Nick Chiles — Page 2

Where Black Moms Matter

October 19, 2010

Candy Apples, 12-Inch Subs and Quarter Waters: 3rd Graders Lunches = One Step Closer To Type 2 Diabetes

By NICK CHILES I was pleased to see that the class trip was a big hit. My daughter Lila's third-grade class had hit the Salvador Dali exhibit at Atlanta's High Museum in full 8-year-old curiosity mode. They bounced around the cavernous rooms, wide-eyed as they took in Dali's unique and whimsical ...

September 23, 2010

A Tribute to Two Classics: Sonny Rollins and My Dad

Sonny Rollins By NICK CHILES Recently I had the precious opportunity to pay tribute to two old black men, both fabulous in their own special ways. I'm talking about the legendary saxophonist, Sonny Rollins, and my dad, Walter Chiles. On the spur of the moment and at my wife's urging, ...

May 27, 2010

Graduation Day The Little Boy Grows into a Man

By NICK CHILES Our world is in such a shabby state that it is a little disconcerting to imagine sending a child out into it right now. But that's exactly what we are about to do. Our little boy, now almost grown into a fine young man, is walking across ...

May 10, 2010

The Joy of the Parenting Do-Over

By NICK CHILES One of the unequivocal joys of parenthood is re-living some of the most exciting events from our past through the eyes of our children. Essentially we get to have do-overs. Kids give us an opportunity to perfect something we might have screwed up when we were kids. ...

September 25, 2009

Home Made Love: Nick's Easy Like Sunday Morning French Toast

My baby is the grill master, okay? Ribs, chicken, fish, vegetables, Cocoa Puffs whatever Nick cooks over charcoal always comes to our dinner table perfectly crisp, insanely juicy, and super flavorful. I mean, The. Boy. Is. Bad. (And plus, everything tastes better with a little smoke on it, and definitely ...

July 21, 2009

Invasion of the Personality Snatchersâ€¦ Or, Hurray, The Teenager is Here

By NICK CHILESIt is something we parents can't help. We look at our children, at their personality quirks and quivers, and we can't help playing the game of projecting them into the future, like the sci-fi movie Jumper. What will she be like when she's 30? How outgoing will he ...

July 1, 2009

Dont Stare Too Hard: Of Wives and Hair

By NICK CHILES When your wife changes her hair, it has the effect of an earthquake in the house. And if extra hair was added, or hair was cut, or color changed, we're talking something like 8.0 on the Richter scale. This monumental event hit the Chiles household recently, and ...

June 22, 2009

Teenage Car Traumas: A Dad Loses Control

By NICK CHILES Nobody told me it would be like this. Sure, I knew that when my teenage son got his license and we put together enough pennies to get him something with four wheels and a running (hopefully) engine, that I would lose a certain amount of control over ...

June 15, 2009

Summertime, and the Living Isn't So Easy

By NICK CHILES One of these days I need to ask my parents if they felt the same way about the summertime as I do. I remember long hot days of fun stretching out before me in an endless string. Something tells me they have a different recollection. I say ...

May 8, 2009

The Sun Always Rises: A Gift to Mothers

By NICK CHILES Like an all-powerful deity, she hovers over our lives from the very first breath we take. She feeds us, nurtures us, becomes irreversibly imprinted on our souls. Before we have the power to select or to resist, she becomes our lifelong muse. As a writer, I take ...