A Birth Certificate (Finally), Getting Lost and Great Conversation

      This weekend I went out of town to Crane, a small town in southern Missouri. My sister and I went to visit a friend--Orvilene--who is in her 80s.

     On the way, we picked up my original birth certificate. More than six months ago, I requested it. (The laws about adoptees have changed, and now if our birth parents and our parents are deceased, or if everyone gives permission, we can get our original birth certificate. In my case, everyone is long gone.) 

     I was interested in seeing if a father was listed. He was not. However, it brings me a bit of satisfaction to see my birth mother's signature, along with the address where she was living when she delivered me.

    While in Crane, we drove around and revisited the family cemetery where some of our biological relatives are buried, along with the school our maternal grandmother attended. It's still standing, but no one's spending the time or the money getting it restored. Now it's fenced off and the weeds are flourishing... We drove around for a few hours looking for the school and the cemetery. The people who know about those forlorn places are dying. The younger people have no clue where the old Carney cemetery or where the old Cedar Bluff school is. We stopped several times but each time, folks just scratched their heads and apologized for not being able to help.

    As we drove up and down the rolling hills (sometimes I felt like we were on a roller coaster) we talked about the gorgeous scenery, the changes in the county (Stone county), who's moved into what house and who had died.

   Great conversation in beautiful surroundings, surrounded by fun people... a wonderful weekend. 

An Unbelievable Movie, Snoring and Snorts and Back-of-the-Book Blurb # 93

       For a couple of weeks, a friend and I planned on seeing a movie on Friday evening. She left it up to me. "Pick a good one," she said.

       Well, the movie I chose has been out so long (unbeknownst to me), it was only showing at 1:00 in the afternoon. She suggested "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" even though she had already seen it. "It'll spark a conversation afterwards," she said. Did it ever.

       If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Frances McDormand does a phenomenal job. There's several twists. An open-ended ending. Some character growth that I'm going to contemplate for a while (because some of it makes me question something I've experienced).

        When we got to the theater, a few people ahead of us were told the 7:05 show was sold out. However, there was a 9:40 show.

        Yikes. Friday is my fall-apart night. I'm tired all week and usually by Friday, I fall apart and end up falling to sleep by 8 or so if I'm home and on the couch. We ended up going to dinner and having a long, leisurely meal. I warned my friend, "I'll probably fall asleep. Poke me hard if you see me start to nod."

       Well, she had to poke me at least once. I don't think I snored or snorted myself awake, but I didn't have the courage to ask. (She had already given me grief for my shoes. That night I wore Croc sandals, but I wore socks with them--not white socks. I didn't want to push things and get teased even more.)

           Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book. You choose the genre. Is it a coffee table book of fashion trends? Is it a photo collection of mentally-ill patients and their clothing choices? You decide.

        Write an enticing blurb--150 words or less. (The title doesn't count in the word count.) Blurbs are those enticing bits that prod you into buying the book. Sometimes they're on the back cover of the book. Sometimes they're on the inside front cover. What they always try to do is lure you into purchasing the book. 

          Lisa Ricard Claro was the original creator of this writing challenge. She moved to Florida, and is too busy to host a weekly book blurb. Currently, she's hired a manatee to record her romance books. Those slow-moving creatures enjoy audio books and they need love just like everybody else. Lisa's first romance novel (she has three more), Love Built to Last, just came out as an audio book. (The one for manatees is slated to come out this summer.) She even has a brand new book out called The Write Man. If you'd like to read my review of The Write Man, you read it here.  It's a great read (and that's saying a lot, since I don't read romance novels).

     

          Include your blurb in a blog post. Include a link to this post. Also, link your post to Mr. Linky. Mr. Linky is easy. If you've never done it, you'll be impressed with how simple he is. And then, check out the other blurb(s). It's interesting to see the different directions writers take, given the same photo.

           Here's the book cover, along with my blurb:

  Peace, Not Peas (146 words)      

         Ariel was only six. In first grade she was learning. She was figuring out how to add, how to share and get along with others.

        Which made her wonder... Ariel's family talked about what was going on in the United States. People arguing and yelling with each other. Calling people from other countries bad names. Why can't everybody shake hands and hug and decide to just respect each other? 

        Ariel hates peas. She shoves them with her spoon into her pocket so she can later dump them in the toilet and flush 'em down. They're disgusting.

        But peace? Peace is good thing. Peace is beautiful. 

        Ariel decides to right two wrongs at the same time. She made some signs. She's gone door-to-door. Now she's ready to take her campaign to the news stations, the newspapers... and the world.

    Make peas illegal.

Make being peaceful a law.   

And for Val and Pat and anyone else who wants to play along, here is the picture for next week:

The End of Freedom

        A post by Lisa Ricard Claro brought back a flood of childhood memories. She wrote of the crazy things that kids used to do (and surprisingly more of them weren't maimed or permanently scarred) compared to the overprotected kids of today.

      When I was a kid, the world was a different place. In the summer I ran the neighborhood all day. I crossed railroad tracks and explored creeks and rode on buses to a local outdoor mall where I waded in the fountains and imagined what furniture I would buy when I was grown up. I spent all day there when my friend and I went, and we spent no money except at lunch: a soupcon of French onion soup and a fountain coke. I played in my friends' backyard until the fireflies came, making clover necklaces and playing Red Rover.

     I also went to the pool--by myself. I got there when they opened and left in time so I could get home for dinner.

This is a picture of the Carrollton Pool before it was completely destroyed.
In fact, the whole community was destroyed for the airport expansion...which really never happened.






We went to the neighborhood IGA and when my brother and I were old enough, we were allowed to walk by ourselves (probably a 30-minute trip) to get a loaf of bread or something else that two kids couldn't mangle too badly.

This was our IGA store. There was a little "movie theater" --a tiny booth that sat two or four kids--at the front of the store. In the same strip mall was a Ben Franklin--a magnet for kids with a few nickels to spend on penny candy...



On Halloween this year we had exactly one family come to our door. Sad. I remember running to houses, my pillowcase in hand and when it got so full it slowed me down, I ran home, emptied it, and continued my quest for chocolate. (What were those things wrapped in the orange and the black paper? I always threw them away.)


My childhood home is gone. The whole neighborhood is now a deer park. With the houses gone, the driveways have disappeared and the large expanses of grass have attracted deer.

The craziest thing I did as a kid was wish for a broken arm or leg. The next summer, I ended up falling off the high diving board--I went under the guard rail somehow--and when most of me landed in the pool but part of me landed on the concrete, I ended up with a broken arm. It was not fun. (I ended up with a dozen plastic iced-tea spoons broken off in that cast as I tried to scratch the unreachable itch.)

What is the craziest thing you ever did as a kid?

Helping Out Joplin

         This is a lousy photo of a tree in Ferguson, Missouri, damaged by the tornado that struck St. Louis on Good Friday (also Earth Day). No lives were lost...

           Donna Volkenannt, on her blog, posted a heartwarming story about how her family helped out the tornado victims in Joplin. It was a one-day collection; I asked if she would let us know if she found out about other opportunities for those who want to make donations.

            Are my fingers broken?  Am I the Queen of Sheba?  Is Donna my lackey? 

             I think not...

            I quickly found that some of the St. Louis malls are collecting donations (for kids) until early next week.  Here is the link.

            For those who find other places, please feel free to add it as a comment.