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I decided to combine TWO of the Writing Challenges into one challenge this week. I’m not much of a writer but both prompts set my mind to buzzing on an idea for a grandma cartoon. It’s probably been done before (how could it not be) but it’s actually the first thing I thought of. I’m hoping my little grandma makes you smile.
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The Prompts are as follows:
(Saturday Writing Challenge - SatWE) Write something about the Month of May. Using prose or poetry, write anything about the month of May, any holiday in the month, or anything that happened to you or a family member or friend during this month.
(Sunday Writing Challenge - SUNWE) Write a story using the device of Diary Narration. No more than 1000 words, please. And/or write a poem which uses some sort of historical or literary allusion—or throw one into your story.
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It’s the first week in May and this is the week that I always plan to go on my first fishing trip of the year. I chose today as that day. All went as planned until my old boat sprung a leak. I shouted “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” several times and there didn’t seem to be anyone around to hear my distress call. But as you can tell I made it back to shore okay. I hope this doesn’t mean the whole month of May is doomed to failure.
This fiasco also made me wonder why we yell Mayday when in distress so I Googled it.
Wikipedia: Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It’s derived from the French “venez m’aider”, meaning “come help me”. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency by mariners, aviators, police and firefighters and transportation organizations also use the term. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrases under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual Mayday call from a message about a May day call. A Mayday situation is one in which a vessel, aircraft, vehicle, or person is in grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance. Examples of "grave and imminent danger" in which a Mayday call would be appropriate include fire, explosion or sinking.
I was sinking and no one heard my distress call. Bummer! I was close enough to shore to make a row vs. wade decision and doing both I made it to safety. I then proceeded to abort the whole fishing trip and I don’t plan on going again this month. Maybe next year’s trip will be different.
What a day, what a day.
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Drawn and painted on MS paint program by Lee P.
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Comments: 64
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THANK YOU FOR SHARING AT SURREAL CIRCUS!
Now featured on Surreal Circus
Be sure and get that leak fixed before you head out again. When is the fish fry so I can arrange my schedule? You should come here and fish at Sam Rayburn Lake. Clifford and I can help you eat the fish!!!! (He only lives about 10 miles or so from me and vey close to the lake.
I can't think of a thing even though May is my favorite month, well I might give it a try at least:)
Now if you want to fish in my month, I require a special permit be purchased and it don't come cheap. So, if you are wondering why your boat sprung a leak, it was because you were fishing without a permit.
Next time, do the right thing and contact me for the proper documentation and you will find your trip much more pleasant. Rowing or Wading, it makes no difference to me. You still must have the permit.
Great post girl. Thanks for sharing.
So, if I get a permit I won't have to make anymore roe vs. wade decisions .. (eh, that should be row vs. wade) and I won't have to abort anymore? Hmmm, if it were only that simple.
Hi Clifford. How are you and how is your wife doing?
I am going to be in your area this coming Sunday evening and Monday. Got a meeting to attend.
After rereading my post above, I am not sure I came across as I intended. You know I like humor and some folks do not "get" my brand easily.
Your rowing and wading ("roe vs. wade") problem should be solved by taking precautions against leaks. How ever at our age, it is inconsequential anyway.:)
I loved your story and your grandma is so cute with her shocked expression!!
I also liked you praise 'Row vs Wade' LOL that was good.
Hope this posts this time..........
Thanks for sharing and submitting to
The Surreal Circus.
If you could post it to the Gather Writing Essential group I could feature it to make up for missing it.
Thanks Len, I always appreciate your comments and look forward to them. Your prompts always inspire me. I'm just now in the past few years getting into this type of enjoyment (writing and drawing - life always kept me busy doing things that paid me money). I actually know nothing about writing but I'm finding that it's fun. I've also leaned what a "muse" is (A muse is the source of inspiration for a creative work) a word that was never in my life before (don't guess I needed one, LOL). I have now come to the conclusion that all the Writing Essential prompts are my muses because I'm wading into unfamilar waters (LOL, I just made myself laugh considering the subject of this post, no pun intended). Thank you very much and I appreciate you!
What's important is that I can now feature this wonderful work on Gather Writing Essential.
Now that being said, did I do this in a Dairy Narration style. It's apparent that my attempt at an allusion turned out to be a pun instead ... darn ... if I had written a story where someone had to go to court to fight for a legal abortion (horrors upon horrors) would that have been an allusion to Roe vs. Wade instead of the row vs. wade pun? I'm not a writer and I can honestly say that this popped into my head when I read your prompt. To pun or not to pun and it seems that I should not have tried to sneak it in as an allusion. Now, what about the narration style? I'm learning as I go along. Who knew that writing could be so hard. When I was in the working world (I've been retired for a long time now and I ain't going back to college) one of the things I did for the company I worked for was to prepare a catalog of their products (mail order type) to send to customers. This was before computers ... LOL. I learned about catch words for sales purposes and I also learned about colors that attracts the eye first ... now I would like to learn to write without rambling and learn how to stick to a prompt correctly. I'm enjoying my adventure.
Such a device can lend itself to letting us see the narrator grow in awareness as time goes on, or what the narrator feels and thinks when s/he is sure no-one else will ever read what s/he's writing, for two examples.
Thank you for sharing with Watching The Wind Blow By