In the 1960s and early 70s, my father was writing a series of sex books under the pen name Zachary Quill. The books were classified as porn.

Reading through the reports from The Eastern Carolina Industrial Training School for Boys, I noticed a dramatic change in tone after the...

I was nervous and had trouble focusing when I entered the Wilson Library to study the place where my Dad was sent when he was a kid.

I found this list of habits and offenses that could categorize a kid as a delinquent back in the 1920s. The list was in a pamphlet at the...

As a kid, I called my father "Riley." I was allowed to call my parents by their first names, or Mom and Dad. Sometimes in this blog,...

Years later, when my father died in 2009, I was contacted by Dave Sichak, who wanted to write up an obituary for a Hillbilly music website.

I took a good look at my birth certificate. I wanted to see if my father put his real name down, Riley Shepard. He did not.

If I hadn't submitted my story to the Hidden Brain podcast, I don't think I would have ever been reunited my father's missing boxes again.

The Primitive Baptists were somewhat like the people in the "Footloose" movie. No dancing, musical instruments, or music for entertainment.

30 years ago, my father wrote me a letter emphatically explaining that there's no such thing as free will.