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Publisher Richard Loller's  Journal
For Year 2022
Index to All Journal Years

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Scroll down for the most recent stories
Snake Encounter




Robert Flournoy



 
© Copyright 2023 by Robert Flournoy   
 

Photo by Worldspectrum at Pexels.
Photo by Worldspectrum at Pexels.

We were in Cambodia, but not by any stretch of the imagination were we supposed to be there since it was off limits at the time. The North Vietnamese army was there, but restrictive rules of engagement prevented us from taking it to them. We were recon, trying to determine strength and position. . . .

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One Old Man and One Old Kangaroo






Beata Stasak

 
© Copyright 2023 by Beata Stasak


Photo by Mateusz Feliksik at Pexels.
Photo by Mateusz Feliksik at Pexels..

Once upon time, when my kids were small and we'd just moved to our farm, we found an abandoned joey. In a desperate attempt to save him, his mum had ousted him from her pouch after she'd been hit by a car. . . .

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I Spend My Time on This Earth Doing My Bit. That's All I Can Do




Beata Stasak

 
© Copyright 2023 by Beata Stasak


Photo by Hiếu Hoàng at Pexels.
Photo by Hiếu Hoàng at Pexels.

Let me tell you a story...

My godfather was taught beekeeping by his father. He takes his commitment to nature and bees very seriously. . . .

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The Neighborhood Celebrity



Abbie Creed


 
© Copyright 2023 by Abbie Creed



Photo by Jacques Le Henaff on Unsplash.
Photo by Jacques Le Henaff on Unsplash.

   Written for all the children in my life.
     It was the last day of school when my son, Kelly, was ready to graduate from the 8th grade and I was a bit delayed getting home from school teaching job, that I was met with a bit of excitement. I walked into my bedroom to find a glob of something right in the center of my bed. There was no way to tell what it was, but it was breathing. . . .

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It Was The Summer of 1980





Mort Morford

 
© Copyright 2023 by Mort Morford





Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash
                                                 Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash

It was the summer of 1980. Mt. St. Helens had just erupted in May. In the Pacific Northwest, earthquakes, tremors, and now volcanoes, had become yet another surging undercurrent of the landscape.

The Pacific Northwest is perhaps most famous for its weather – a chill, damp, and often piercing wind is almost always present.

In short, it’s a place with weather – and other – conditions, one needed to be prepared for. . . .

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Skinny White Girl 


Maureen Moynihan


 
© Copyright 2023 by Maureen Moynihan




Image by Kiều Trường from Pixabay
Image by Kiều Trường from Pixabay

When I open the envelope, a $5,400 insurance bill screams at my face, as if its flap were on fire. The temptation to strike a match to the scrawny paper is overwhelming, but since my cancer diagnosis, medical bills have burrowed in my mailbox, inspired to procreate. . . .

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Goosed





James L. Cowles





  
© Copyright 2023 by James L. Cowles

 
Image by 🌼Christel🌼 from Pixabay
Image by Christel from Pixabay

Like many of our friends, my wife and I love animals, and we realize that every time we humans take up space to build our human habitats, we are bumping critters aside, and taking up a little more of their space. . . .

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Carpe Diem





Roger Barbee


 
© Copyright 2022 by Roger Barbee


Photo of Roger's mother.

The above Latin phrase, made famous by the American movie Dead Poet’s Society, was first used by the poet Horace. Its use by Horace is most accurately translated as “Pluck the day,” and after the movie it became popular in American culture and before long it was printed on tee shirts, caps, and mugs. However, the word “pluck”, for whatever reason, proved too much for American sensibilities and the phrase became translated as “Seize the day.” (Such a refinement). . . .

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Oh, Deer!




Christin Kaiser



 
© Copyright 2023 by Christin Kaiser


 

Oh, Deer!

Photo by Anthony Roberts on Unsplash

                    


Oh, Deer!

I grew up in a small New England Village, one steeped in farming, fishing, and hunting traditions. It was accepted and even expected in certain circles that “you filled your tag limit.” That venison made a big difference for many families. . . .

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What Will Be







Pamela Scott



 
© Copyright 2023 by Pamela Scott

 

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

After Paul's funeral, I thought about the old woman.

She lived at the end of the street where I grew up in one of the told tenement buildings. She stood at her living room window and spied on her neighbours. She creeped out me and my friend and we’d pull faces up at her window. She'd lean out to yell down at us and we'd run off. . . .

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Lutful






Giles Ryan

 
© Copyright 2023 by Giles Ryan



Photo by Nivedh P on Unsplash
Photo by Nivedh P on Unsplash

I’ve taken long walks in a few risky places and one such place was Bangladesh.  

In the fall of 1978 I was managing an NGO’s field office in Sylhet, up in the northeast shoulder of the country bordering the Indian state of Assam. I was supervising a group of field engineers whose main work was surveying the road embankment projects carried out in the district. . . .

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Nightwalker






Giles Ryan

 
© Copyright 2023 by Giles Ryan




Image by Hans Toom from Pixabay
Image by Hans Toom from Pixabay

I saw him before he saw me.

It was about five in the morning and I was on my way back after an hour or so walking the streets of Clyde Hill and Medina, some six or seven miles to start the day. The wind was blowing quite strong from the north – away from him and toward me – and the gusts were enough to sway the branches of the tall cedars, creating more noise than usual. . . .

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The Blind Cow and the Unbothered Owner







Amanya Aklam



 
© Copyright 2023 by Amanya Aklam

 

Photo by cottonbro studio at Pexels.
Photo by cottonbro studio at Pexels..

 Just like any other calf, Kahuuga was jolly, playful and beautiful. Kahuuga was a cross breed with white patches in its dark skin complexion. It was graced with a star sign colour brown in the forehead, an indicator that it was meant to be a cow of great significance to the herd. . . .

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Dragonflies and the Great Blue Heron


James Osborne



 

© Copyright 2021 by James Osborne




Image by Munruthel from Pixabay
Image by Munruthel from Pixabay

For more than a decade, Great Blue Herons had a special meaning for Judi and me.  I had no hint at the time that our affection for these graceful birds would one day come to have a far deeper significance, through tragedy and through joy....

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Songs





Fred Cheney


 
© Copyright 2022 by Fred Cheney


Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
Image by usuario322 from Pixabay                                    

Cutting brush when you own a 60-acre woodlot never seems to end. I cut brush when I’m swamping a new trail to some place I’ve visited often, and will visit again, often. I cut brush by the side of trails already swamped to expand the view, to give head room, to give shoulder room. . . .

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Our Filly Was A 'Night-Mare'





James Osborne




 
© Copyright 2021 by James Osborne


Photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash
Photo by Mathias Reding on Unsplash

Some men cherish time in their workshops on weekends. It began just like that for me one Saturday afternoon but ended as a reluctant co-owner of a racehorse. . . .

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A Bush, Bumblebees, and a Butterfly





Roger Barbee


 
© Copyright 2022 by Roger Barbee


Image by Thanasis Papazacharias from Pixabay

Next to one side of our screen porch is an abelia bush. Now in early August, it is covered with small, white nectar producing blossoms, so each morning the hum of bumblebee wings bathes the summer air as they move from bloom to bloom for the bush’s sweet juice of life. . . .

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Murine Steps




Zary Fekete



 
© Copyright 2022 by Zary Fekete



Image by Robert Owen-Wahl from Pixabay
Image by Robert Owen-Wahl from Pixabay

6:32 A.M.

There is a mouse in my kitchen. For a few days, I have been hoping it might not be true. I heard scratching… I thought it might be the upstairs neighbour’s cat… but the little black droppings in the kitchen cabinets are unmistakable. I’ll need to get some traps. . . .

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Finding Elzada





Linda A. Dougherty


 
© Copyright 2023 by Linda A. Dougherty

Photo by Marco Chilese on Unsplash
Photo by Marco Chilese on Unsplash.
                    

In June 2020, I wrote a short story in this publication about my high school friend, Elzada and of my hopes to find her and close the spiral of my age-old regrets. This is the ending of that story that really began in 1969. . . .

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West Quincy Story




Valerie Forde-Galvin




 
© Copyright 2023 by Valerie Forde-Galvin


Drawing by the author.
Drawing by the author.

I came of age in the nineteen-fifties. It was a time of promise. Jobs were plentiful. The increasing number of highways enticed people out to the suburbs where they bought cookie-cutter ranch houses and raised their two and a half children. Father knew best and The Beaver's family was the ideal. . . .

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Walking Home From School





Naoma Moody


 
© Copyright 2023 by Naoma Moody



Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

My sister and I had just finished our day at White School located in the country near Durand, Michigan.

There was nothing that stood out for this normal one-room school day with one teacher for grades K-7. . . .

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Tea Set 



Chaitanyamoi Chetia


 
© Copyright 2023 by 
Chaitanyamoi Chetia



Photo by Angela Roma at Pexels.
Photo by Angela Roma at Pexels.

This is a soiled note, give me a new one,” I said to the cashier at a hotel with the sweets in my hand. The cashier opened the cash drawer, inserted the soiled note and gave me a different one. This time again a soiled note came at my hand that was torn in the middle. Again I returned it to him. . . .

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The Cookie Lady 
(Revised)

Maureen Moynihan


 
© Copyright 2023 by Maureen Moynihan




Photo by Vyshnavi Bisani on Unsplash
Photo by Vyshnavi Bisani on Unsplash
My mother calls, speaking in 20 point Impact Bold font, punctuating each statement with a fantastic sense of urgency:
Maureen!! This is ya Mutha! The lady who gave you birth! Backwards!” . . .

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The Secret

    

 

Valerie Byron    

© Copyright 2023 by Valerie Byron  

  

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay 

Ada Segal had a secret, one she shared with no-one except her best friend, my mother. . . .

More...





Seventeen Guides and a Lioness





Lesley Mukwacha




y


© Copyright 2023 by Lesley Mukwacha
Image by Henk from Pixabay
Image by Henk from Pixabay 

Being the head ranger at a fast-growing game reserve in Zimbabwe, I was assigned the duty to take seventeen young aspiring newly recruited guides and game scouts for a seven-day intense training program in the Victoria falls national park, something I enjoyed and was very good at. . . .

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Hello, Again


Maureen Moynihan


 
© Copyright 2023 by Maureen Moynihan




Photo by Alina Skazka at Pexels.
Photo by Alina Skazka at Pexels..

Three cycles into chemotherapy, my hair is falling out in clumps. Rising from bed, there’s enough hair on my pillow to coat a calico cat. The bus stop moms turn a polite eye, pretending not to notice my burgeoning bald spots, except for Caireann. . . .

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Man Of My Dreams

    

 

Valerie Byron    

© Copyright 2023 by Valerie Byron  

  


Photo by Alan Healy at Pexels.

Photo by Alan Healy at Pexels.

  I remember so clearly being 20 years old.  That was sixty years ago and yet it seems like only yesterday.  I have so many memories of my younger days, but specifically I recall writing poems and love lyrics about my future soul mate.  I had a very specific image of what he would look like. . . .

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When The Lions Visit





Lesley Mukwacha




y


© Copyright 2023 by Lesley Mukwacha
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash
Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Having completed the first part of our two weeks training as recruits for one of the biggest tour companies in the world, we were ready to proceed to the next level, the practical side of Overland guiding. The whole first week had been consumed by mostly theory, stuff like learning company policies and accounts, meals, and trip planning, plus clients handling; not so exciting but very important and necessary. . . .

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The John


Maureen Moynihan


 
© Copyright 2023 by Maureen Moynihan




Photo by Wesley Pacífico on Unsplash
Photo by Wesley Pacífico on Unsplash.

It’s easier to get a turtle out of its shell than a husband out of the bathroom. I’ve found pounding on the door while hollering “Isn’t your ass cold?” is not an effective strategy. Sliding notes under the bathroom door also yields poor results:

Hello! I’m the trash. Please take me out!”
Hello! I’m your dog. Please take me out!” 
Hello! I’m your wife. Please take me out!”. . .

More...





Dinner With Mel





Erik Tillman Ferguson


 
© Copyright 2022 by Erik Tillman Ferguson



Photo of Mel Webber courtesy of UC Berkeley News.
Photo of Mel Webber courtesy of UC Berkeley News.

It was in the year of our Lord 2525, I mean 1990, in a little old country town called Austin, the venerable site of the annual ACSP conference, hosted by none other than Texas itself. While there, I attended several university alumni receptions, including one hosted by Berkeley. . . .

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Random Thoughts

Looking Back Along The Way



Robert Flournoy



 
© Copyright 2023 by Robert Flournoy   
 

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash
                                        Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

I am thinking of an old man who lives alone in a cabin far back in the
Rocky Mountains, who on Valentine's Day, with some silver wire and pebbles from a brook, 
made beautiful ear rings with no one to give them to. . . .

More...





The Golden Ring and the Horseshoe 



Chaitanyamoi Chetia


 
© Copyright 2023 by 
Chaitanyamoi Chetia



Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

I lost the golden ring I used to wear in my middle finger; I lost it accidentally; I used to get up from sleep in the middle of the night whenever the ring that I had lost come to my mind. The golden ring was a polished cat’s eye gemstone; it had a streak of light running lengthwise through it which gave it a real look as that of a cat’s eye. . . .

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Family Vacation and Fate




Robert Flournoy



 
© Copyright 2023 by Robert Flournoy   
 

Photo courtesy of the author.
                                       Photo courtesy of the author.

In 2010 my daughter was a senior in college, my son having graduated two years earlier.  To celebrate we booked a cruise for adults only out of Ft Lauderdale, with an itinerary that took us to various islands in the Eastern Caribbean.  I coughed up the extra money to get us balcony suites, side by side, my wife and I in one and my children next to us. . . .

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Blindsided By Love
 

    

 

Valerie Byron    

© Copyright 2023 by Valerie Byron  

  



Photo by Alan Healy at Pexels.

Photo by Alan Healy at Pexels.

On a morning like any other, Horace Green reluctantly dragged himself out of bed wondering what on earth the point was. 
 
Leaving behind the warmth of his snug cocoon, and the delightful dreams that made going to bed early so appealing, he padded across the carpeted floor to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, he arranged his shaving gear neatly around the sink, and only looked up as the steam from the shower formed a thick condensation on the mirror, blocking his view. . . .

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The Kiss

   

P. S. Gifford 

   
© Copyright 2023 by P. S. Gifford 

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Eleanor Wiggins and Sam Fowler sat there admiring the glorious harbor vista in front of them, just like they had done every Tuesday afternoon between the hours of three and four for the last nine years. That was, you need to understand, the only time they got to spend with each other, and they preferred to share it right there at the very spot upon which they fatefully met all those years previously. . . .

More...





Inviting Trouble





Lesley Mukwacha




y


© Copyright 2023 by Lesley Mukwacha
Image by Brigitte JAUFFRINEAU from Pixabay
Image by Brigitte JAUFFRINEAU from Pixabay 

Dinner was served, a delicious cottage pie, green salad and roasted tin foiled banana with melted dark chocolate for desert; just the silence told you everyone was enjoying their meal. The big fire in the middle kept us all warm on this cold winter night. My clients were all happy, why shouldn't they be, I was doing a great job of guiding them through four Southern African countries they had only dreamt of. . . .

More...





Regina, The Strange Lion





Lesley Mukwacha




y


© Copyright 2023 by Lesley Mukwacha
Photo by Chris Rhoads on Unsplash
Photo by Chris Rhoads on Unsplash.

The smell of fried cabbage coming out of the small kitchen where my mom was preparing lunch will always be the one I blame for what happened four hours later that bright summer afternoon. Sadza,(stiff porridge) and fried cabbage, would be the meal of that day, no meat to accompany them, and it had been the same meal for the past three days. I had had just about enough of that. I wanted meat, I craved meat, I needed meat - even fish would do. . . .

More...





I Love Clock From My Childhood 



Chaitanyamoi Chetia




 
© Copyright 2023 by 
Chaitanyamoi Chetia



Image courtesy of Mun Bora on Facebook
Image courtesy of Mun Bora on Facebook

In the year 2014, a clock tower was installed at Dibrugarh: with the installation, the city gave a vintage look to the onlookers, and it became the first city in the state of Assam to get a clock tower. It was a 45 feet tower erected at Chowkidingee traffic point facing four sides of the road at the intersection. The clock was elegantly curved having graceful dials of 6 feet diameter each, facing the four sides of the road. . . .

More...





Believe Me






Lauren Barrett


 
© Copyright 2023 by Lauren Barrett



Photo of Lauren.
Photo of Lauren. 

I adjust the camera on my phone for what seems like the 100th time trying to find the perfect angle and lighting to capture my face. It isn’t working.

Sighing in defeat, I get ready to press the join button. No one will care what I look like in a chronic illness support group anyway. . . .

More...





White Envelope






Giles Ryan

 
© Copyright 2023 by Giles Ryan




Photo by Richard Loller.
Photo by Richard Loller.

It’s a delicate business, paying a bribe. Unlike other transactions, the amount you’re expected to pay may be unstated, no more than an estimate, but whatever you pay must be enough, and yet you certainly don’t want to pay too much, for that might spoil the market for others. And the thing must be done properly, so as to leave no ill feeling on either side. It takes a deft hand, and it’s not a situation that allows for gaucherie. . . .

More...





The Thornback and the Red-Headed Man







Sara Etgen-Baker



 
© Copyright 2023 by Sara Etgen-Baker
Photo property of Sara.
                           Photo property of  Sara.

Granny called me a “thornback,” a derogatory term given to women of her time who weren’t married by the age of 30. Yes, I was a thornback—a single woman, approaching her 31st birthday. My biological clock was ticking; and I feared becoming a spinster whose only companion was a Siamese cat. But I would’ve preferred remaining a spinster rather than spend a lifetime with a boring man whom I didn’t love. . . .

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Portrait of a Young Woman - July 17, 1793






Giles Ryan

 
© Copyright 2023 by Giles Ryan




Painting of Charlotte Corday by Johan Jakob Hauer.. Public domain.
Painting of Charlotte Corday by Johan Jakob Hauer..

It is unique in the history of painted portraits. No other work of this genre has ever been created in similar circumstances, or ever will be again. The artist, Johan Jakob Hauer, is not well known but he was a competent portraitist, and we may assume this is a good likeness. But his most significant qualification was that he was available and could work quickly, for he had not a minute to spare. . . .

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Promise Me







Sara Etgen-Baker



 
© Copyright 2023 by Sara Etgen-Baker
Photo property of Sara.
                           Photo property of  Sara.

Promise Me” is a memoir and a true, biographical account of my first summer job and the time I spent with my supervisor, Nancy—a ‘crusty’ woman who changed the trajectory of my life for the better. . . .

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La Profesora de Inglès







Sara Etgen-Baker



 
© Copyright 2023 by Sara Etgen-Baker
Photo property of Sara.
                                                    Photo property of  Sara.

This is a memoir of my experience in moving across the state of Texas and teaching in a border community just outside of El Paso. It highlights my reasons for making such a drastic move and the unknown outcomes of taking such a risk. . . .

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The Witness Tree






Giles Ryan

 
© Copyright 2023 by Giles Ryan




Photo by Joy Deb at Pexels.
Photo by Joy Deb at Pexels.

I visited all the major towns of Bangladesh in those years, and in my memory they were much alike in this land of river deltas, although here and there a particularly elegant mosque would stand out from the general sameness. Depending on the time of year, going to these places might take several hours on a river boat, or some hours drive, perhaps longer during the monsoon when the rivers were high, with a longer wait at the ferry ghat. 

Sometime in 1979, when I had been in country about a year, my work required a visit to Mymensingh for an appearance in court. The details are now slightly dim in memory, something to do with an accounts clerk at our local office forging a check or absconding with the petty cash. . . .

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Life With The Butterfly Whisperer







Sara Etgen-Baker



 
© Copyright 2023 by Sara Etgen-Baker
Photo property of Sara.
                                                    Photo property of  Sara.

I entered Whispering Oaks and found the large French doors of the day room flung wide open. I walked through them towards the verandah and saw Pop sitting outdoors amongst some zinnias surrounded by a rabble of butterflies. . . .

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A Call in the Middle of the Night


Fredrick Hudgin




 
© Copyright 2023 by Fredrick Hudgin



Photo by Kirill Dratsevich at Pexels.
Photo by Kirill Dratsevich at Pexels.

I was sound asleep when the phone rang. The clock next to the bed said 3:32 AM. Cell phones hadn’t been invented yet. The phone hung on the kitchen wall of our mobile home. . . .

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Street Crime: Memories Of Life On 28th Street



Elliot Wilner




 
© Copyright 2022 by Elliot Wilner


Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.
Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

In the 1940’s, when I was a young boy, 28th Street Northwest was a nondescript street in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of the District of Columbia, located about a half-mile west of the National Zoo. Only two blocks in length, with just a single lane for traffic, it was certainly a nondescript street in a nondescript neighborhood, but for us children that street was our playground and the center of our world. . . .

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The Wolf Ate Grandma




Valerie Forde-Galvin




 
© Copyright 2023 by Valerie Forde-Galvin


Photo by Philipp Pilz on Unsplash
Photo by Philipp Pilz on Unsplash

In my childhood, parents read bedtime stories to their children. In theory, a child will fall asleep easily when listening to a familiar soothing voice. In reality, the story choice makes all the difference. So I have to ask why did parents chose fairy tales? What were they thinking? Nothing was held back in these stories; nobody seemed to realize that their content wasn't edited for children. Today, because of its violent themes, my little book of fairy tales would have been rated PG-13. At the time, I was six. I did not fall asleep easily after bedtime stories. . . .

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Pumpkin
 

    

 

Valerie Byron    

© Copyright 2023 by Valerie Byron  

  



Photo courtesy of the author.

Photo courtesy of the author.


Today started out pretty well for me. It's Sunday, December 23rd and for once I don't have to worry about preparing for Christmas. My daughter has offered to cook the meal in her new house, and my son, Nick, and his partner, Lee, will be joining us, as well as my husband, Bill. I didn't even bother putting up a tree this year. Didn't really seem worth the bother, especially since I had thrown away my artificial tree from last year in the trash by mistake. Of course, that's par for the course. . . .

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The Things I Did To Survive






Terry Mulcahy



 
© Copyright 2023 by Terry Mulcahy


Photo by Eduardo Soares at Pexels.
Photo by Eduardo Soares at Pexels.

In 1973 I got arrested for losing control of a vehicle on Interstate-10 in Louisiana. The vehicle belonged to a carny who managed a big ride, but he owned a kiddie ride - a small metal setup that allowed some ponies to be hitched up and walk around in a circle. It was very popular with tiny fair goers. Before I get into that, I should explain how I ended up there, as I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. . . .

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Nice Day for a Ride


Fredrick Hudgin



 
© Copyright 2023 by Fredrick Hudgin



Photo by Javier Aguilera at Pexels.
Photo by Javier Aguilera at Pexels.

All right, get out of here! You’ve been moping and whining around the backyard all goddamned day. I know you wanna go for a ride. So GO!” My wife turned on her heel and stalked back into the house, slamming the screen door loudly for effect. Josh, Beethoven, and I looked at the door where she had disappeared, then down at the garden where we had hoed, tilled, and planted since breakfast. I looked up at the sky to see where the sun was—still a couple, three hours till dark. A slow smile spread across my face—a ride! . . .

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Rescue From Machu Picchu



Elliot Wilner





 
© Copyright 2022 by Elliot Wilner


Image by Elias from Pixabay
Image by Elias from Pixabay 

In late January of 2010, while on an escorted tour in Peru, my wife and I and twenty-six other members of our tour group became marooned near Machu Picchu due to flooding from the Urubamba River. More than three thousand other tourists became marooned with us. . . .

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South Valley Sweat






Terry Mulcahy



 
© Copyright 2023 by Terry Mulcahy


Photo courtesy of the author.
Terry working on Mark's house in 1983.  Photo courtesy of the author.

It started out as a hole in the ground - a mud pit. Mark used it to mix mud for his adobes. It was about two feet deep and five feet across. Next to it was a pile of lumber scraps. For nearly two years, Mark had been building his house, mostly on weekends, and now was the final push to finish it. . . .

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Pages From A Political Activist's Diary





Karen Radford Treanor 

 

© Copyright 2023  by Karen Radford Treanor

Karen and Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia.  Photo by Douglas Sutherland-Bruce.
Karen and Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia.
 Photo by Douglas Sutherland-Bruce.

In the early days of this century (heavens to Murgatroyd, doesn’t that sound strange?) I worked for a state Member of Parliament in Western Australia. She was a progressive young woman who had knocked off the conservative incumbent against all odds, to the bookies’ delight. . . .

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Plutarch's Prejudice









Ezra Azra


.
 
© Copyright 2023 by Ezra Azra
 
Theda Bara as Cleopatra and Fritz Leiber as Caesar in the lost film Cleopatra (1917). Source, public domain at Wikimedia.
Theda Bara as Cleopatra and Fritz Leiber as Caesar
 in the lost film 
Cleopatra (1917)..Public  domain.
Plutarch (46 anno domini - 119 anno domini) was a Greek man who lived seventy-three years in the Roman Empire. He was, by every standard in his time and in ours here in the twenty-first century, a highly educated person. A highest formally educated person nowadays is not especially noteworthy because of the millions of others equally educated. . . .

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Best Time in our Ghetto








Ezra Azra


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© Copyright 2023 by Ezra Azra
 
Photo by Oxfam East Africa via Wikimedia Commons
Photo by Oxfam East Africa via Wikimedia Commons

Loud vocal sounds, day and night, were not unusual in our ghetto of Clairwood. At night, most of the time, we slept through them. When we paid attention to them, day and night, it was for the first few seconds in order to determine if the situation involved us. From an early age we became experts in those few seconds' determinations. If we assessed we were not involved, we could not care less; by the natural laws of self-preservation; water off a duck's back; Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

In the dim light of dawn on a day in the 1940s, for the first time ever, the loud shouts and screams were alerting everybody to an imminent danger. In our home, the first shared instinct was that it was a trap to lure us out of the home. . . .

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The Farm on the Red Hill








Ezra Azra


.
 
© Copyright 2023 by Ezra Azra
 
Photo by Petr Ganaj at Pexels
Photo by Petr Ganaj at Pexels

The farm on the red hill was a most dangerous thirty-acre place, and, paradoxically, because of the danger, it was farmed reasonably safely and profitably.

The farm was in a part of sub-tropical Africa where one of the natural and everlasting dangers forever is and will forever be, poisonous snakes. . . .

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When Fear Turned Into Fun








Ezra Azra


.
 
© Copyright 2023 by Ezra Azra
 
Photo by Radu Vladislav on Unsplash
Photo by Radu Vladislav on Unsplash

I was running for my life. My pursuer was almost twice my size, and so I was not about to stand and fight. Mind you, if he caught me, he would not have had it all his way. Both of us were Clairwood ghetto gang members. . . .

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Somewhere in Ukraine








Ezra Azra


.
 
© Copyright 2023 by Ezra Azra
 
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

On a farm in Ukraine, somewhere between the Carpathian Mountains and the borders with Slovenia and Hungary, along the Dnister River. The time was about three o'clock in the morning. It was raining. . . .

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A Quaker Summer

Reminiscences of  Gini Waters



Gini Waters 

 

© Copyright 2023  by Karen Radford Treanor

Photo furnished by Karen Treanor.
Photo of Barbara, Virginia (Gini),and Florence Bullock--furnished by Karen Treanor

I was clearing out old computer files and ran across the attached short, short story which I thought might interest you.  I found the picture, which dates from the same era and location in a box of Mother’s things.  The writer—my mother-- died in 2008, aged 92.  (She’s the fishergirl in the middle of the photo.) . . .

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George Orwell, 1903 - 1950








Ezra Azra


.
 
© Copyright 2023 by Ezra Azra
 
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The famous English novelist, George Orwell, was the pseudonym used by Eric Arthur Blair.

Eric Arthur Blair was born in India in 1903. India was a country in the British Empire. His Father's name was Richard;
his Mother's, Ida. . . .

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How Does One Properly Inter A Coon?

Or, Tail of a Coon





Pat Mann


 
© Copyright 2023 by Pat Mann

 

Photo by Tim Umphreys on Unsplash
Photo by Tim Umphreys on Unsplash

I received this email yesterday from a coffee buddy that moved from sunny Florida back to Indiana with a peculiar request.

Pat,

Had a funeral today for a coon. I forgot, "do you bury them with their tail up or down?" . . .

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Sugar Babies






Terry Mulcahy



 
© Copyright 2022 by Terry Mulcahy


Photo courtesy of Atahan Demir at Pixels.
Photo courtesy of Atahan Demir at Pixels.


Frequently, hurricanes and tropical storms passed near Baltimore City where I grew up. There would be high winds, sometimes hitting 100 miles an hour along the Maryland coast. One such hurricane passed by in 1960 causing severe flooding. It was just before my parents moved from our house in downtown Baltimore to a location a bit higher in elevation. There was heavy rain in Baltimore, but we had our yellow raincoats and black galoshes - those rubber boots that buckled up from the toes halfway up our calves. . . .

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The Dutiful Nevada Wife

She Drove Him to the ER





Henry Lansing Woodward


 
© Copyright 2023 by Henry Lansing Woodward

Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash
Photo by Mikhail Nilov at Pexels.

We had just discharged our last patient, the man with the shotgun wound, and were still parked in the ambulance parking area in front of the double doors leading into the emergency room.  After each transport (not all dispatches result in a patient or a transport of a patient), there is always some cleaning and restocking.  The four things always needing to be done, besides re-stocking, were to wipe down the gurney, change the linens, wipe all surfaces and mop the floor.  Always. . . .

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The Elevator Game

The Story of Two Brothers at University





Henry Lansing Woodward


 
© Copyright 2023 by Henry Lansing Woodward

Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash
Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash 

It was a little past midnight when the alarm went off.  The call was at Juniper Hall on the campus of the University of Nevada in Reno.  We responded CODE THREE lights and sirens, and because we were close to the University, we arrived at the scene about four minutes after receiving the dispatch. . . .

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Ocean City Took My Breath Away






Terry Mulcahy



 
© Copyright 2022 by Terry Mulcahy


That's a photo of myself and my brother at a much younger age than the event in the story.
Photo courtesy of the author.


Stopped breathing. Just like that. The ocean had been cold. Much colder than I'd expected from a warm Spring day. It was early in the beach season. The winter had been harsh. Cold currents still flowed past the shore where my parents had dragged all of us kids. . . .

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Dead Dogs




Sam DeLeo



 
© Copyright 2021 by Sam DeLeo




Image by Jana from Pixabay
Image by Jana from Pixabay

When I was young, my first stepfather returned from a trip to the countryside with bad news. He was driving down a dirt road when our Siberian Husky jumped out of our GMC Jimmy and died under its wheels. He never learned what made the dog jump. . . .

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