Tom T. Hall, (b. 1936), died tonight. I loved listening to an 8-track of his songs that my older brother Billy (b. 1962) sent me for my 12th or 13th birthday. He was stationed in Okinawa at the time and I had never received a more magnificent gift. It came with an...
San Gabriel Valley Boy Scouts, Vintage Years
Going through my mother's cedar chest, we found our old Girl Scout and Boy Scout uniforms. My mother loved being a Girl Scout leader, and of course, she was awesome! Here's my brother's San Gabriel Valley Boys Scouts of America cub scout shirt. This was back when we...
My Brother Billy, U.S. Marine, Late 1970s
Happy Veterans Day! This is my brother Billy during his time in the U.S. Marine Corps in the late 1970s. He joined in 1978, when I was 11. He was only five-and-a-half years older than me, which means he was only 16 when he actually signed papers. He left right after...
Kindergarten Scholar
This poem was written by my father, William Edgar Elliott, in 1965. He wrote it for my brother Billy who had just started Kindergarten. My son Sullivan's last day of Kindergarten is tomorrow!I've never posted any of my father's poetry on the Internet, but this poem...
Christmas 2009
Thank you for stopping by to check out some of my favorite Christmas pictures. I took some 500 pictures this season, so culling it down to these few was not easy. The snow was coming down hard on Christmas Eve and we still hadn't taken the kids to see Santa Claus....
Laughing in the Bathroom at Church
The Kermit Church of the Nazarene, located in a small town in West Texas, closed several years ago. My father pastored there between 1976-78. One night during a revival service, the visiting evangelist's wife sang a special. She sang in a hilarious nasal falsetto and...
Dad, is THAT our car? The 1959 Metropolitan, Not Exactly a Family Car
Guest Post by Billy Elliott One day, my Dad came home with our latest used car. It was an extremely funny looking car that looked like it was out of some Saturday morning cartoon; kind of like a sketch, a drawing, a made-up car. Perhaps, something Miss Piggy's sister...
A Tale of Two Plymouths | The 1959 Plymouth Station Wagon
Guest Post by Billy Elliott When I was about eight years old, Dad bought our latest used car. He must have really needed this latest one. Our family was growing, and we needed a bigger car for sure. Dad also needed a dependable car for work. So one day, he comes home...
Used Cars: The 49 Olds
Guest Post by Billy Elliott When she married, Mom told us about the car that Dad had at the time, a 1949 Oldsmobile Convertible. She always rolled her eyes when speaking of "that thing" and admitted being embarrassed to even ride in it. Dad, on the other hand, LOVED...
Memories of the 1958 Oldsmobile Rocket
Guest Post by Wild Billy Elliott It was 1966, and my Dad had a gold 1958 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Sedan. It was a Chromes-mobile to be sure, with wild tail lights that looked like chrome-plated rockets shooting out from the rear of the car.I was four in ‘66, and stood...
Used Cars: Thump, Thump and A Practical Joke
One summer evening, our family was whizzing down the road with Dad at the wheel of our Rambler, when SUDDENLY...Thump-Thump! First the front wheels, then the rear wheels rolled over SOMETHING in the road. I'll never forget those horrible words that Dad spoke next....
Funny Car Stories | Bald Tires in the Rain
Guest post by Billy Elliott | Used Car Stories Did I ever tell you about how dad used to get us tires for the Oldsmobile? Behind the tire store, they put the old worn tires that were "take offs", cast aside after people bought NEW ones. Well, Dad and I would go there...