St. Patrick's Day Parade Loot (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.    

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by River at Drifting Through Life.     

This week's words/prompts are:

1. entice

2. excuse

3. blackbird

4. swaying

5. better

6. mechanical

7. disorder

and/or:

1. peeling

2. clouds 

3. scrambled

4. solid

5. curio

6. float

7. fountain

use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

The child was getting to be old enough to start questioning some of the things around her instead of just taking them for granted as part of the landscape of her life.  A few days before she'd become enamored of the CURIO cabinet which had always, to her way of thinking, lived in the corner of the dining room.

The cabinet held a somewhat DISORDERed assortment of mementoes and tchotchkes which had recently captured the child's attention and imagination.

Her mother was PEELING carrots for supper's salad and watching the child through the double wide arch that led from the kitchen into the dining area.  As much as she missed the SOLID walls of her childhood home that had separated each room and kept each one to its designated purpose, Mamma knew the open floor plan made it easier to watch the youngsters.

"Mamma," she called, not realizing she already had her mother's attention, "why is there a toy BLACKBIRD in here?"

Mamma smiled.  That had been the first thing the older children had asked about when they, too, had grown old enough to be curious about the contents of the antique, and she relished any EXCUSE to talk about her grandfather.  She'd considered him an extraordinary man and loved to reminisce.

"That's not a toy, sweetheart," she said with a smile.  Her hands continued to work while she spoke.  "That's one of your Papa Pete's inventions."

"Who's Papapepete?" she asked, stumbling over the unfamiliar name.

With a laugh Mamma said, "Papa Pete," very clearly and distinctly.  "He was my grandfather, Grandmom's father."

"Grandmom had a father?" innocence asked, not yet understanding that generations come and go, FLOAT like CLOUDS on the dimension that is time.  Mamma always has been, and Grandmom and Grandpop and Da and the rest, the ones who made up her world were always and always would be to her young way of thinking.

"Of course, everyone has a father and a mother, or they can't be," Mamma said.  "Papa Pete was an inventor, and the MECHANICAL bird was one of his inventions."

"What's it apposta do?"

"Well, when he attached it to the fence around his garden and wound it up, it would flap its wings and move its head and he hoped it would scare some of the other creatures from coming in the garden and eating what he grew.  He made this one and a big owl, and they'd work for a short time then the animals would figure it out and come eat his garden anyway."

"So his stuff din't work?"

"Not everything he invented worked, but the FOUNTAIN did.  He made a drinking fountain for the dogs so he wouldn't have to refill their bowls.  He also invented an indoor clothesline that would keep the clothes SWAYING back and forth gently so they'd dry faster.  Of course they had gotten electricity by then, but no one thought of an electric clothes dryer, and in winter you couldn't hang clothes outside to dry in the snow of course.

"He was always tinkering and would ENTICE us into his workshop to show us what he was working on.  Mama May was always saying all he was doing was trying to build a BETTER mousetrap, but she never would go out in his shed.  He's would say back to her, 'If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door!'  When I was a child, I thought he'd come up with that saying."

Mamma smiled as she reminisced and continued her supper preparations.  "Papa Pete always had time for us children, he loved to let us help him.  That's why I keep the blackbird in the cabinet, it reminds me of him."

The child's mind was somewhat awhirl, her thoughts SCRAMBLED, trying to keep up with what Mamma was saying.  They had electricity?  Of course they did, but now it opened up in her mind the possibility that at one time they didn't.  There was so much to learn and explore, she was going to ask about other things in the cabinet, but Mamma said, "Go wash up for supper, we'll talk more later."

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Today is:

Ancient Roman Calendar Celebrations on this date

     Day of Mouring -- leading up to the festival for Hilaria

     Invocation Day of Mars and Saturn

     Tubilustrium -- Ancient Roman Calendar (ceremony to purify the trumpets used in sacred ceremonies)

Cuddly Kitten Day -- because the cats can't let the dogs get all the attention

Dandelion Dance -- Fairy Calendar

Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship -- Hungary and Poland

Day of the Sea -- Bolivia (Dia del Mar)

Liberty Day -- today in 1775, Patrick Henry said, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”

Lieldienas -- Ancient Latvian Calendar ("Big Days" or "Long Days", four-day celebration of spring, each day devoted to a different deity)

Mi-Careme -- Guadeloupe; Saint Barthelemy; Saint Martin (Mid-Lent)

National Chip and Dip Day

National Melba Toast Day  (this date was chosen because it was supposedly invented on this day in 1897; a recent article says it takes 6 steps to toast bread "right"; i say if you can't put bread in the toaster and butter it when it comes out and need long sets of instructions, you shouldn't be let loose in society!

National Puppy Day -- encouraging you to adopt a shelter pup today   

Near Miss Day -- commemorates the mountain sized asteroid that was a near miss on this day in 1989

Rally for Decency Day -- Commemorates the first Rally for Decency, prompted on this day in 1969 by Jim Morrison

Republic Day -- Pakistan

St. Turibius de Mongrovejo's Day (Patron of Latin American bishops, native rights; Peru)

World Meteorological Day -- UN

Anniversaries Today:

The University of California is founded in Oakland, California, 1868

Birthdays Today:

Michelle Monaghan, 1976

Keri Russell, 1976

Richard Grieco, 1965

Amanda Plummer, 1957

Chaka Khan, 1953

Louie Anderson, 1953

Roger Bannister, 1929

Wernher Von Braun, 1912

Akira Kurosawa, 1910

Joan Crawford, 1905

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Bold and the Beautiful"(TV), 1987

"Detective Story"(Play), 1950

"Truth or Consequences"(Radio), 1940

Today in History:

Eighteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. 1066

The first dated edition of Maimonides "Mishna Torah" published, 1490

George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" premieres in London, 1743

Patrick Henry delivers his famous speech – "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" – at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, 1775

After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home, 1806

Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City, 1857

The Boers and Britain sign a peace accord that ends the First Boer War, 1881

President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement starting on April 22, starting a Land Run, 1889

The Wright Brothers apply for a patent on their invention of one of the first successful airplanes, 1903

Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world, 1956

NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young), 1965

Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador gives his famous speech appealing to men of the El Salvadoran armed forces to stop killing the Salvadorans, 1980

Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President, 1996

The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji, 2001

In Tokyo, the Metropolitan Government Bureau of Waterworks reports that radioactive iodine in city tap water is two times the recommended level for infants, 2011

GPR investigation of Shakespeare's tomb at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford concludes the Bard's skull probably has been stolen, 2016

A Sahara sandstorm turns snow in Sochi, Russia, orange in one of the largest-ever transfers of desert sand, 2018

Hundreds of thousands of people march on London to demand a new EU referendum, 2019

Syrian Democratic Forces announce the end of the five-year Islamic State "caliphate" with their retaking of the last IS territory, 2019

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls for an immediate global ceasefire to battle Covid-19, 2020