Scott Douglas Vaughan

Hickory Trail's cover alongside copies of Brookwood Road and Elm Street In late October, I am going to publish my third and final book in the Memories of a Home series. The book, Hickory Trail, continues the story of main character Frank Wilcox and the Wilcox family. In Brookwood Road (2014), Frank and his brothers Jack and Wayne grow up on the family hog farm in south Acorn County in north Georgia during the 1960s and 1970s. The book ends with the family leaving the farm, moving 10 miles north to a subdivision in the town of Acorn. The move coincides with Frank entering high school. In Elm Street (2016), readers follow Frank and his close friends through the first eight years of school at the Acorn Primary and Junior High schools. Many of Frank's closest friends were his friends from birth, through church, and Kindergarten. It's a book of friendship and adventure. Hickory Trail will follow Frank through four years of high school, working at the local newspaper,...

When our four boys were little boys, Vicki creatively interviewed them each Father's Day weekend and then gave me the videotape as a gift. Each of my sons was individually asked a series of questions about me, and they answered the questions while the other brothers heckled them from off camera. This past Father's Day, we watched those tapes. One year Vicki asked, "What's the craziest thing your daddy has done this year?" The older three answered, "He wore underwear on his head." It was clean underwear. The underwear story unfolded on a hot June afternoon. I had taken off from work and decided to spend all day with my boys. We watched television, played outside, and cooked lunch together. I made them sit through an episode of Bonanza - I still think every boy should be a Bonanza fan whether they want to be or not. An afternoon thunderstorm forced us to get creative inside the house. We positioned an empty, round laundry basket on one end of the...

Richard, William, Andrew & Matthew (Andrew & Elizabeth's Wedding -  Dec. 2015) There's no preamble for this week's entry. My Vicki and I have raised four boys to the age of 21. This Sunday is my 30th Father's Day. Dads: 1. Love Jesus and join His church every Sunday . Get your hands dirty in ministry. 2. Model the marriage you pray your boys will have. Deeply love their mama. 3. Respect your own parents. Speak well of them. 4. Make communication a priority in your family. Kill the communication; kill the relationship. 5. Set high expectations for your sons. We get what we expect out of people. 6. Don't be a dream killer. Let them live big and wide and far. Let them fly. 7. Teach them to respect money, but not worship it. Model contentment. 8. Encourage your sons to read. Reading equals learning; ignorant people first ignore reading. 9. Have the balls to say "No" even if every other misguided dad is saying "Yes." ...

I stood in the prairie grass, breathed deep, and just stared at Montana's wide open spaces. The sun was beginning to set and it was like God had personally hand-painted the sky down to where it met those wide open spaces. It was like heaven to me. Then one of my boys farted. In August 2001, I spoke to a small gathering of Baptist pastors and church leaders at the Wyoming Southern Baptist Convention office in Casper, WY. For two days, I helped those churches prepare for significant communication shifts that are now culturally commonplace. Now, I'm helping churches and organizations prepare for what's coming next. That Wyoming speaking engagement opened the door for me to take my oldest sons, Andrew and William, along for a father-sons trip that included driving across Wyoming to Rapid City, SD, where we had pancakes by the roadside, saw Mt. Rushmore, saw Wild Bill Hickok's grave in Deadwood, and drove over to Devil's Tower National Monument. Andrew was 12; Wi...