Writing Inspiration
I had a teacher in elementary school possibly 5th grade who told me I should be a writer--I had written a poem about where oil comes from--and she thought it was good and inspired me to write----
In the 10th grade I got 2nd place in an essay contest-"What America means to me" and I wrote a fiction story and was encouraged to write by an english teacher.
I also like art---but my parents told me--artist and writers starve to death--and I should forget that--
In 1992-I wrote some non fiction stories--and sent them to various publishers to say I had done it--and I actually received the famous rejection letters although some were encouraging sounding--and it was exciting to get the letters--they said---good story--not done in a new way--or a different way--
I stopped sending the samples of my work and forgot about it--and then one day a letter of acceptance came for one of my stories--and it was published in a small N.E magazine--and I was actually paid---3 free copies of the mag--and later my Florida home town published one of my works in the city paper---so as minor as it was --I was published. on the first attempt---I mainly write for the family history--have two or three novels n mind--perhaps I will start one here on the blog The Codger
Saturday, May 2, 2009
First Times Happen Once LOL!!!
The First Time
The First Time
The first time I was kissed by a girl was on the playground in elementary school-she did a kiss and run--I told my buds, dumb girl but said it with a smile on my face.
The first time I kissed a girl was when I was 14--I was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol and we had a hayride--and my date was a wonderful girl named Joan, slim and shy and very sweet--we made out in the hay and it was so nice,her lips were like sugar and the feeling was something I had never felt before.
My first date was when I was 13, a girl scout dance--my best friend Nancy was the scout and her mother called my mother and ask if I could es-court their daughter to the dance--It was so exciting but also scary cause I could not dance---Nancy was my best friend and to this day my oldest friend--I have known her since 2nd grade---and she will be a future story--called The Black Haired Girl----Nancy spent the 6 weeks leading up to the dance--teaching me how to dance--and we also practiced me coming to the door and greeting her parents and me pulling her chair at the table and me opening the door to the car to let her in and having small talk etc.--preparation, preparation preparation---The end result was----We Won the Jitterbug Contest, The Stroll contest and got second in the Continental and after that I started looking at my best friend and fishing buddy in a different way
but we moved after that --from Maryland to Florida and I lost track of my best friend for the next 43 years--until I found her a few years ago--I got to tell her what her friendship had meant to me and we are now in communication again, me and my Little Black haired girl.
There were a lot of first times and most are very memorable--The first time driving,flying,making love-and the first funeral and memorial service,the first time being dumped,speaking to an audience--etc---many evoke strong feelings --felt for the first time.
This my first time Blogging and I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts and reading yalls. The Codge
The First Time
The first time I was kissed by a girl was on the playground in elementary school-she did a kiss and run--I told my buds, dumb girl but said it with a smile on my face.
The first time I kissed a girl was when I was 14--I was a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol and we had a hayride--and my date was a wonderful girl named Joan, slim and shy and very sweet--we made out in the hay and it was so nice,her lips were like sugar and the feeling was something I had never felt before.
My first date was when I was 13, a girl scout dance--my best friend Nancy was the scout and her mother called my mother and ask if I could es-court their daughter to the dance--It was so exciting but also scary cause I could not dance---Nancy was my best friend and to this day my oldest friend--I have known her since 2nd grade---and she will be a future story--called The Black Haired Girl----Nancy spent the 6 weeks leading up to the dance--teaching me how to dance--and we also practiced me coming to the door and greeting her parents and me pulling her chair at the table and me opening the door to the car to let her in and having small talk etc.--preparation, preparation preparation---The end result was----We Won the Jitterbug Contest, The Stroll contest and got second in the Continental and after that I started looking at my best friend and fishing buddy in a different way
but we moved after that --from Maryland to Florida and I lost track of my best friend for the next 43 years--until I found her a few years ago--I got to tell her what her friendship had meant to me and we are now in communication again, me and my Little Black haired girl.
There were a lot of first times and most are very memorable--The first time driving,flying,making love-and the first funeral and memorial service,the first time being dumped,speaking to an audience--etc---many evoke strong feelings --felt for the first time.
This my first time Blogging and I have enjoyed sharing my thoughts and reading yalls. The Codge
Do Nice Guys Finish Last?
Goody Two Shoes
I basically grew up a goody two shoes, with very strict parents--so when I got in trouble in 2nd grade for pulling a girls hair and daydreaming--you would have thought it was the end of the world--the girl hit me with a book first---and day dream I did--my mind a million miles away--I was in the worse reading group and the worst writing group--and had to go to special classes cause I could not pronounce my SSS'S-properly--and as often as I type words backwards probably had dislexia all these years as well.The spin I put on it is--if I am dislectic and still passed maybe I was really almost a genius.
I bring up all this cause I was so good--I didn't want to disappoint my parents--I was actually petrified to fail--The failing started early--I had to take a test to see if I could go into first grade at age 6--because of the way my birthday fell--well they put me in a setting with other kids and because I wouldn't play house with the girls--and preferred to draw airplanes by myself--they told my parents I didn't mix well and would have to wait till I was 7 to start 1st grade--I still remember the hurtful thing my dad said about it--he said"Gloria,that boy is not going to amount to a hill of beans"--He was darn near right--but at least my boys have because I didn't make such statements about them-just stressed you can be anything you want to be--and they are all doing fantastic---more later Codger
I basically grew up a goody two shoes, with very strict parents--so when I got in trouble in 2nd grade for pulling a girls hair and daydreaming--you would have thought it was the end of the world--the girl hit me with a book first---and day dream I did--my mind a million miles away--I was in the worse reading group and the worst writing group--and had to go to special classes cause I could not pronounce my SSS'S-properly--and as often as I type words backwards probably had dislexia all these years as well.The spin I put on it is--if I am dislectic and still passed maybe I was really almost a genius.
I bring up all this cause I was so good--I didn't want to disappoint my parents--I was actually petrified to fail--The failing started early--I had to take a test to see if I could go into first grade at age 6--because of the way my birthday fell--well they put me in a setting with other kids and because I wouldn't play house with the girls--and preferred to draw airplanes by myself--they told my parents I didn't mix well and would have to wait till I was 7 to start 1st grade--I still remember the hurtful thing my dad said about it--he said"Gloria,that boy is not going to amount to a hill of beans"--He was darn near right--but at least my boys have because I didn't make such statements about them-just stressed you can be anything you want to be--and they are all doing fantastic---more later Codger
Hey Ghost!! Give Me a Hand
A Small Freaky Experience
I just have a few minutes and thought I would relate a strange experience I had as a child.
I was about6/7 years old and went over to visit my first cousin--it was their practice to take an afternoon nap--the kids that is---wasn't my practice but whatever the adult said-you know---so off to the room I went.
It was a nice room--four poster bed--no canopy--and there was a piano in the room--the door was shut--plenty of light came in from the window and I was lying on my side sort of staring at the piano which was in my field of vision---when all of a sudden a hand appeared--palm out just above the left back edge of the piano--and the hand moved from left to right--from one end of the piano to the other--it was a large hand--not a childs--a mans hand--when it got to the end it was gone--I didn't cry out--but have never forgotten it--some 54 years later. That's it------The Codge
I just have a few minutes and thought I would relate a strange experience I had as a child.
I was about6/7 years old and went over to visit my first cousin--it was their practice to take an afternoon nap--the kids that is---wasn't my practice but whatever the adult said-you know---so off to the room I went.
It was a nice room--four poster bed--no canopy--and there was a piano in the room--the door was shut--plenty of light came in from the window and I was lying on my side sort of staring at the piano which was in my field of vision---when all of a sudden a hand appeared--palm out just above the left back edge of the piano--and the hand moved from left to right--from one end of the piano to the other--it was a large hand--not a childs--a mans hand--when it got to the end it was gone--I didn't cry out--but have never forgotten it--some 54 years later. That's it------The Codge
When it Rains it Pours
Black Thursday
It was a pleasantly cool day in early May in Florida--the day held great possibilities-but first I had to mow the grass --I was getting the lawn mower out and could hear the melodic sounds of my brother Ron and my dad having a discussion on whether my brother could drive dads new car to school.
My brother had just gotten his license over the weekend and wanted to give his friends a ride to school--dad in his wisdom said no.
Dads new car was a Ford Falcon Squire Wagon--the one with the fake wood on the sides and a 289 Cu In- V-8. He had just gotten the car and didn't want to sacrifice it right away to the young and often adventuress younger son--I thought to myself--good choice dad.Dads car pool showed up and dad was off to work--and brother Ron was throwing a sales pitch on mom before the car pool was out of sight.Mom as usual buckled under the pressure and off to school went brother Ron and the Ford.---I started the mower and began to cut the front yard.The temperature dropped and it got a bit windy and I thought we were about to get an early morning shower-suddenly a gust hit followed by a loud crashing sound------the new surfboard that dad had bought my brother came spiraling out of the rafters in the carport-and had hit the concrete breaking the surfboard in half---OH brother dad was gonna freak!!---About the same time the lawnmower quit and I went to get fuel and I filled it up spilling quite a bit on the top in the process. When I pulled the cord to start the mower --it caught on fire--I freaked thinking it was gonna burn up and grabbed the closest material to dump on the fire---SAND--which I dumped on the burning running lawnmower engine--yeah I got fire out--and the motor quit running and wouldn't restart-----OH we're just getting started here folks--almost on cue--mom came running out of the house hollering that Ron and his friends were in the emergency room--because they had been in an auto accident---there were no serious injuries---it seems my brother made a U-turn on a curve --and was hit broadside by a car doing 60 m.p.h--it bent the wagon into a U shape--lucky that kids were not killed--It seems my brother had forgotten one of his friends and was turning to go back and get him.
I had to drive 25 miles to pick dad up at work--Dad was relieved as we all were that none of them were seriously hurt--save scratches and sore muscles--then I told him about the surfboard and the lawnmower--
Dad and his ulcer decided to go to the coast and fish for a while on the Titusville Pier---he called and borrowed his cousins Ford wagon for the trip---On the way back from fishing dad met a car coming from the opposite direction--the car was flashing his lights off and on--dad slowed and then saw why the light flashing was happening---a huge cow was charging head on with dad in his lane---they hit instantly--the cow died and the wagon was destroyed and dad narrowly escaped injury as the cow nearly came through the windshield.
This all happened on what we now call Black Thursday in the family.
The final toll
2 slight injuries
2 totaled cars
a totaled surfboard
a ruined lawnmower
an agitated ulcer
and I think a new insurance company
and yet another remembrance from the 1960's
Eric the Codger
It was a pleasantly cool day in early May in Florida--the day held great possibilities-but first I had to mow the grass --I was getting the lawn mower out and could hear the melodic sounds of my brother Ron and my dad having a discussion on whether my brother could drive dads new car to school.
My brother had just gotten his license over the weekend and wanted to give his friends a ride to school--dad in his wisdom said no.
Dads new car was a Ford Falcon Squire Wagon--the one with the fake wood on the sides and a 289 Cu In- V-8. He had just gotten the car and didn't want to sacrifice it right away to the young and often adventuress younger son--I thought to myself--good choice dad.Dads car pool showed up and dad was off to work--and brother Ron was throwing a sales pitch on mom before the car pool was out of sight.Mom as usual buckled under the pressure and off to school went brother Ron and the Ford.---I started the mower and began to cut the front yard.The temperature dropped and it got a bit windy and I thought we were about to get an early morning shower-suddenly a gust hit followed by a loud crashing sound------the new surfboard that dad had bought my brother came spiraling out of the rafters in the carport-and had hit the concrete breaking the surfboard in half---OH brother dad was gonna freak!!---About the same time the lawnmower quit and I went to get fuel and I filled it up spilling quite a bit on the top in the process. When I pulled the cord to start the mower --it caught on fire--I freaked thinking it was gonna burn up and grabbed the closest material to dump on the fire---SAND--which I dumped on the burning running lawnmower engine--yeah I got fire out--and the motor quit running and wouldn't restart-----OH we're just getting started here folks--almost on cue--mom came running out of the house hollering that Ron and his friends were in the emergency room--because they had been in an auto accident---there were no serious injuries---it seems my brother made a U-turn on a curve --and was hit broadside by a car doing 60 m.p.h--it bent the wagon into a U shape--lucky that kids were not killed--It seems my brother had forgotten one of his friends and was turning to go back and get him.
I had to drive 25 miles to pick dad up at work--Dad was relieved as we all were that none of them were seriously hurt--save scratches and sore muscles--then I told him about the surfboard and the lawnmower--
Dad and his ulcer decided to go to the coast and fish for a while on the Titusville Pier---he called and borrowed his cousins Ford wagon for the trip---On the way back from fishing dad met a car coming from the opposite direction--the car was flashing his lights off and on--dad slowed and then saw why the light flashing was happening---a huge cow was charging head on with dad in his lane---they hit instantly--the cow died and the wagon was destroyed and dad narrowly escaped injury as the cow nearly came through the windshield.
This all happened on what we now call Black Thursday in the family.
The final toll
2 slight injuries
2 totaled cars
a totaled surfboard
a ruined lawnmower
an agitated ulcer
and I think a new insurance company
and yet another remembrance from the 1960's
Eric the Codger
Caught Naked
My Most Embarrasing Moment--
In the 11th grade--our gym finally got modern and got a washer and dryer--and bingo we had nice clean towels--We came in off the field and showered and the coach hollered at me to go get the towels from the back--yes I was as I came into the world--naked as a Jay Bird--when I ran to the back office--as soon as I entered the room where the towels were the door between gyms opened and in came one of the girls to get their towels--she was dressed I wasn't--I did a fast about face and hauled butt--which she also got a look at-
When we changed classes we had to walk by the bleachers and all the girls gym class was sitting there--and of course word had spread and all these girls started snickering and laughing-when I walked by--and untill the day I graduated I heard the little jokes and teasing. The Codge
In the 11th grade--our gym finally got modern and got a washer and dryer--and bingo we had nice clean towels--We came in off the field and showered and the coach hollered at me to go get the towels from the back--yes I was as I came into the world--naked as a Jay Bird--when I ran to the back office--as soon as I entered the room where the towels were the door between gyms opened and in came one of the girls to get their towels--she was dressed I wasn't--I did a fast about face and hauled butt--which she also got a look at-
When we changed classes we had to walk by the bleachers and all the girls gym class was sitting there--and of course word had spread and all these girls started snickering and laughing-when I walked by--and untill the day I graduated I heard the little jokes and teasing. The Codge
My First Wheels
1 grain of sand one infinite beach
Wednesday February 15, 2006
The Bicycle
There was an incinerator across from our apartments--when I was a kid and one day I looked over and there was a burned up bicycle on top of the hill--tires burned off-seat burned off and fenders.
I didn't have a bicycle so I went over there-picked it up and straddled it-stood up on the metal things that used to have peddles and down the hill I went on that charred wreck of a bike--I crashed at the bottom but didn't care--wow was that fun--unbeknownst to me my dad had gotten home and was looking out the window at me--riding that burned up bicycle--and told mom--we gotta buy that boy a bike.
They went to Sears and came home with a beautiful red and white bicycle--a 26 incher----I was thrilled to death but I couldn't reach the peddles-they traded for a 24 incher-it had red and white tassles from the red handal bars--a beautiful bike--and to me it was like a fancy sportscar--and gave me the ability to travel---my dad and mom were so good to me---I had that wonderful bike till I was 16 years old-in Florida--and dad bought me another--an English racer--and after that a Lambretta 250 delux scooter-that would do 70 m.p.h-and after that a car he paid 35.00 for which I helped him rebuild and drove till I joined the Navy. Dad knew the importance of transportation to a young boy--I love and miss yall----Eric
Wednesday February 15, 2006
The Bicycle
There was an incinerator across from our apartments--when I was a kid and one day I looked over and there was a burned up bicycle on top of the hill--tires burned off-seat burned off and fenders.
I didn't have a bicycle so I went over there-picked it up and straddled it-stood up on the metal things that used to have peddles and down the hill I went on that charred wreck of a bike--I crashed at the bottom but didn't care--wow was that fun--unbeknownst to me my dad had gotten home and was looking out the window at me--riding that burned up bicycle--and told mom--we gotta buy that boy a bike.
They went to Sears and came home with a beautiful red and white bicycle--a 26 incher----I was thrilled to death but I couldn't reach the peddles-they traded for a 24 incher-it had red and white tassles from the red handal bars--a beautiful bike--and to me it was like a fancy sportscar--and gave me the ability to travel---my dad and mom were so good to me---I had that wonderful bike till I was 16 years old-in Florida--and dad bought me another--an English racer--and after that a Lambretta 250 delux scooter-that would do 70 m.p.h-and after that a car he paid 35.00 for which I helped him rebuild and drove till I joined the Navy. Dad knew the importance of transportation to a young boy--I love and miss yall----Eric
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