Author: Daris Howard

My phone rang, and when I answered, it was Andy. “Hey, Daris,” he said, “can you come help me? My printer isn’t working.”

It was the early days of the internet, and most people didn’t know anything about it yet. A teaching salary didn’t . . . 

I finished passing back the linear algebra tests that I had graded to my students. “Check the tests over,” I told them. “Check to make sure the points I gave you add up to the score that I gave you. Let me know if you have any questions, or if . . . 

My scouts, like most young boys, were very competitive and always looking for an edge on everything. That seemed especially true when it came to food. They always wanted the biggest cookie, the best looking cupcake, or the largest steak.

I had only . . . 

My son, Scott, and his wife, Janalyn, lived with us for a while this summer after graduation. His job didn’t start until September, and it gave us a chance to get to know Janalyn. Our life was quite a bit different from how she grew up. She had never . . . 

Years ago, about the time Russia was opening up more to tourists from the west, three of my colleagues from the university decided to take a few weeks of their summer and travel there. They didn’t have any itinerary; they would just go and hope for . . . 

I was an offensive guard on our high school football team. We had a good line. We worked hard and practiced hard. Our backs were incredibly talented, but too often, because of their talent, they didn’t practice to their full potential. Often their . . . 

School was ending for the summer, and my roommates and I were all preparing to go our separate ways. Jim was getting married, so we all made plans to meet again at his and Michelle’s wedding.

Bruce suggested that we all pool our money and buy one . . . 

My brothers and sisters have settled far and wide across the United States. This makes it hard to get together due to the cost of travel and hotels.

My mother bought a small condo that is somewhat central to many of us, and has invited us to use it . . . 

My wife, Donna, looked out the window and saw two little girls. The girls are about nine years old and are good friends. Both of them are from single parent homes and have struggled in the tough situations they have found themselves in. We have watched . . . 

As I stood in the grocery store checking my list, I thought I heard someone call my name. I turned around, but I didn’t see anyone I recognized, so I went back to my list. I heard my name again, but this time there was no mistaking it. I turned to . . . 

As we finished our scout meeting, I reminded the boys about the next week. “Don’t forget that it is our monthly service meeting. We will be helping Old Widow Rosting clean out her shed, so come an hour early and dress in old work clothes.”

“Not . . . 

I had forgotten what it was like to have small children around the house when we promised our daughter we would watch her three children for a week. We were really excited. They live about 14 hours away, so we don’t see them as often as we would . . . 

I always like to sit and chat with my students before class starts. One particular day, as we visited, a young lady spoke to me.

“Professor Howard, I think I remember you telling us you have a cow that you milk?”

“Yes, Abby, that is correct.”

“Can . . . 

It was the evening before Thanksgiving, and David stood in the stage wing ready to go on. It was to be his debut performance at one of the biggest, most famous concert halls in the world.

As the announcer welcomed everyone and talked about the many . . . 

When Tina called, Sally could tell something was really wrong. Tina’s voice was panicked and tense. She was so tense, in fact, that Sally couldn’t understand what she was saying. Sally decided it would be best to walk to Tina’s house and see . . . 

Derek, a friend of mine, had lost half of his thumb to a power saw while building kitchen cabinets. Despite this setback, I never once saw him discouraged, even during the days of his recovery. He always found a way to keep his sense of humor.

One day . . . 

Jed wasn’t fond of cats. So when his wife approached him about getting a kitten he adamantly refused. “Why do you think we need a cat around here?” he asked.

“Because I counted two mice in our house today,” she replied. “And where there . . . 

I called my friend on Saturday evening. “Hey, are you going to go to the sock hop that was announced last week at church?”

“Not me,” he replied. “Sock hops are dumb. Besides, I plan to go to choir practice tomorrow, and I want my voice to . . . 

I was twenty years old, living in New York far from home, and spending long days working. So when the church congregation there decided to have a picnic, it was a great opportunity to relax and have a little fun.

There was lots of food. The ladies of . . . 

As I watched the veterans ride by on a big trailer in the Fourth of July parade, I was reminded of a good man I had grown to know and love.

I first met Bob the day the men from the church I attended had gathered to cut and haul wood for a widow in our . . . 

We were flying out of the Andes Mountains of Peru heading for Lima. Our airplane looked like it had seen better days. Its air-worthiness was somewhat questionable, and it wasn’t very big. In addition, the airport runway didn’t look like it was . . . 

David was an incredibly brilliant student, but sometimes that was almost his downfall. For example, my students were supposed to write a program called “Twenty-one” where two players would take turns removing from one to three items out . . . 

Sally had been married for seven years, and all she wanted was to be a mother. Only a few months after she was married, she had prepared a nursery for the baby she dreamed of having.

But the years passed, and no baby came. She spent lots of money on . . . 

It was late February, and the temperature was about -20 degrees when I went to take care of the pregnant cows. Buttercup, who was past due, was nowhere to be found. Instead there was a hole in the fence, and beyond it were hoof prints in the two-feet-deep . . . 

I started out the year well, determined to lose weight. I worked out every morning for quite a while, and barely saw the weight drop, though I could tell I was putting on more muscle. Then, as usually happens, there came a week when I was burning the . . . 

When my office phone rang, I answered it to find the chairman of the C.I.S. (Computer Information Systems) department on the other end of the line. He was very upset. “You tell your students to stop it!”

 . . . 

On Saturday, June 5, 1976, my younger sister came running out to where I was fixing a fence our cows had broken down. It was lunch time and I thought she might be coming to call me to come eat. But I quickly realized by the way she was running that . . . 

Rod always fell asleep in class. It didn’t matter if it was math, English, or science. Ten minutes into the class, and he was sound asleep. A person might think he had a sleep problem. He did, actually. It was called not going to bed before 2:00 . . . 

My scouts were adamant about wanting to ride in the back of my pickup, and Gordy was their spokesman. “Riding in the front of a pickup is stupid,” he said. “Riding in the back is awesome.”

I have always felt that when it comes . . .