John Haslam's Blog
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May.16.2013
“I don’t think I can stand another honey bun and Coke,” I disgustedly told my best friend Jimmy, as we surveyed the rack of sweet breads in the small country store just outside of Goodwater, Alabama. It was September of 1974.
I had just started going to Alexander City State Junior...
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May.07.2013
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Apr.05.2013
I started thinking about gun control in earnest just after the politicos in New Your State jumped all over the issue when the poor children got massacred in Sandy Hook. I wrote three pieces about what I saw as pertinent issues, and I had a fourth ready to go, but I spilled a Budweiser into...
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Apr.02.2013
Chapter 11
Friday Night – Chicago
The cheeseburgers seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for Marcus Witherow. He was grateful for what Jimmy Rae was doing for him, but he knew he couldn't stay in the crack house. It was after dark and he knew that Jimmy Rae's...
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Mar.17.2013
Chapter 10
Early Saturday Morning - Chicago
The disappearance of Marcus Witherow was the biggest news story in Chicago since 1871 when Kate O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern that burned down the whole town. The television was full of reports. The papers were...
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Mar.13.2013
Chapter 9
Friday Night - Chicago
“Come on Marcus,” the teacher urged him. “Just spit it out, you can do it.”
A young Marcus was standing in front of his fifth-grade class, trying to recite some of “Twas The Night Before Christmas.” He...
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Mar.09.2013
Chapter 8
Late Thursday Night - Chicago
Marcus closed his eyes when the Escalade started to roll down the boat ramp into the river. With his two oversized hands wrapped around the gun hand like corn fritter pancakes wrapped around a breakfast sausage, he...
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Mar.08.2013
Chapter 7
Oval Office – 2014, Roosevelt-Hill’s second year as President
It was 6 a.m. and President Stephanie Roosevelt-Hill sat alone in the Oval office, wondering if her ethanol initiative plan would ever get off the ground. No matter how hard she tried, her ideas about...
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Mar.08.2013
Chapter 7
Eleven Years Earlier – Pinopolis, South Carolina
Marcus Witherow just finished his last junior high basketball game. He scored 31 points in a game that his team won 43-27. Witherow sat by his locker in the room that smelled strongly of wet socks, jocks...
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Mar.03.2013
Chapter 6
Friday Morning -Chicago
As he drove back to the hotel from the hospital, Sledge Walker kept thinking about what Pam said as she was wheeled out of the emergency room, I can’t believe they really did it.
Who were they? What had they...
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Mar.03.2013
Chapter 6
White House, Washington, D.C.
The day after the funeral, President Wyckoff and Dee Walker had an early breakfast in a small dining room near the Oval Office in the White House.
“Dee, I want a meeting with the attorney general before lunch,” Wyckoff told Walker...
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Feb.25.2013
This is the third part of my take on gun control, and other things our government will try to “fix” in the coming years.
As I sit here thinking about guns, the late Edwin Starr’s 1969 Vietnam War protest song keeps slipping into my consciousness:
War, huh yeah....
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Feb.25.2013
Chapter 5
North Alabama – Two Years Earlier
Tamika Smith grew up poor in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama. Although she didn’t have a lot of life’s finer things, she did have something that mattered – two parents who believed in love and hard work. Love for the Smiths meant a close...
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Feb.22.2013
Some of you who get alerts via Facebook when I create a blog are getting a picture of fellow RedRoom author Midge Raymond instead of me. I wish I looked as pretty as Midge Raymond, but I don't. I am not sending out her pix intentionally. It is some kind of accident that I am trying to get fixed....
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Feb.20.2013
This is the second part of my take on gun control, and other things our government will try to “fix” in the coming years.
It seems to me, about the only thing our government does efficiently is react to problems. It never seems to have the vision or foresight to keep our nation out of...
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I would rather climb a mountain than read about someone else climbing a mountain.”
—Good friend Charlie VanValkenburg.
About John
Author of new novel BANK SHOT, John Haslam was born the oldest son in a textile mill family in small town Alabama. He evolved from a wannabe athlete and a fair country student into an award-winning sports writer in his first career. Later, he became one of...
Connections
Causes John Haslam Supports
I support the Constitution of the United States of America.
I support St. Jude's Hospital.
I believe in GOD.
John’s Favorite Books
The Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Prince of Tides, Conroy
Without Remorse, Tom Clancy
The Testament, John...
John is a fan of