Keepin' It Real with Cam Marston

It's been a tough few weeks. This commentary offers no specifics, but I've learned some things.

-----

Many years ago, my neighbor in Charlotte, North Carolina knocked on my door one weekday afternoon. His wife had just told him she’s leaving. She climbed her car and drove away. He was dumbstruck and he needed to talk. My wife and I had just moved in. I hardly knew him. I didn’t know what to say or what to do. I...

My wife and I were headed to a cocktail reception where we knew no one. "This is an opportunity," I said.

-----

My wife and I were driving to a short cocktail reception full of people we’d never met. Most of them knew one another. Us? Not a soul. This is an opportunity, I said. Let’s run with it.

I proposed that she and I create a story for ourselves. Pick a personality and a background and...

The heat's cooked our brains. 

------

The heat’s taken its toll. It’s been unrelenting. Brutal. The greenery looks weary. The grass dries and turns brown within hours of any moisture. My car thermometer regularly reads around 110 and I saw online that it feels much hotter. We need a break. We need relief. My dog looks at me and says “No way I’m walking on that street. That street will burn my feet right off” an...

Last week I danced in front of a train to try to get it to move.

-----

Trains have always held great symbolic meaning. They represent the future, a new destination, an opportunity. In movies, the characters board trains in the hopes of greater things down the tracks. Lovers tearfully depart at train stations. Though tragic it’s what’s best for each of them. Bandits of the wild west knew there was a strong box o...

This week I take an imaginary walk through Jackson Square in New Orleans and ask a caricature artist to draw me something...different. 

-----

There are sections of our society that have become parodies of themselves. Once proud, they’re now laughable forms of their former self.

Imagine this: You’re walking through the New Orleans French Quarter. You stop at one of the caricature artists on ...

After thirty years of the same family tradition - I give some thought to the future.

-----

For the thirtieth year in a row my SUV left my garage headed for the North Carolina Coast the second to last Saturday in July. If we weren’t in it, it would go by itself. It’s what we do. It’s what the car does. And it was packed tight with everything from fishing gear, to bed sheets, to food, to 150 oysters in the shell ...

She hopped to the edge of the platform, raised her arms, and jumped.

-----

The video opened on my phone and my daughter was leaping off a bridge and falling out of the frame. It took my breath away. I watched it again and texted her. “Since you sent this to me,” I said, “I assume you survived the fall?”

“Yea,” she texted back. “It was awesome.”

She’s in South Africa as ...

A cup of coffee with a friend and a few strangers was a wonderful start to a great day not long ago.

-----

I’d like to say Hello to Randy Fowler. On Friday mornings he’s in his car on his way to the Restaurant Five in downtown Tuscaloosa with his dog Milo. He’s a regular listener to these commentaries and he reached out to me a few years ago when he liked one to offer a compliment. Turns out Randy’s daughter, J...

I have an idea for a business. Make up words customers can't understand then upcharge 75%.

-----

I think our dog is constipated. She rung her tinkle bell early early in the morning to go outside and she just roamed around the yard in a hurry with her nose down. I have no idea if this is what a constipated dog looks like. I’m assuming that’s her issue. She appears to want to do something but…can’t.

Read more