Creekbank Stories Curt Iles, Storyteller

Shake Like a Man As we’re slowly but surely passing up the restrictions of the Pandemic, it’s time to be reminded about the manly art of handshaking. A fist bump is a poor excuse for a firm handshake.   “When you give a man a handshake, make sure it’s firm because it shows you’re a man.” -John Groves When I …

  Today would be the birthday of my precious great aunt,  Letha Stockwell Reynolds.  In honor and memory of her life, we’re posting a reader favorite story, “Running Through The Lobby.” It’s a post about love and Aunt Letha and her husband of seventy-seven years, Gordon, are the stars.   Learn more about Deep Roots at http://www.creekbank.net/books/deep-roots/         …

                 Dead End   Mr. Frank Miller stormed into my office. Maybe stormed is too strong a word, but he was evidently highly upset. When a man over eighty storms into a room, and he is your mentor, you quickly want to find out what is wrong. I didn’t have to ask as Mr. Frank got right …

  Drive Your Stakes Deep We set up our tent on a bluff overlooking a pristine Maine lake. My hiking partner, Mac, and I were on a two-week hike on the Appalachian Trail (AT). We set up camp on an August evening with clear skies and a soft cool breeze. Due to traveling light, we had a small tent. Mac …

Choosing Your Rut     Choose your rut carefully: you’ll be in it for the next thirty miles. -Sign on Alaskan wilderness road It’s true. I learned in African bush driving that the rut you chose is very difficult to get out of. During the rainy season, dirt roads became paths of deep mud. Whatever rut I chose to follow …

Do you have “Salty Language?” (a 3-minute story) Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Colossians 4:6 ESV Salt has many uses: it seasons, preserves, melts ice, heals, and serves other purposes in our lives. Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, compares his followers to …

A Few Thoughts on Charisma   “Charisma is the ability to do the hard work of fitting in with those around you.” –Seth Godin   Charisma is a word that is often misunderstood. I recently ran across Seth Godin’s excellent definition of what it is. It is a person’s ability to fit in comfortably with those around him or her. …

Leaving this World Better . . .  “L.T.W.B.T.U.F.I.” Leave this world better than you found it! It’s a good motto to live by. Whatever we touch. Wherever we go, we ought to leave it better. I’ve always loved camping and hiking. Part of the joy is in setting up camp along a bubbling mountainside creek or under the tall pines …

Less is More   “Too Many Pockets”   When we moved to Africa in 2013, the first thing I bought was a safari jacket/vest. This is an olive sleeveless vest loaded with multiple pockets. My safari jacket had sixteen pockets with both zippered and flap types. Most of the pockets were on the outside of the jacket, while others lined …

  Kindness makes a man attractive.    Proverbs 19:22  (The Living Bible) Kindness is a language anyone can understand.   The opposite of kindness is rudeness. There is no room for rudeness if your heart is full of kindness. A tenet of good Southern Hospitality is to speak and act with kindness. “If you can  be anything, be kind.” -Anonymous  

Kindness It’s something the blind can see and the deaf can hear.  It’s called kindness. It’s one of the best words in the English language. Kindness is a good word to contemplate today. “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.”       -Albert Schweitzer One of my favorite speakers (and …

 Honesty    “No legacy is as rich as honesty.” – Quote beside my maternal grandfather, Sid Plott’s photograph in “The Gusher”, Byrd High (Shreveport) School, Class of 1926 Honesty, like lying, is a habit. Develop the fundamental habit of being a truth-teller in every situation. When is the truth a lie? We talk about “little white lies” and half-truths. Is …

    The South Traffic Circle   “The reason that North and South Louisiana are so different and disconnected is that you can’t get from one to the other because of the Traffic Circle in Alexandria.” -Oft-repeated story prior to Interstate 49.   I’ve never heard anyone say anything good about the South Traffic Circle in Alexandria, Louisiana. It’s a …

The Rocker   “Do you think now that rocker is worth $1500?”  “No, it’s worth more like $15,000.”   It was a conversation I’ll always remember. Framed with a lesson I will not forget. An earlier conversation ended with a resounding “No.”   My special friend Karan Robinson shoved a photo into my hand. “Don’t you think that’d look good …