Sean Dietrich Articles

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...

Newsboy

OPINION — Newspapers have a smell. If you’re lucky enough to find a newspaper in our digital world, you’ll notice the smell first. Fresh newsprint paper. SoySeal ink. Still warm. It’s a unique scent.I grew up throwing newspapers. Not on a bicycle. My mother and I...
Play Ball

Play Ball

They were calling for rain. But no rain came. Yet.  The umpires stood on the field, clad in clerical black, staring at the sky, palms facing...

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America

By SEAN DIETRICH "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE THIS COUNTRY?!" shouts the talking head on TV. I’m at an American diner. The kind with fried food and...

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Buc-ee’s

By SEAN DIETRICH Buc-ee’s convenience store sits outside Athens, Alabama, like a giant squatting beaver. This Texas-based gas station place is not a...

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Trees

By SEAN DIETRICH I have a thing for trees. I don’t know why. Maybe because I’ve always been a nerd. I think it all dates back to my days in Boy...

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In the Air

By SEAN DIETRICH A crowded plane. I had an aisle seat. The guy beside me was snorting. I say “snorting” because he was actually making swine-like...

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Mother’s Love

“I am a little old woman who lives in an assisted living facility…” her email began.  Her following message was about the length of “War and...

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Dancers

The little girl sits in a hospital room.  She lives here. In this bed. In this university hospital. She lives in this gown. She usually plays...

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Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday. The first day of Lent. I saw him in a Birmingham supermarket. He was young. Latino. Maybe 11 or 12. He was wandering through the...

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Good

By SEAN DIETRICH Just before midnight. Somewhere on the Texas prairie. A 20-year-old named Mark was driving on a two-lane highway on his way home....

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