Robin's Stories

Toys in the Basement

Back when I was a boy, before there was a Wal-Mart or Amazon, our family went Christmas shopping the old-fashioned way.  Once every year, the basement of the local hardware store transformed into a magical toy chest where me and my sisters would Oh and Ah over the toys that now graced the metal shelves of the Hugh Saum’s Store.

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What are the Odds?

A U.S. Citizen and three Bulgarian tourists walk into an antique store in small town U.S.A.

No horse, no saloon, no long face.

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If you happen to be in the Woodstock, Virginia area tomorrow Friday 8/25, stop by the Consulate Care assisted living facility for their bake sale.  It’s a Friday, so you’ll probably be needing a pick-me-up to get you to the weekend.  The feeding frenzy starts after breakfast and continues until everything’s eaten! All proceeds go to help one of the residents.  Here are pictures of my three…

An Angel at the Drive-Thru Window

My Dad spent 10 days at a Regional Hospital for back surgery, 35 days at an assisted living facility for rehabilitation, then returned home for 4 days.  On day 5 at home, he fell on the concrete surface of our car port and broke his hip. (more…)

Beautiful, in German (schön)

Ten days ago, I posted a story called ‘Beautiful’.  It was meant as an example of the positive feelings of self-worth felt by one person after another person’s kind words and actions.  Two days after sharing , I experienced an amendment to the story. (more…)

First shared with anyone who would listen on September 1, 2016, this is an audio recording from 1978,  which is the  No. 1 all-time ‘hit’ according to the statistic pages of EarthToRobin.com. (more…)

Back when I was an annoying little preteen, I had a temporary moment of maturity and established the first of my personal tenets of Life.  If I could make just one person smile per day, just think of the smiles I’d produce over a lifetime. (more…)

The Circle of Life

Something just dawned on me today.  I’ve spent the last 7 or 8 or 9 days sitting with my Dad in the hospital (the dates and days of the week have become a blur).  As I order his meals, press the required call button for help or speak with the doctors, nurses and techs, the beeps and buzzers and pagers are muted from time to time by the moans and coughs and groans of his floormates. (more…)

Here’s a funny little story about death and drug addiction. (more…)

Adam’s Garden

After my Nephew passed away in February, I planted some wildflowers seeds as a memorial. ‘Adam’s Garden’  No freakin’ tulips or daffodils. There’s symbolism growing everywhere in the little garden around the patio.

And one chair in which I sit. (more…)

Sunshine, a six-pack of beer, and a swimmin’ hole.

It’s not like Zack and his friends didn’t have a chlorinated, public pool a few blocks from their houses in town, but the newly discovered swimmin’ hole some ten miles out of town was much more entertaining.  The Lil’ Wolf Hole was hidden from the World by a thick grove of trees, just a muddied dirt path away from a busy highway and what they…

Just Walking the Dog

Last summer, the neighbor people asked me to walk their dog while they were away for a long, three-day weekend.  The only time that I had ever seen the little furbag yappy dog was when I was going to fetch my morning’s newspaper and she’d try to disprove Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, where-in the larger, smarter species would squash the crap out of the one-pound, little furry annoying rodent-like…

Christmas Music In May

You probably don’t know Alberta or Craig or Gerald or my cousin Patty,  or any of the other voices heard in this month’s installment of Christmas Music all year-long.  If one were singing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, your voice may be masked over by the vast numbers of fellow choir members.  But not in your typical small town church. (more…)

Yellow Jackets and Public Nudity- Dumb Things That Men Do, Explained in 519 Words or Less

My Mom and her hubby had bought a mountainside villa near Bryce Resort as a retirement home. I was doing nothing important at the time, as is usual, so I offered to live-in and fix-up the home before their scheduled move-in date later in the year. (more…)

Back when I was a boy! (as I pull-up my trousers and speak like an older man:) Life was simple for a teenager growing up in Small Town U.S.A.  In 1978, the population of Woodstock, Virginia was somewhere around 2500 people.  (more…)

Not to be a downer going into the weekend, when moods are supposed to be giddy with happiness at the prospect of two days off after a hard week of work, but I just had to type this one up. (more…)