Mine was boring tan and orange, not the pink I wanted. But it was still great. We all had record players, a stack of 45s and our transistor radios. Every night when we were supposed to be doing homework we were spinning the Beatles and Herman’s Hermits and twisting to the sounds of Wolfman Jack late into the night.

Simpler days then. No cell phones. No internet. Our days were filled with school, chores, and homework – the latter often done with a Teen Magazine or Tiger Beat in the center of the Geometry book.

I miss those carefree days sometimes.

written for Velvet Verbosity’s prompt TRANSISTOR.

Maya Angelou has gone on to her reward. While it saddens me to hear of her death, my life is richer for her effect on it.

To come from an abusive childhood – to come from years of no language – to then march and write and advocate for change and equality; imagine the strength that has to have taken.

Maya said, “if you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.”

Taking that to heart, I will sit in my yard with my grandchildren. We will gather clover and weave it into crowns. We will smile.

————————————–
The Velvet Verbosity 100 Word Challenge is CLOVER – from an 1884 speech by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Rhonda mopped sweat from her face. Finally! The packing was completed. They were ready to be evacuated. She and Rod had spent the last 20 hours choosing what must go and what they could lose should the fire invade their property.

All those years choosing carefully which knick-knack to bring back from vacations.

All those years of filling shelves with gee-gaws.

Honed down to 20 hours of decisions on what was really important.

In the end they crated memories: photos of those trips. They packed clothing and food and left the rest for whatever might happen. They saved themselves first.

——————————————-

The Purplemoose clan is not in danger – but many of our friends are. The Kenai Peninsula is under attack from a huge woodland fire. Latest assessment shows approximately 96,000 acres burned or burning. Residents in an endangered area were evacuated last night – only to be allowed to return in a very short time. Wind and Fire are fickle friends. Kenai (our home) is inundated with thick, acrid smoke. People with allergies and other lung problems are encouraged to stay indoors with little activity outdoors. Pray for rain, friends. Pray for safety of the firefighters. Thank you

the above is my entry for Velvet Verbosity’s challenge: COLLECTION

Sue stretched in a modified yoga pose. At least she thought it was a yoga pose. “More like a cat than a Yogini,” she thought. Rich, languorous stretch. Relaxed, loving life stretch. “I don’t want to go to work” stretch.

Work these days was stress-inducing and tiresome. There were more bad than good days and Sue found it tougher every day to beard the dragon, take the bull by the horns, and muscle through.

That is what brought her to yoga class. Sue saluted the sun and addressed the downward dog faithfully. The lithe, agile instructor didn’t hurt, either. Namaste.

flyzipper / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

———————–
written for Velvet Verbosity’s 100 word challenge: BEARD.