MIKE WILSON
Mike Wilson: Let’s give a requiem for Sweet Sally
It is a significant understatement to declare that my friend The DC (apologies to Phil, but doesn’t every veteran duck-hunting crew have one by now?) ...
Mike Wilson, Author at Farmville - Page 2 of 3
MIKE WILSON
Mike Wilson: The story of me and Mr. French
I still remember meeting Mr. French for the first time very clearly, even though it has now been almost 60 years ago. How could I ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, August 16, 2023 2:10 pm
MIKE WILSON
Mike Wilson: We all remember school days
Seeing the “back to school sales” in the paper the other day took me back to my own primary school days — and especially the ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, August 9, 2023 1:05 pm
HUNTING
Mike Wilson: Farmville, this is the hidden art of lulling mallards
My good friend the Boss Man and I often joke about lulling our opponents into complacency during match play in golf by losing hole after ...
by Mike Wilson, Tuesday, August 1, 2023 7:11 am
Mike Wilson column
Mike Wilson: I think I caught a case of Olympic fever
With the Olympics back in the news, as talk continues about the 2024 Games in Paris, it’s got me thinking. Now I can calmly reflect ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, July 26, 2023 1:38 pm
Guest Column
Mike Wilson — The fugitive: A road lesson in applied calculus
When my wife and I decided to dock our powerboat at Lake Norman for a bit, I was thrilled to discover that the lake had ...
by Mike Wilson, Saturday, July 22, 2023 12:26 am
MIKE WILSON
Mike Wilson: Some tailrace tales outside of Prince Edward County
More the gourmand than the gourmet, I have never been especially intrigued by all those stories in outdoor magazines about pursuing tiny native cutthroats in ...
by Mike Wilson, Saturday, July 15, 2023 1:10 am
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Farmville, I have met the enemy, and it is ice cream
One of my earliest memories is dutifully sitting atop a cold, damp folded towel on top of the ice cream maker while Granddaddy turned the ...
by Mike Wilson, Tuesday, July 4, 2023 12:00 pm
Columns
Mike Wilson: A Concise Guide to Modern Granddadding
Granddadding. Is that a word? If not, I’m making it one. There is nothing in this life quite like that moment when you hold a ...
by Mike Wilson, Tuesday, June 27, 2023 6:22 am
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Happy 100th birthday, Mr. Enfield!
As I get along in years, I find myself consciously checking items off my “bucket list” like many others, I suppose. Our 40th anniversary trip ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, June 21, 2023 6:00 am
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Let me tell you about my father
My good father died of mesothelioma in 1992 at the age of 57 — much too young — on the same day as the richest ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, June 7, 2023 12:15 pm
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Here we go, Farmville, another Gar in the boat
Well, Farmville, I guess you could say I had a way of getting myself into unusual predicaments when I was a boy because I was ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, May 24, 2023 5:30 pm
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Where there’s a will, there’s a Wayne
I pretty much retired from dove hunting when the state opened up the “resident goose season” several years ago after reflecting that a single goose ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, May 17, 2023 12:30 pm
Church & Community
Mike Wilson: Dear Farmville, I’m not a caffeine addict, I promise
Apparently I scarred my grown daughters for life by chugging down a Red Bull at 2 a.m. We were somewhere off I-95 as we raced ...
by Mike Wilson, Monday, May 1, 2023 11:01 am
Columns
Mike Wilson: Leaving Farmville for vacation was not a good idea
One thing I’ve learned in Farmville and elsewhere is when you’re hot, you’re hot. No, not that great Jerry Reed song from the “Smokey and ...
by Mike Wilson, Monday, April 24, 2023 2:34 am
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Hunting with the King
Sorry, this is not about Elvis, though I did encounter him twice as a teenager in Memphis. The first time, I was working all night ...
by Mike Wilson, Friday, April 21, 2023 12:10 pm
Guest Column
Mike Wilson: Down Mexico way
In light of the most recent round of border disturbances, Mexico no longer calls to me as it once did, but there was a time ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, April 5, 2023 12:00 pm
Guest Column
Mike Wilson: Let’s talk about my cousin Chris
Christian Sorenson Bennett, one year my senior, was my favorite boyhood cousin. He was named after his Danish grandfather (my great-grandfather), a fisherman who had ...
by Mike Wilson, Thursday, March 30, 2023 12:15 pm
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Lick Creek days: The bream rock
As a sexagenarian, I have lost almost all of my enthusiasm for baking outdoors in the summer midday sun for most any reason. Period. I ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, March 8, 2023 12:00 pm
Guest Column
Mike Wilson: Vehicles I have known and not necessarily loved
There is an arresting and memorable image in “Sensation of Velocity,” a Vanguardist poem from the 1920’s by Jorge Luis Borges: that of a sleek ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, March 1, 2023 12:15 pm
Guest Column
Mike Wilson: Here’s some variations on buck fever
I shot my first deer as an adult in Virginia about 35 years ago. Here’s a story of a couple variations of buck fever. When ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, February 22, 2023 12:00 pm
COLUMN
Mike Wilson: Lick Creek days: My river family
After I recently lectured to a Hispanic culture class about the profound importance of “fictive kinship” (social bonds unrelated to blood or marriage) in Latino ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, February 15, 2023 11:00 am
Guest Column
Mike Wilson : I sympathized with Rodney Dangerfield
I was deeply saddened when my favorite comedian Rodney Dangerfield (you will remember him as bug-eyed, sweaty, and collar-stretching) passed away. His running gag “I’m ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, January 18, 2023 12:30 pm
Guest Column
Mike Wilson: It was a case of death by salami
I fear that, when conversations turn toward my historic inclusion on the Hap’s Grill Wall of Fame, I may sometimes seem braggadocious. (Okay, I confess ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, January 11, 2023 1:02 am
OPINION
Mike Wilson: Vaya con Dios, Jorge
It’s been a year now since my dear friend Jorge (aka Dr. Jorge Antonio Silveira y Montes de Oca) passed away at 93 in home ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, January 4, 2023 12:45 pm
OPINION
Mike Wilson: Happy New Year!
“Desert Island Discs” is a very popular and long-running (since 1942) program on BBC Radio. Each week the guest “castaways,” usually celebrities, are asked to ...
by Mike Wilson, Wednesday, December 28, 2022 12:30 pm
Columns
Mike Wilson: The high art of the low crawl
I killed my first duck, a hen mallard, while lying on my belly in soupy mud under buckbushes lining a creek that fed the Tennessee ...