Upside Downside

 

 

If there is an upside to downsizing, it is finding little treasures that you had long since forgotten you had. Thus, rummaging through a box of memories one day, I found a tiny book that had completely slipped my mind. (Not a hard thing to do nowadays!). Its has generated many laughs and much conversation.

Insults and Comebacks somehow made it into my box of cards from grandchildren and embroidered hankies from my grandmother. Don’s ask me why. I picked it up, gingerly opened the first page and didn’t stop laughing until I got to the end of the book. I normally do not like insults, and I really don’t like saying nasty things to people, but this was in the anonymity of my home and with no one personal in mind, so I figured it wasn’t hurting anyone.

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Is This Your Lemon Pie????

Let me take you back a few years.

My friend, Sandy, could bake up a storm. She could look at a recipe and know immediately that she could make an award winning copy of whatever confection she had just read about. She was young and knew that there was nothing culinary she couldn’t accomplish.

Once again…..Heeeeere’s Willie!!!!

A few months ago I introduced you to my beagle, Willie. He’s a rambunctious creature, stubborn and sweet—sugar and spice as they used to say. He, like most of us, has his faults, but we chalk them up to personality disorder (probably a result of feeding him table food) and move on.

To Be Continued …Part 3

(Here is part 3 — written by Susan Korich. Stick around for part 4!)

Perched on the stool behind the cash register, my eyes still wide with incredulity and my mouth following along with its own version of can-you-catch-flies, it took me moment to notice a man standing at the edge of my counter, clearing his throat.

“Ah-hem, excuse me, ah-hem, um, Miss?”

Hopping off my stool, I closed my mouth, and pasted on my most professional smile and look of laser concentration. It would be bad for business for word to get around that I ignored customers and hung around staring after others.

What Bartlett Says…..

 

When I was young—a long looong time ago— my Mother relied on two books to raise my sister and me. The famous Dr. Spock Baby and Childcare book about raising perfect children was not one of them. Her choices were her Bible (of course) and her Bartlett’s. As in Bartlett’s Famous Quotations.

Words! Words! Words!

My growing up years in North Dakota were idyllic in the sense that our parents more or less left my sister and me on our own. It was the time in history when kids played outside from dawn to dusk without interference from adults. A quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich at noon and we were good to go for the rest of the day. We were sent into the world with certain instructions however. “Wear shoes!” “Stay away from the river.” “Don’t chase strange dogs.” “Leave your sister alone.” “Be home by dark.”

Two and Counting…

 

Two years ago, as I pressed the “publish” button and sent my first Paddlecreek article into cyberspace, my hands were shaking. It’s scary to put your thoughts out in public. Well, some things never change, as my heart will beat a little faster when I push the “publish” button for this column these many months later. It’s an overwhelming and heady feeling to think we can communicate with like minded people that we haven’t met…yet. Happy Anniversary to us!!!!

All Things Wackadoodle

While typing a blog post after the word association half-awake thing on May 10th, I noticed that the word wackadoodle did not highlight in red. Huh. I dreamed a real word. Sure enough, the Oxford Dictionary definition is “NOUN 1. An eccentric or fanatical person: “an alarming number of wackdoodles predict the world will indeed end “ADJECTIVE 1. eccentric or fanatical: he had given credence to a lot of wackadoodle beliefs”.” Did you catch that deja vu moment in the noun definition in reference to the first in this series of blog posts. Today is May 11th and here we are. Did you notice the world did not end?

Hail and Farewell

HAIL AND FAREWELL

     Did I tell you that my friend is moving? Not just a down the street and over two blocks move. It’s a pack-the-china-carefully, hit the highway, and drive across the country move. And I am not happy. In all truth, of course, it isn’t about me. It’s about my friend and the enormity of what lies ahead for her. But in the nitty-gritty of life, it is about me, because I am going to be left behind to miss her.

Courage—More Than A Seven Letter Word

If you’ve stopped by Paddlecreek before, you know it is the collaboration of four writers. Four very different people who have grown close as they have struggled with the in’s and out’s of this thing we love and, at times, don’t love—writing.

We started out over ten years ago. Over coffee, we  compared styles, asked questions, laughed (alot), and put hundreds of words down on paper. We wrote a “Prompt” each time we got together (back then, we were the Bowler Road Writers) and read it OUT LOUD. That took courage, because writing as fast as we could for 30 minutes and then sharing our thoughts with each other wasn’t always pretty.