Sterling Griggs

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I reached a milestone in our lives as parents. Our youngest child "graduated" from elementary school, placing us in an elite category of parenthood that we have waited over a decade to achieve – no more "little kids" in the house. For 13 years we have had a child walk (and at times terrorize) the halls of an elementary school somewhere in North Carolina – East Bend, Winston-Salem, Southport, and Wilmington. From Fall Creek to Bradley Creek, the Griggs' kids have maintained a steady presence in these sacred halls of public education. The recent graduation of my oldest daughter from high school was a moving experience, one that put us in a whole other stratosphere of higher education and the costs associated with it. Yet even that momentous occasion is in a different category than that of whisking your last child from the insular halls of elementary education. I know that my kids learned loads of bad habits and not a few unsa...

My son recently decided that he wants to be a fisherman. Living at the coast, this should not be a problem - it seems as if everyone fishes down here. But in reality, the fact that everyone fishes here IS a problem. Most of his friends who fish have fathers and uncles and brothers who have fished their entire lives. These kids have multiple fishing rods, tackle boxes filled with hooks and lures, and access to different boats that can take them in the marsh or forty miles offshore. For a thirteen year old who has just discovered the joy of fishing, this can create quite a conundrum. In short, my son wants it all and he wants it now! I am grateful for the friends we have that have taken him out fishing in their boats. You have probably gathered by now that I am not much of an angler. My family vacationed every summer at Long Beach, NC (now known as Oak Island) and my dad did teach my brothers and I how to surf fish. I can remember summers when the pompano were running and we couldn’...