Setting: Ukiah and environs.
Time: Waning days of our American Sitzkrieg.
Cast: Neighbors.
Action: One-minute author
On my daily walkabouts and errand-running with Nick I overhear or participate in brief verbal exchanges with passers-by, as in: “Wow! $3.77 a gallon. How long’s it been since we’ve seen it that low?”–Then I make an instant short story (no time or place to write it): Who might say what next? And what might follow that? Words have consequences, many unexpected by Speaker #1. If you’re old and retired or have paid time off at lunchtime, get yourself a cuppa somewhere and unobtrusively listen, overhear an exchange, or, more fun, limit yourself to overhearing part of one. Treasure it until you get to a keyboard and can let your imagination flow around the fragment. Imagine a new world by embedding that fragment in a few sentences of your own assembling. — Miranda says to Prospero, O brave new world…Prospero says to Miranda, ‘Tis new to thee. — Imagine up that exchange. It takes place on an island, with sprites, a good guy or two, mostly bad ones, young lovers, grumpy magician, a representative of a colonized under class. Sounds a bit like Mendocino County. Our neighbors are talking all the time and each of us infers a world from what they say. We walk on, these days avoiding puddles. Today, however, play into someone else’s world within the modest limits of, say, 7 sentences. Sample:
The people standing in line at the Ukiah P.O. to mail Xmas gifts don’t have any choice. They have to hear the scruffy old guy with no packages say, loudly enough to reach a radius of 9 feet, “I had a vision of my tombstone last night. It reads, ‘He thought he’d live long enough to see Gobbi Street paved.’” A few smiles of relief: he’s not seriously disturbed. A moment’s pause. Then a pleasant voice: “Glad to hear you’re planning to have a long life.” The ready-to-go-postal line relaxes into small talk.–That’s 6 sentences and a dangling phrase.
And here are some warm-up prompts, though you’ll be happier picking up your own: 1) Thank you and have a nice day…2) You’re enduring the tragedy of dog ownership…3) Son, I know you’re the best driver in the county…4) Handsome dog!… 5) The air conditioner works perfectly. May I pay you for it?…7) Sir, you don’t have to do that…8) Wind-blown leaves respect no borders…9) We should have done that a decade ago…10) What breed is he?…11) Hello, Sir, how’s it going for you?…12) Don’t believe everything you think…13) You gave him a twenty?…14) Now that’s a RIDE!…15) What did you mean?…6) I don’t see how you can get all the facts right and come to the wrong conclusion…17) Way to go…– I made up only two of those prompts. Send 1 or 2 of your elaborations to: suspiry@gmail.com You may achieve such fame as comes with publication in the UDJ. Good luck!
KZYX note: A firing and a resignation from our beloved community radio station are hard on us all. It may be that they are hardest on management because, by law and decency, management cannot discuss personnel matters, while aggrieved ex-employees and supporters are free to say whatever they wish. – I have no inside information to spill. The new is evolving from the old at KZYX, and some of the old are aggrieved, after their years of superb service. I’m way old myself and have watched the parade passing me by, with a minor case of WIWAB (when I was a boy). I also know several members of the current Board of Directors and trust the entire board’s decisions, completely. As Jimmy Humble always said, may they all have peace and love in their lives.
Hence then, the article about another voice neighborhood exchanges was published today ( ) and is available on Ukiah Daily Journal ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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