The prompt for this week's Free Write was an old black and white photo. For the first time since January all three participants were in the same country. The immediacy of reading what each person wrote during the allotted ten minutes, rather than wait until they are all entered into this blog, adds another dimension.
D-L's Free Write
Maggie sneezed several times triggered by the attic's dust. Her sneezes were almost glass breaking in force.
It wasn't her attic. She was helping her friend Deborah clean out her 97-year old aunt's house, not because she wanted to, but Deborah had helped her get rid of her mother's things when her mother had died. She owed her friend.
One more box. When she opened it, she found it filled with black and white photos. Many had edges that looked as if they were cut with pinking shears.
She sneezed several more times.
"You okay?" Deborah poked her head through the trapdoor opening.
"Look at this," Maggie pointed to a large box.
"Wow."
*****
The two women had removed the empty teapot and their empty mugs from the kitchen table and started to sort the photos.
There was one with 14 people sitting on the stairs of a wooden house.
Most of the other photos seemed to be of the same people through the ages based on clothing and cars: Model T, a woodie and one with fins. They put them into piles for each person.
"I'm guessing the man on the bottom stair, far right, was my great grandfather when he was young. I was eight when he died," Deborah said.
"Any one else you recognize?"
"Maybe it was Auntie Agnes next to him."
When they finished sorting, Deborah had only been able to identify about half the people.
"What are you going to do with them?" Maggie asked.
"Give them to my brother."
"What will he do with them?"
"Plan to use them to write a family saga, I bet. Of course, he won't. They'll end up stashed away in his attic."
D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at:. https://dlnelsonwriter.com Her 300 Unsung Women will be published this month.
Julia's Free Write
Wow June, how did you manage?
I can’t believe it!
All five brothers – I was sure that John and Jim would kill each other if they ever had to be together again.
And all the women smiling – what did you bribe cousin Agatha with? She almost looks like she won the lottery – oh wait, you didn’t pay her, did you?
And there is poor little Emil; he obviously simply couldn’t be separated from his favorite uncle.
However, I don’t recognize the location. Did you have to call them all together in neutral territory?
Whatever it took, you are to be applauded as your photo of the Smith family “in toto” will be the only one in existence: to be treasured not only by the current participants, but also by all generations to come.
Julia has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends. Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/
Rick's Free Write
7 men, 6 women, and a young boy.
One house.
They had emigrated from the old country, one or two at a time, except for the child, the first one born in the new land.
By boat. Through Ellis Island.
The parents who brought them were now gone.
It had been their house originally, bought after years of sweat in the tannery, preparing leather for shoes.
Most likely the chemical fumes led to early graves.
But the offspring stayed together, grew up, married, started their own families.
Found better jobs, safer jobs as a vacuum salesman, a car dealer, a plumber, an electrician.
Antonio, they said, would be the first of the family to go to college. They had 12 years to save for that day.
In the summers they primarily lived on the porch, It was airy. There was always a breeze.
They could watch the neighborhood go by.
Friends would come to sit, have an espresso or a beer, depending on the time of day and gender.
It was the family home, and always would be.
Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.
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