"That Ain't the Way My Daddy Do It" by Joel Stegall (reprise from April 2020)

From “That Southern Thing” (PSPP 2020)

Life in eastern North Carolina’s tobacco country had some useful lessons for a young teen from the city. 

In Joel Stegall’s childhood home, words were valued. His father was a preacher; his mother a storyteller and frustrated writer. At Wake Forest University, Joel wandered into a forgettable assignment as managing editor of the school paper. In his career as a professor and academic administrator, he wrote too many tedious memos and inconsequential academic papers. Since retiring, he spends an inordinate amount of time searching for his writer’s voice, hoping occasionally to do something others want to read.