This Week's Very Short Story: Chapter 11

This Week's Very Short Story: Chapter 11

I am so old that I remember that if you wanted to send a note to someone across the country, you actually had to take out a piece of paper and a pen, write the note, put it into an envelope, put a stamp on it and put it in a mailbox and wait days for the other person to receive it.   

I am so old that I remember a time when the most important thing you had to worry about was that you had to be home when it turned dark.  And usually it wasn’t until you heard you mother screaming for you down the street or a neighbor telling you the same that you went home.  

I am not a gambler.  For years, I bowled in a ‘scratch’ bowling league which had cash prizes.  There were also side bets.  I never entered the side bets until someone let it slip that the other guys would put money on my bowling and when I hit a good game they would make the money. From that time on, I started putting in on the side bets.  My best season was one where I made enough money to cover my expenses, buy a new bowling ball and bag for my two balls.  Essentially I bowled for free that season.   

This Week's Very Short Story: Very Special Edition on the marriage of Amanda Tanowitz and Shawn Tanowitz.  Last night I went to the wedding of the daughter of my two friends. I have known them before their daughter was born.  When the daughter announced her engagement, I had heard a song that prompted me to make a video of pictures including the music for the newly engaged to congratulate them.  Prior to the wedding, I heard a song which was about a father giving away his daughter and said that I need to make another video.  I asked the mother if it was ok for me to make a video to be used as the father – daughter dance and was given approval.  The mother gave me pictures to add to the ones I have taken of them over the years.   When I finished the video, I call the mother and told her that it was done and that I had to have it approved by my boss, (my wife :)  , but that I think it was ready because it made me cry.  This is what I made for Amanda and her father. It was played at the wedding last night.   

For years, I took pictures of baseball players on the teams my son played on.  The coaches gave me access to go and photograph in areas where others did not, because I stayed in the back ground and did not interfere.  The parents and players liked the pictures that I took that I either printed for them or put them up on the web site.  The hardest person to photograph was my son.  The hardest picture to get was one with the two of us.  

In high school and college, I was always pro-choice in choosing what book to read for class.  I choose the one with the fewest pages.  

One thing that my wife never has to worry about is that I would drink her coffee.  

When I was getting into the elevator at my mother’s assisted living place, one resident gets in the elevator with me and asks if I am going to dinner.  I replied that I was going to pick up dinner and that I do not live here and that my mother lives upstairs.  She says that they won’t be able to tell the difference.  She then goes on to ask me if I am married.  I tell her that I have been married a long time.  She asks if my wife is still here.  I tell her that my wife is upstairs with my mother and my son.  The door opens and we go our separate ways.  I guess that I missed out on a dinner date.    

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 10

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 10

My younger son was always competitive.  Most people think it was all the sports he played, playing baseball, football and basketball in high school.  No, it started much earlier.  In second grade, he competed in reading with a classmate for the highest color and level of reading assignments.  He did get ahead when she went out of the country for an extended vacation with her parents.  

My college roommate in San Francisco was born in California.  In Michigan when it gets cold, you turn up the heat.  So when it got cold in San Francisco, I would turn up the heat. He would turn it down. He would tell me to have a cup of coffee or put on a sweatshirt. That was our dance.  I have now lived in California long enough that I now put on a sweatshirt.    

Awhile back we were moving out an oak entertainment center that we had for many years. I never realized that over the years that the entertainment center gained weight just like I had. 

As a freshman in college living in Akers Hall at Michigan State, someone had this crazy idea to gather up all the toilet paper in the dorm. The next idea was to spike the chocolate milk with Ex-lax.  I don’t think they ever went ahead with that part.   Someone should look under the closed cupboard next to the sink in the common room,  on the first floor and see if there is a bunch of old toilet paper, though.

I started cooking when I was in college.  I cooked for my roommates too.  Early on I found that I liked cooking better than cleaning up.  Once my roommates got tired that I did not have to clean up and they decided to make me dinner so that I had to clean up.  They cooked hotdogs and beans.    

One of my first dishes that I started cooking in college was spaghetti with meat sauce.  Just like my Italian mother taught me.  

In East Lansing during college there was a restaurant that had a salad bar where you could eat as much as you could on one plate, one time through.  The engineering students would have been proud of the way we were able to stack the plate at least 6-7 inches high with no spilling over.  

I am so old that I remember when the Big Ten actually had 10 teams.  

I am so old that I remember when the legal drinking age was 18.  

I am so old that I remember that we had to walk to school and home through the snow and there were no line up of minivans or SUV’s dropping off or picking up the other children. 

I am so old that I remember paying 19 cents a gallon for gas in Oak Park and that I would not go across the street into Detroit and pay 17 cents because I did not trust the station.   

One day when I was leaving work, I said have a great evening to another leaving employee.  She replied that this is the best time of the day.  I thought about that and now realize that the best time of the day is when you wake up in the morning.