Day: October 14, 2021

Throwback Thursday — Collectables

Fandango8 Comments

There’s a new prompt in town. It’s being run by Maggie, at From Cave Walls and by Lauren at LSS Attitude of Gratitude. The two will alternate hosting and the idea of the prompt is for them to give us a topic and for us to write a post in which we share our own memories or experiences about the given topic. This week, Lauren chose the topic of “collections,” and she wants to know…

Did you start collecting things as a young child?

When I was a lad, I used to collect superhero comic books, baseball cards, along with my two favorite humor magazines, MAD and National Lampoon.

The comic books, mostly superhero-type comics from DC Comics and Marvel, cost ten cents each back then. MAD and National Lampoon were a quarter each. The packs of baseball cards, sold by Topps and Fleet, cost a nickel each and included seven baseball cards and a flat, square piece of pink bubblegum.

Each month when the new editions were published, I would ride my bike to the comic book store/newsstand in town, where I’d buy five comic books and two packages of baseball cards. I’d ride my bike back home and take the wrappers off of the packages of baseball cards and sort them out. And after reading the comic books, I’d stack them in piles based upon the characters.

I continued to buy baseball cards and comic books for years until I got distracted when I was about 17 by girls. But in the meantime, I had built up a significant collection of both comic books and baseball cards.

Where did you keep your treasures?

I kept the more recent issues in my bedroom and the older issues in the basement of my parents’ home, along with my cherished baseball cards.

Do you still have anything from your early collections?

Unfortunately, no. After high school I headed off to college for four years. When I returned home after graduating, I discovered that my vast — and priceless — collections of both comic books and baseball cards were missing.

I asked my father about them and he told me that he had thrown them away, explaining that he needed the space in the basement for some other purpose. “Besides,” he said, “that was kid stuff. You’re an adult now.”

Do you have collections now?

Nope. After the trauma of having my own father betray my trust by thoughtlessly tossing out my comic books and baseball cards collections, especially after knowing what they would have been worth today if I still had them, I gave up even attempting to collect anything else. Well, other than debt and dust.

Three Line Tales

Fandango12 Comments

I told him to build me a hobbit house, but he didn’t know what that was, so I gave him a copy of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” and said, “Here, read this.”

Six months later he called me and told me that my new house was complete and asked me to meet him there, where he asked me what I thought of my hobbit house.

I took one look at it and asked him what kind of kind of acid trip he was on when he read the book.

Written for Sonya’s Three Line Tales prompt. Photo credit: Toa Heftiba via Unsplash.

MLMM Photo Challenge — Up On the Roof

Fandango12 Comments

“Don’t do it, don’t jump,” she pleaded.

Jeremy looked over his left shoulder to see a young woman with a concerned look on her face standing about ten feet behind him. “Wait, what?” he said. “I’ve no intention of jumping. I’m not suicidal or crazy, you know.” He turned his head back around and looked down at the street way below.

“Then what are you doing sitting precariously close to the edge of the ledge?” she asked. “Please turn around slowly and walk toward me.”

“What are you? A cop? A shrink?” Jeremy asked.

“No, I’m just someone who lives in this building and I don’t want to see you harm yourself,” she said. “My name is Diana. What’s yours?”

“I don’t care what your name is,” Jeremy said. “And my name is none of your goddam business. You don’t know me or why I’m up here, so stop trying to be a good samaritan or whatever. Just leave me the hell alone.”

“I like coming up here,” Diana said. “It’s like that old song by the Drifters says, ‘On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be / And there the world below can’t bother me.’ That’s how I feel when I come up here. And as they say in that song, when I’m up here on the roof I can get away form all that race noise down in the street. You know what I’m saying?”

Jeremy turned his head back and looked at the girl without saying anything for more than a minute. Then he swung his legs around, stood up, and walked toward Diana. Once he was standing in front of her, he reached his right hand out and said, “My name is Jeremy. Nice to meet you, Diana.”

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge. Photo credit: Caters.

FOWC with Fandango — Piano

Fandango20 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to October 14, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “piano.”

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. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

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