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Sean Dietrich Articles

More letters to Dear Sean

BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION — DEAR SEAN: All I want this year is for this girl in my third period class to go on a date with me, but she’s way out of my league.Please help,Fifteen and pathetic in Birmingham Dear Pathetic:I’ll put this in the nicest way I can: If you’re...
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All the purty horses

BY SEAN DIETRICH The day before New Year’s Eve. I was stuck in Birmingham rush hour. A ten-mile line of standstill traffic stretched before me. It looked like I wouldn’t be getting home until sometime around the next papal installation.The Dodge truck beside me towed...
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The Giving Tree

BY SEAN DIETRICH Merry Christmas, Layla Grace. I got your name from the church Christmas tree. It’s kind of like Angel Tree, where you buy gifts for kids whose names are on the tree.Your card was hanging on the branch when I was walking through the lobby. I was...
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Christmas Prayers

The side-of-the-highway café was decorated for Christmas. Plastic balsam trees on formica tables. Beside the napkin dispenser, a nutcracker soldier with a Sharpie graphic drawn on his unmentionables, lending new meaning to the unfortunate soldier’s station in...
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Five Bucks

Five Bucks

Sep 7, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH This is not my story. I am hearing it for the first time, just like you. He is the one who tells it. He is old. He is in a...

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My Generation

My Generation

Aug 31, 2022

BY SEAN DIETRICH They called us the TV generation. Because that was pretty much all we had. No smartphones. No computers. No internets. We had a...

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My Generation

I Hope

Aug 24, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH I hope you have a good day. The entire day. Start to finish. Not the Best Day Ever. No, that’s too much excitement crammed into 24...

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My Generation

Gone Country

Aug 17, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH A beer joint. In the sticks. A cinderblock building. There were beat-up trucks parked in a dusty parking lot. No sign. Only a small...

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My Generation

Good

Aug 10, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH Late afternoon. The grocery store was busy. It was a big weekend, hurried customers played demolition derby with shopping carts. I...

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Five Bucks

Sunrise

Aug 4, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH I’m writing this in the early morning. The birds are asleep, the crickets, too. The sun is about to rise, and it’s going to rise...

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My Generation

Country Music

Jul 27, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH A no-name beer joint. Just off the highway. Somewhere outside Atlanta. Glowing Coors signs. Un-level pool tables. I had been...

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My Generation

Dear God

Jul 20, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH A potluck. A little church in the sticks. There were maybe 50 people at the covered-dish social. Attendees were of all ages. All...

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My Generation

The Sandwich

Jul 13, 2022

By SEAN DIETRICH Do this. Get a tomato. Not just any tomato. A Slocomb, Alabama, tomato. Make sure the tomato is firecracker-red and softer than the...

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