honors English class on Charles Dickens’ classic tale, Great Expectations.

I was hustling home from Jerome one late afternoon a couple of weeks ago. I was a little irritated because I wanted to get home to get a horse shod before the sun went down. September irritates me anyway, because it brings with it the end of summer, the start of school, fewer daylight hours and colder nights.

Well, he walks out in the arena
All dressed up to the brim
Said he’d just came down from a place
Called ‘Highland Rim’

My daughter Anna is in her junior year in college as a political science major. She’s strayed a bit off the family path in terms of her college career, but we still allow her to come home – on occasion.

When I was about 7 years old, an old horse trader, of sorts, showed up in our country with a truckload of Shetland ponies.

Last month, I went back to my hometown to attend the funeral of my uncle. It was kind of a surreal experience for several reasons, not the least of which being Uncle Reed was only eight years older than I am, the youngest of eight siblings and the first of those siblings to die.