About the Writer

Do you really want to know everything “about the writer”?  Do you really want to know all that?  If you read very much of this stuff, you’ll know plenty about me.

I get a kick out of this:  asking you questions that make you think about yourself; making you laugh; telling you a story that you find interesting; maybe teaching you something that you didn’t know (I was once a teacher); telling you about a trip that I take; telling you about interesting people.  That’s really all you want to know about me, isn’t it?

I wrote a near autobiography and thought about including my resume, birth certificate, and social security number, but do you really want to read all of that?  You can quit on this “about the author” right now; you won’t miss much.  Or you can read the near-autbio below.

My name is Tony Davis, or at least that’s what I’ve always been called.  Were you blessed with a nickname off a middle name?  I am a Mississippian, one-hundred percent.  Never left home.  I was schooled at Lawrence County Academy, Copiah-Lincoln Junior College, and the University of Southern Mississippi.  English major.  It was the only thing in school that ever became important to me.  Never really intended to, but I took my first job as a public school educator.  After that, I did the whole route:  teacher, baseball coach, vocational school tutor, assistant principal, athletic director, substitute bus driver, principal, alternative school director, grant manager, superintendent.  Twenty seven and a half years later, I retired from public education.  I always heard that we had a good retirement system.  And now I know that it’s not bad at all (but it’s now changed for the young folks).  I do a little work when I find it.  I worked for a school for half a year last year, and I’ll officiate lots of high school baseball and volleyball games throughout the year. And I’m sure I’ll go back to real work again someday when I come across the right thing—or the right idea.

I’m about 35 years old; that is, in the head I’m about 35.  Actually I’m closer to 38, or maybe 42, in the head.  In other words, that’s what I think I ought to be. I have the ability to be all businesslike and serious—so I guess I’m closer to 42.  My body, though, is closer to, like, 59 or 62, or maybe even 64.  Now, in actuality, at the time of me writing this, I’m 53 and two-thirds years old.   I was born in 1960.  I never lived a day in the 1950s and that’s always bugged me a little bit.

So I’m close to 54 years old.  I’m in an in-between age; in-between old and young—but I’m afraid closer to old.  And I don’t seem to be able to pull it back to the other side.  It’s not working out.  Actually, I’m not working out.  Need to pull out the running shoes and the bicycle.

It is funny how sometimes I can look into a mirror or at a picture of myself and think, “Hey, that’s not too bad.”  More (way more) than half the time though, it’s like, “Oh my God!  That’s really me?”  I really do constantly forget what I look like; remember, in my head, I think I’m about 38, or maybe 42.  I think I’m a somewhat vain, middle-aged, overweight Mississippian—but not like arrogant vain.  The ladies at the office used to laugh at me a lot, so I’m pretty sure I have this right.

I know one thing some of y’all are thinking:  “He’s a born and bred Mississippian, and he’s got this website where he’s going to actually string words together?”  (And all the Mississippians purse their lips together and shake their heads, and lots and lots of non-Mississippians say to themselves, “Yes, that’s what I was wondering.”)  We Mississippians often get a bum rap.  We really don’t deserve all that we get.  (I know some of you won’t believe that.)

This is important to me for you to know:  I’m not a Delta Mississippian, or a Coastal Mississippian, or a Jackson or suburban Mississippian.  I’m kinda a middle of nowhere Mississippian.  Where I’m from in the state, we’re not famous for cotton, or the Civil War, or the Gulf of Mexico, or even infamous civil rights incidents.  Our people were small farmers and hunters, because that’s how they ate, and we had and still have a lot pine trees, and we have a river than runs through us called the Pearl.  That’s about it.

Well, what else?  I’ve been married for nearly a third of a century.  OMG. We’ve survived each other for that long, and we still get along really, really well–for at least 50 percent of the time.  I have two daughters who have recently left me for other fellows and big cities.  I have three dogs, two of whom stick right with me. The other tends to agree more often with my wife.  I like to travel in the United States, and I’m a Mississippi boy who loves New York City.  Go figure.  But almost any place fascinates me.  I like baseball—a lot.  Ask my wife.  I do not enjoy discussing politics.  I’m not nearly as conservative as you might stereotype my Caucasian Mississippi self, but neither am I a raving liberal.  I am a strong believer in thoughtful consideration and common sense and everybody getting along—for the betterment of everybody.

I never ever get bored.

And essentially, I’m an ol’ Mississippi boy who likes to write. And I really appreciate it when folks take the time to read me.  Thanks for making it this far.  I hope you see fit to come back and read some more.