If you have missed seeing my writing for a while I have been off collecting adventures to share here and now I am a new grandfather leaning hard toward retirement. To help the new blog prosper I am going to share the intial post on all my blog platforms. I invite you to visit by the link that follows: Hello, I am Papa Joe
Papa Sam and Mama June were so happy when their children expressed their great interest in visiting the Holy Land. All parents hope their children follow their lead in belief and this was a good indication. The fact that the grand children from 12 to 2 would accompany their parents was a bonus.
The grandparents were eager to learn of their impressions, so they dropped in one evening to hear for themselves. Everyone had stories to share from pre-teen to toddler. But the most unexpected was from two year old Sophie.
“I liked the U.F.O.’s ”
“The Rings of Light,” her mother explained.
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Today I celebrate the 27th anniversary with my wife and I hope for many more. As you age you hear more and more stories like the one above. While it is not directly about anyone I know there is components from real lives woven in.
Harmon pawed through the photos with abandon. His bride of 75 years was rapidly slipping away. He didn’t know if he had minutes, hours or days, but the doctors assured him anniversary 76 would be celebrated alone. Ellie spent less time awake and coherent. Their 27,500 days had passed with him assuring her of his love. Today would not be the one he missed.
“DAD!!!” his eldest daughter, Elise called from the room Ellie occupied.
Harmon scrambled to reach Ellie’s side, the photo clutched tightly.
He slid his hand in hers with the photo in front of her face.
“Where’ve you been?”she asked.
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Today I celebrate the 27th anniversary with my wife and I hope for many more. As you age you hear more and more stories like the one above. While it is not directly about anyone I know there is components from real lives woven in.
Allie loved playing horse with Derek. Mainly because she could win half the time and not because he let her. She’d started for the varsity team since her freshman season, a direct result of all that travel ball.
Derek seemed uncharacteristically silent.
“What’s up horsefeathers?” she asked, dribbling the ball.
“I’ve not heard that in many moons, chicken legs!”
“That calls for the moon shot!” Allie laughed.
“NO!” Derek shouted a second too late as Allie launched the ball.
She beat him to the place where something fell from the rim and held the felt box with a shocked expression.
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I always try to find the funny in every story because this world is too serious. Besides that my dad and his brothers were always seeking some way to elicit a laugh. That’s a family tradition I whole-heartedly embrace!
“Margaret! MARGARET!!!! aAll that man!” a voice boomed through the lake house.
Margaret stirred from her early morning slumber slowly, trying to figure out what was going on. Again the booming voice reached her ears.
Margaret! Don’t you hear me woman!” her husband called from the floor below. She quickly scrambled from the bed, donning a robe as she tried to respond to her husband’s desperate pleas. One look at his face told her so much about his condition. He had been in the whiskey heavy all night long.
“That young fellow, the photographer that was with Julia last week. We still have his number don’t we?” Jim questioned, scanning the collection of business cards tacked to their cork board on one side of the refrigerator.
“Probably, why?”
“Because we are going to be rich!”
“Rich, why?” Margaret asked.
“The Loch Ness Monster is in our lake. All those other photographers never had a shot at it because they didn’t realize it was really pink!”
I blame Dale from a Dalectable Life for this one. She is always ever faithful to comment on my weekly Friday Fictioneers offering, so i intended to return the favor this week, but instead found a new Photo prompt to spin my fiction wizardry. It is for Crimson’s Creative Challenge #46. As with most of its ilk you take a photo and craft a response. Except the scope is quite different. You respond with something CREATIVE
Here are some suggestions:
You have plenty of scope and only two criteria:
The Photo
“Imagine it with snow!” Alex said, his voice full of excitement. “It is sloped exactly right for a good speed gain before going down that big hill.”
“So why are we here now?” Jenny asked.
“Silly girl, we need to know how it will work when covered in the snow. If you and I want to win the competition and the prize money.”
“Competition? Money? What are you talking about Haslip?”
“Your big brother really did keep you in the dark. Did you ever wonder where he got the money for the Barracuda?”
“Yeah?”
“Old Man McNamara, in the mansion up there,” Alex said pointing to the biggest house in the county. “He used to ride this slope every winter and now he is too old. But he gives the team that beats his “record time” a check for $10,000!” Jenny snickered at the cheesy air quotes Alex made.
“For real? $10K!”
“Don’t tell me this is the line! The store is two blocks away!” Sarah moaned.
Today the technology company holding the world’s fleeting attention squarely in it hands a few days each year rolled out the latest technological marvel.
Sarah grudgingly joined the queue, staring at her current model which in her father’s time would have required an apartment building’s equivalent space to work.
Rain-soaked and shivering when she cleared the last corner, Sarah’s shoulders drooped when she saw the food truck at the end of her line. On the door of the phone store was a SOLD OUT sign.
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I always try to find the funny in every story because this world is too serious. Besides that my dad and his brothers were always seeking some way to elicit a laugh. That’s a family tradition I whole-heartedly embrace!
“Geegor! Are you sure we are inconspicuous in this field of. . .” Maanes hesitated, looking for the right words.
“Fuzzies? Yes, Supreme Leader, they are very plentiful in this area. Our invasion will certainly be undetected.”
Maanes surveyed the field, taking in as much information as his small brain would allow, shaking his head to move the golden strands away from his six eyes. He could see two large enemies in the distance, what the humans called females. In his research he learned their physiology made them weaker which gave him great confidence they would be easily vanquished.
“Geegor, what about the small ones,” another member of the squad, Heeshork asked.
“They are no concern at all,” he answered. ”As long as their electronic devices are charged they will never know we exist.”
“Then it is time we move,” Maanes commanded.
Across the field the teachers gathered their horde for a new instruction. “Okay kids, all electronics off. Farmer Fran said you can pick all the Fuzzies you want, he has enough for next season!”
I blame Dale from a Dalectable Life for this one. She is always ever faithful to comment on my weekly Friday Fictioneers offering, so i intended to return the favor this week, but instead found a new Photo prompt to spin my fiction wizardry. It is for Crimson’s Creative Challenge #45. As with most of its ilk you take a photo and craft a response. Except the scope is quite different. You respond with something CREATIVE
Here are some suggestions:
You have plenty of scope and only two criteria:
The Photo
Julia walked aimlessly through the autumn touched reeds, lost in so many thoughts. The letter was laced through the first three fingers of her right hand, flapping in the wind. The words etched on her mind now she really didn’t need the worn piece of stationary. Eddie had made one thing clear, if his life continued past the deployment to Korea it wouldn’t with her a component.
Forever just didn’t mean what it used to. She expected to replicate the long lasting relationships her family treasured. She reread the words for the umpteenth time, straining her eyes to see what was between the lines, but all she could find was the stark black and white. “We are through!”
“WHY?” she shouted and heard echo in the distance. She knew there was no answer especially none to satisfy the intense pain in her heart. The scene would have been one she would have captured in her camera lens a day earlier, but now she was lost in despair.
Fiction Playground 