FOND MEMORIES.

• Author: Kinney, Ben
• Position: UPFRONT

Welcome to September. The summer is coming to a close, and we are all looking back on it thinking "man, that went quick." Seems like the older I get, the more I say that. I was lucky enough to spend a lot of this summer with some dear folks around the state. Here's a little taste:

* I watched my family members pull in wahoo from the Gulf Stream on a charter and dine on them that same night.

* I got to sit on the banks of Lake Gaston with friends and family and play guitar with a buddy who was 10 when we started playing together; he's now 26.

* I got to play a new golf course with my two boys and watch the sun set over eastern North Carolina.

* I visited an old friend at his mountain house in Mitchell County and hiked a portion of the Appalachian Trail.

* I spent a long weekend with my wife of 25 years near Floyd, Virginia, where we visited a local brewery and listened to a band play old Grateful Dead songs while we drank pilsners.

* I went on a crazy Myrtle Beach golf weekend for the first time in 20 years with about 50 people (45 of whom I didn't know) I made a lot of new friends and a...