Day: October 23, 2018

Then and Now

Fandango16 Comments

412F9E90-E2F3-4D30-B76B-51D5F35F603BThis may surprise you, but back in the day (in the late 60s and early 70s), I was a hippie. I had long hair, wore tie-died shirts, bell-bottom jeans, and sandals. I was proud to let my freak flag fly. Some of my friends said that I looked like a hippie Jesus. I’m not making that up!

But while I was a hippie, I was not a flower child-like pacifist hippie. I was a political activist. After all, this was at the height of the Vietnam war, and our country was almost as divided back then as it is today. Almost.

I participated in a lot of public protests and marches against the war. I also protested against specter of the re-election of Richard Nixon and campaigned for the peace candidate, George McGovern. To no avail, as Nixon won in a landslide.

The good news for our country is that, in a rare display of political partnership, Republicans and Democrats came together and Nixon was forced to resign the presidency.

Wouldn’t it be enchanting if something like that would happen today? As unlikely as it is, that would totally reinforce that the American Democracy is alive and well.

Written for the following one-word prompt: Ragtag Daily Prompt (flag), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (public), Word of the Day Challenge (specter), Your Daily Word Prompt (enchant), and Daily Addictions (reinforce).

Photo Challenge — The World in the Palm of Your Hand

Fandango4 Comments

761611FB-1885-4170-9F54-AA25893563F9“I’ve never seen anything like this,” the waitress said. “This is remarkable.”

At 22, Darlene was at a crossroad in her young life. She had just graduated from college with a philosophy degree, but had so far been unable to get a job. Her parents had paid for undergraduate school, but told her that, going forward, she was on her own. So now she had to figure out what to do next.

And so Darlene entered the Psychic Café. She heard that all of the servers were fortune tellers who could, if you wanted them to, interpret your tea leaves, read your palm, or even sit at the table across from you with a crystal ball. So why not give it a shot? What did she have to lose?

“What do you mean that you’ve never seen anything like this?” Darlene asked.

Sitting across the table from Darlene, the waitress reached over and grabbed Darlene’s hand. She asked Darlene to open her fist and said, “Darlene, you have the world in the palm of your hand. I know you’re grappling with what to do next in your life, but it doesn’t matter. You will live a charmed life and become an extremely accomplished woman. I see in your palm that you will move heaven and Earth in an amazing way. You are virtually limitless.”

“Really?” Darlene said. “You see all that in my palm? That is remarkable. Oh my God, I can’t thank you enough. You have given me the confidence to keep going. How can I ever repay you?”

The waitress wrote something on her order pad, ripped off the top sheet, folded in in half, and handed it to Darlene before leaving the table.

Darlene opened the check and gasped. It read

  • Cup of Coffee…………………………$3.00
  • Psychic Palm Reading…………..$50.00

Written for this week’s Photo Challenge from Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie. Photo credit: Art Universe @ Instagram.

FFfAW — Something Fishy

Fandango16 Comments

C1DA0867-0D87-4865-B450-45E64CE722C6“Let’s play hide and seek,” Goldie the goldfish said to her fellow aquarium-mate, Tex, a Texas cichlid.

“Cool,” Tex said. “Shall I ask Angie, the Angelfish, if she’d like to join us?”

“No, she’s too delicate. She never wants to play games with us,” Goldie responded. “I think she thinks she’s too delicate. But how about Bozo?”

“Great idea, Goldie,” Tex exclaimed. “That clownfish is always fun to have around.”

“And Peter?” Goldie asked.

“Peter? Are you kidding me?” tex said. “That guy sucks.”

“Well,” Goldie said, that is his job. He is a suckermouth catfish, you know.”

“Okay, so just you, me, and Bozo, then,” Tex said.

“You and Bozo go swim off and hide,” Goldie said. “I’ll count to ten and then go find you.”

After a minute, Tex got tired of waiting, left his hiding place, and swam to the middle of the tank, where he saw Goldie. “Why aren’t you playing?”

“Playing what?” Goldie asked.

“Hide and seek.”

“I forgot,” she said. “You know I have the memory of a goldfish.”

(175 words)

Written for Priceless Joy’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Photo credit: Jodi McKinney.

Twittering Tales — Never Should’ve Moved Here

Fandango18 Comments

FF98788B-A6B4-4866-884E-A1D3F2E32CD0“I knew we never should’ve moved from Idaho to Oregon,” Clyde said.

“We talked about this before I accepted the job,” Sue said. “You said you were okay moving here and being a househusband.”

“It’s not that.”

“What is it, then?”

“It’s all these damn liberal tree huggers around here.”

(279 characters)

Written for this week’s Twittering Tales prompt from Kat Myrman. Photo credit: simonwijers.

FOWC with Fandango — Public

Fandango39 Comments

FOWCWelcome to October 23, 2018 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “public.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.