Month: May 2022

Posted in Flash Fiction, Holidays, Memorial Day, nonfiction

Memorial Day

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
Photo taken in Gomel’, Belarus

It’s Memorial Day weekend and that’s an important holiday in the U.S. Memorial Day, also called Decoration Day in some areas, is a holiday that honors those soldiers lost to war. It’s been expanded in our consciousness to honor all of our deceased love ones. In the region of the U.S. where I have lived most of my life, it’s a special holiday. I live in the state of Kentucky in the U.S. which is located in the mid-southeastern region of the country. The area of the state in which I live is part of a larger region, the region of Appalachia. Here, Memorial Day falls on a weekend when families reunite, have large meals together and decorate the graves of their deceased loved ones with flowers. Veteran’s graves are also decorated with the U.S. flag. Across Appalachia, Memorial Day is most often called Decoration Day.

When I was growing up, and even now, the family would congregate where most of the relatives were buried. In my case, when I was a child, that was near my grandparent’s home deep in the heart of Appalachia and about 55 miles from where I live now. Every individual family within the extended family would bring beautiful flowers and flags to decorate each grave. Often, that would involve going to three or four cemeteries.

Memorial Day at the cemetery was also a social occasion. Families who seldom saw each other would have a chance to talk and catch up while decorating the graves.

During Memorial Day, everyone would go to my grandmother’s house for a large meal and a visit with each other afterward. It was one of the most important family holidays of the year.

We still honor our lost loved ones in Appalachia in much the same way. Families are smaller. There are fewer large family meals. Instead of meals in grandma’s kitchen, they are often prepared on the grill where each individual family lives. You will still find people hunting flowers a few days before the Memorial Day weekend to decorate gravesites. They still enjoy visiting with family and friends in and around the cemeteries and some people travel in order to decorate the graves.

No matter what country we are in, or its traditions, let’s all celebrate our war dead this weekend and every weekend.

Posted in #weekendcoffeeshare

WeekendCoffeeShare #71- Come on In!

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
#weekendcoffeeshare

If we were having coffee this weekend, I would ask you to please come in, sit and make yourself comfortable, and before you sit down, please choose the beverage of your choice off my coffee bar. There are several types of coffee, cocoa and my favorite, a wonderful cinnamon tea.

I’d like to wish everyone hello and good wishes and thank you for joining my weekly coffee share this week. I’ve been away and haven’t participated in the weeklycoffeeshare for a long time now, but I’m glad to be back. I see many familiar faces here and some new ones. I’m looking forward to getting re-acquainted and reading everyone’s contribution this week!

Since I was last here, I took a job(s) writing freelance (and contract) for several firms including The New York Times, DotDash Meredith and Smart Asset. That was several years ago now and I had a wonderful freelance writing career. It was really an encore career since I had been a college professor for 27 years and had retired. All good things must come to an end, however, and I retired permanently in March 2022, However, just because I retired from writing commercially, doesn’t mean that I don’t want to write, so here I am back at my roots, blogging on WordPress. I’m so happy to be back and happy to see all of you!

My next venture may be a book or two. Something I have in my head that’s fiction and another non-fiction book on the area in the U.S. in which I live, Appalachia. You’ll probably hear a lot about Appalachia from me. I’m not ready to reveal all the details yet, but perhaps soon! I found out yesterday that I may have a health challenge to contend with that joins another health challenge that I’ve dealt with for years. Aren’t the Golden Years wonderful!?

I hope to spend a lot of time in the flower gardens here at my home in Kentucky, USA this summer. It was an oddly cool spring and even at the end of May, we’re having some cool weather. I’m ready for some heat and humidity! Well, maybe just heat! Summer is welcome this year after a long fall and winter of COVID-19 and the isolation that comes with it. I hope all of you have done well during the pandemic.

I also want to spend as much time with my little dog, Clara, as possible. Clara, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is an attention hog so I’m trying to oblige her this summer. She’s 10 years old which is a pretty long life for a Cavalier.

Thank you so much for stopping by my weeklycoffeeshare today. I’ll share more and more with you as time goes on including pictures! For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Posted in Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers

The Good Samaritan

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
Photo Prompt @Brenda Cox

Clara stopped at a nearby gift shop to find out who owned the self-service vegetable stand down the road. The clerk said, “An old man is the owner. He struggles to make ends meet from just that income from that stand and it is the end of the season.” The wheels in Clara’s brain started to turn.

The next morning, on her morning drive, she stopped at the stand. The old man was there, singing and whistling. He said to her, “We have a wide selection today. A Good Samaritan has assured that I will make it through the winter.”

For Friday Fictioneers

Posted in Flash Fiction, Non-fiction

Gun Control: Guns vs. Our Children

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
Gun control
44 Magnum hand gun with copy space

Often, I write fiction on this blog, but occasionally, I will write what is essentially an op-ed piece about an important issue, gun control in this case. Gun control, and any laws we might pass concerning gun control, is controlled by the U.S. Congress. The shame of it all is that the U.S. Congress is controlled by the gun lobby. In other words, money from the National Rifle Association (NRA). We don’t have effective gun control laws in the U.S. due to the inaction of Congress who think more about lining their pockets than about the children affected by the gun control laws. Children like those destroyed at Sandy Hook and just yesterday, in Texas.

What are we thinking? Why do we elect Senators and Representatives who won’t support or vote for serious gun control legislation in the U.S.? What if it were one of your children in the schools that have experienced mass shootings? Don’t give me a rant about the Second Amendment or your so-called liberties. Those are excuses. Why do you have an issue with strict laws aimed at illegal guns on the streets if you are a licensed gun owner and don’t plan to use your guns in the wrong way? Why do you have that AR-15 in your garage? Do you need it to hunt food? Even those among you who are hunters know the answer to that. It doesn’t take an AR-15 to kill a deer.

There have been over 200 mass shootings in the U.S. since the beginning of 2022. Two hundred days haven’t even passed yet. Is it any wonder that home schooling is on the rise? Our society in the U.S. is fracturing and even though gun control isn’t the only issue, it is surely one of the bigger issues. Do you want to be part of the solution or part of the problem?

Posted in Flash Fiction, Friday Fictioneers

Absconded

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
Photo prompt by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

See that picture on the wall of the girl with the flaming hair? She’s my sister. She was my roommate, but now she’s gone. She left without warning me that she was going to bolt.

Look at the mess she’s left in my apartment. It’s appalling that she left me with this mess without telling me. How could she do this to me? How could she just abandon me? One day she just didn’t come home. I waited, but all I got was that terrible phone call. I can visit her, but I don’t like to go to the cemetery.

For Friday Fictioneers, May 22, 2022

Posted in Flash Fiction

Back in the Blogging Saddle

Posted on by R.M. Carlson
“A nice, shiny, brown leather english saddle on horseback. Canon Eos 1D Mark III.”

What a ride the last few years have been! After retiring early from a career as a college professor, I decided to try an encore career – writing. Freelance and contract writing in my field of finance. I’d been blogging here at WordPress for several years before I embarked on this encore career and really enjoyed it. Writing for challenges. Writing about several of my fav topics and themes. Writing for the fun of it. Then, I decided to turn professional and my world certainly changed. No more blogging here for fun. There weren’t enough hours in the day. I’ve missed it.

I retired from writing professionally a couple of months ago. I expect I’ll tackle a book or two or three. No, not in my field of finance but perhaps fiction. Maybe some non-fiction stuff about some of my interests. I’m taking my time though since I retired to just STOP in my life and give myself some years to smell the roses. I enjoyed blogging here so much in the past that I’d like to try it again. I hope to see some of my old friends here and make new friends along the way.

I’m interested in finding some writing challenges as I enjoyed them in the past. Is there still a #weekendcoffeeshare? If so, where can I find it? I know my friend, Sue Vincent, is gone and I’m so sad about that. Did anyone take over her writing challenge? Do you know of any other interesting writing challenges you could point me to? I would really appreciate it!

I hope to be seeing old friends and meeting new ones soon. I’m so happy to be back!

#writingchallenges, #weekendcoffeeshare