Life in the fast lane--where's the on ramp?

By Pat_B - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Journal

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Story Poem

Santa Claus A wild Appaloosa stallion, sleek spotted wall of horseflesh grey as fog, is rudely roped and hauled from his free range in the Horse Heaven Hills, torn from his mares and rivals, tightly tied in a ramshackle stall next to a makeshift wire corral. God knows how far he is from home. He... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:43 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, June 18, 2017

GOOD MONEY?

1953 My first job out of high school was at the phone company’s accounting office in Seattle. Ma Bell paid a dime over minimum wage: $1.05 per hour. In those days waitresses made $.65 cents an hour plus one meal per shift. It was up to her to earn tips to bring her pay to minimum or more. Some did... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:47 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Wrong Ocular Tom - a Salkum story

Wrong Ocular Tom Betty Fischer lived about three doors up the street from Talbott’s General Store and Post office. Betty’s husband Joe was an over-the-road trucker, out of town sometimes for a couple weeks at a time. There’s only so much time a woman can devote to dust bunnies and furniture wax, and... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:33 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, June 16, 2017

ROUND TABLE RESPITE

I had looked forward to Thursday’s write as an escape from political blather. Our topics for the day were light, memories of the playground, funny bits from school, etc. But… Since the topic was on all our minds, we got into a round table discussion of Wednesday’s news, all day breaking story and... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:33 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, June 15, 2017

SELL ME A STORY…

There’s a commercial I cannot stand to listen to. Any time it comes on I either change the channel or hit the ‘mute’ button. It’s the background music that makes my temper flare: a slow and somber version of “Tomorrow.” As in, “The sun’ll come out tomorrow…. Tomorrow… it’s only a day awaaay.” The... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:19 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Situation critical.

This morning a guy from this southern Illinois neck of the woods took an AK-47 style assault rifle and began shooting at a bunch of guys at a baseball practice in Alexandria Virginia, a bucolic suburb of Washington, D.C. It just so happened these ball players were republican congressmen preparing... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 10:56 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

But, was it appropriate?

Last week I posted the first chapter of “My Disco Ball is Broken” here on Blogit, a pathetic bid for feedback. In years past I’ve posted pages from longer works bits of dialog, plot ideas, character studies here. And your comments have always given me answers to my writerly questions. What works?... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:04 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, June 12, 2017

Why Teach The Arts in Public Schools?

Remember this? “Joy to the world, All the boys and girls, Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me!” It was Three Dog Night, singing the song by Hoyt Axton. My friend Bob, a keyboardist who sings, had a gig Saturday night at the Alton Museum of History and Art’s celebration of Miles... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:18 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, June 11, 2017

A LINK TO THE BBC

“Can writing about pain and secret feelings really help boost your body’s immune system? BBC Future investigates.” http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170601 One of the writers in the Write Your Own Story group at the Main Street Center posted this BBC link on Facebook. It seems the kind of... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:15 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Trust ‘em at Your Peril

There’d been no secrets inside the walls of our little house, Mama told us how bad it was: no money, no help, no one we could trust or count on. Sometimes the truth came out when we asked for something: to join the scouts, a bicycle, music lessons. Mother could lash out under stress, she was a... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 7:05 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

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Sometimes you have to write it down in order to learn what you really think about life, what it means, how to do what's best. Sometimes you need feedback from someone else to put things in perspective.

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