Sean Dietrich Articles

Where the redhead grows

OPINION — BY SEAN DIETRICH My interview was scheduled for noon. It’s not every day you are a keynote speaker for Miss Bernice’s fourth-grade class career day, via video call. I wore a necktie.Miss Bernice’s class has been interviewing a lot of people lately about...

Super

BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION — If you’re a boy, and you’re thinking of marrying a Southern woman like I did, you’d do well to understand how she thinks first. Take for instance, my wife, Jamie. I’ve spent years in training beneath her tutelage. I’ve learned a few things....

People next door

OPINION — Marie was a Waffle-House waitress with two kids. She smoked like a fish, worked like a trail horse, and was self-conscious about her teeth.Several of us fellas used to visit her every weekday morning for breakfast.Once she showed me a bronze token.“I’ve been...

It’s Girl Scout season

BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION —It’s Girl Scout-cookie season again, which traditionally begins right after deer season, and is followed by Lent.This is the time of year when words like “Samoas,” “Shortbread Trefoils,” “Do-si-dos,” and “Tagalongs” become household names. A...
More letters to Dear Sean

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...

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More letters to Dear Sean

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...

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More letters to Dear Sean

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...

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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...

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More letters to Dear Sean

Sean of the South

Relax, you're going to be okay You’re going to be okay. That’s not an opinion. It’s not a guess. This isn’t some trite little catchphrase from some...

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More letters to Dear Sean

The 11-year-old in the house

BY SEAN DIETRICH There is a little girl in my house. She is 11. She is currently playing piano in my office. She is blind, so she plays by feel. She...

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