Category Archive:words

Life on the Farm

January 28th, 2013 / Categories: trifecta, words / 16 Comments »

“Grab me a case of wide-mouth Ball jars, Sissie. I gotta can up the ‘maters today ‘fore they all go ta mush.”

“Okay, Mama. Is there anythin’ else ya need from the Piggly Wiggly?”

“Don’t think so, girl. Just don’t forget them jars, now.”

Bess hung up the kitchen phone, sat at the table and sipped on her fast-cooling coffee. “Lawdie! It’s gonna be a scorcher! Think I’ll make up another jug of sweet tea. The menfolks are gonna be a-wanting somethin’ cool-like ‘round noon.”

Life on the family farm was far from easy. Bess had been up since 4, feeding the chickens and gathering eggs, slopping the hogs, and fetching kindling for the kitchen stove. The men, her husband and three sons, were out in the fields working the land for next spring’s planting. Sissie, the oldest child and only daughter, worked in town for the doctor and brought in the only regular paycheck.

“She’s a good girl, Sissie is,” muttered Bess as she bustled around the kitchen getting the canning supplies ready. “Sure is good of Doc Henry to hire her for his sec’tary.”

Sissie hung up the office phone and made herself a note to remember to stop by the store before heading home. Mama didn’t ask for much, and never anything for herself. “Wish life was easier on her,” she thought.

“Good morning, Doc Henry. Johnny Martin is in the waitin’ room with a bruised up ankle. Says he fell outta the apple tree getting his Mama enough fruit for a pie. And, Suse Mayhan has a croupy sounding cough. Who shall I bring in first?”

Out in the field Paps and the boys pushed the mule to walk the plow in straight lines. Billy and Mick, the babies, were 12 year old twins, but they worked ever’ bit as hard as their Paps and older brother, Zeke who was 17.

“All right, boys. Let’s finish this row and get on in the house to your Mama’s good cookin.”

“Get up, Sal!”

Universal Pops / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

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Trifecta’s editors asked for 33-333 words using MOUTH in its third definition:

3: something that resembles a mouth especially in affording entrance or exit: as
a : the place where a stream enters a larger body of water
b : the surface opening of an underground cavity
c : the opening of a container
d : an opening in the side of an organ flue pipe

these are my 333 . . . now you go write your own. And, do check out the other fantastic writers while you’re at it. It’s a great community.

Relationships with Snakes

January 21st, 2013 / Categories: I wanna go home!, Moose Nuggets, trifecta, words / 22 Comments »
Tattoo_Lover / Foter.com / CC BY

Theirs was a rocky relationship from the get-go: met in Little Rock; drove through the Rockies; settled in Castle Rock, S.D.

Castle Rock – a blip on the map: God-forsaken, dusty and hot; a 3-way stop; nearest neighbor miles away. Lord only knew why Lew wanted to be here with the snakes – the two-legged ones and the creepy-crawlies. The two-legged snakes rode HOGs. Lew fell right in with that bunch and Sandi was given a choice: like it – or not.

She was ogled and pawed at – and she hated it. More than once Sandi begged to visit her Mama back in No. Carolina.

“Mama needs me and I need Mama.”

He only laughed, grabbed at her, and looked around at the other bikers. “You’re MAH woman! You don’ need yo Mama, ya big baby. Now, go get me a beer and make it snappy.” He swatted her backside and waggled his eyebrows at his bros.

The biggest of the group growled, “You sure lettin’ the old lady smart mouth ya there. If it was my woman she’d be sportin’ a bloody lip ‘long about now.”

The others laughed and punched each other’s shoulders.

Sandi brought his beer, but stepped a little too close and he caught her up. “C’mere baby, and give me a li’l. You know you want it. That’s why you’re with me. Stop yer snivelin’ and show these guys what I get ever’ night.”

She trembled and tried to get away. “You’re hurtin’ me, Lew. Let me go. I want to go see my Mama.”

“Really? Is that what you want? Well, baby. Life’s a bitch and then you die. Now, get outta my sight. I’ll deal with you when I’m done here.”

A rocky relationship – that’s what they had from the get-go. It ended later that night when Sandi laid the biggest rock she could find upside Lew’s skull. She flagged down a trucker headed the right way and went back home. To her Mama.
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Shhhhh – the editors at Trifecta used a bad word . . . and then challenged us to write 33-333 words using the same word in its third definition. The above is my take on it. Where’s yours?

Granny and Paps

January 19th, 2013 / Categories: I wanna go home!, Velvet Verbosity, words / 4 Comments »

Granny smiled. “I love seein them younguns rip and tear along, Daddy.”

Granny always called Paps Daddy. He loved it.

“She’s the only one who can call me that,” he’d tell us.

We called him Paps.

The sparkle seemed to go right out of Granny the day we lost Paps. Then she began talking to him like he was still here. She’d whisper in that secret way they shared.

Before he was gone.

Secret things only she could hear. “Oh. I do love you, Daddy, I do.”

She rocked.

Smiled again.

There on the porch all alone.

Alone with Paps.


Photo credit: Universal Pops / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA
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Velvert Verbosity has not lost her sparkle . . . she’s been busy and going through some challenging times, but she still shines. Our challenge this week is SPARKLE.

Granny Adams

January 16th, 2013 / Categories: Moose Nuggets, trifecta, words / 7 Comments »


photo from amazon.com images

Granny Adams picked her way carefully through the market stalls. Tuesdays were her days to buy apples. She loved Braeburns and the produce manager had promised today was the day.

Tsking and shaking her head, Granny made sighing noises as she picked over the apples. “Too big. Too small. Too soft. Brown spots. Bruised. Johnny, don’t you have some good apples hidden away for Granny?”

Behind the fruit Johnny looked up and smiled at the old woman. “Granny, I got-ta just what-ta you need!” He pulled out a brown bag and carefully chose 5 beauties from behind the counter for the woman.

“Thank you, Johnny. These are perfect for my strudel. How’s Rosa today? Is she home with the children?”

Tears formed in the corners of Johnny’s eyes and he dabbed at them with the corner of his green apron. “Oh, Miss Granny, I don’t know what-a to do. Our boy, Johnny Jr. is such a disappointment to his-a Mama. He sits around all day doing a-nothing but a-playing on his eye-phone. He is so lazy and it-a breaks Mama’s heart.”

Granny looked up and patted Johnny’s broad shoulder. “I know, Johnny. My August was just such a boy. He was idle all through his early twenties. I told him he had to move on. He could not live with me and not help out like that. It broke my heart. He was such a good – little – boy.”

“Si, si, Miss Granny. Junior is such a boy. What-a can we do? What-a can we do?”

“I will pray, Johnny,” Granny told him. “I will pray your Rosa finds peace and that Junior finds his way.”

“You’re a good woman, Miss Granny. Here, you take-a these apples and you have a good day. No charge-a for you. I will see you next week.”

Granny Adams left carrying her apples and a new burden for her friend. “Kids these days,” she muttered. Their idle hands will be the death of us.”
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The Trifecta challenge this week is to write 33-333 words using IDLE in its third definition. These are my 333.

The winners this week will be chosen by “community” vote. I encourage you to read all the entries and then vote for your top three faves. I will be doing the same thing.
🙂

New Beginning

January 11th, 2013 / Categories: Moose Nuggets, trifecta, words / 19 Comments »

Trifecta’s Challenge for the weekend is 33 words on a new beginning. This is my take:
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Today was a new day. The sun shone warmer, brighter somehow.

He reached for her hand. She leaned into his arm. They walked from the building, smiling.

The doctors’s words rang . . .

Cancer free!

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