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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, 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 David M Gascoigne and they will be posted by Elephant's Child.
This week's prompts are:
- Little
- Application
- Care
- Companionship
- Father
- Only
and/or
- Farm
- Progress
- Hedgerow
- Wet
- Distinguished
- Industrial
Charlotte/Mother Owl's color of the month is May green, if we wish to use it.
"With a LITTLE APPLICATION of CARE, fertilizer, and plenty of water to keep the ground nice and damp, not soaking WET, we will have a beautiful May Green HEDGEROW around this side of the garden!"
The older man looked down at his grandson, who was staring up at him with big eyes.
The young lad's FATHER wasn't interested in the gardening. He'd left the FARM and gone to college, as so many do, DISTINGUISHED himself in his studies and gone into the INDUSTRIAL sector.
The elder was concerned, not enough young people loved the land and wanted to farm. He saw what many termed PROGRESS as nothing more than progressing to a desk job and leaving the hard but fulfilling work of growing food to others. As those others were getting old, he was starting to wonder where all those people who'd wanted progress were going to get anything to eat in the future.
Maybe, he hoped, the boy would pick up a love of the land, starting with this garden. The child had enjoyed digging and planting in the rows, never mind they weren't straight as an arrow, and he'd really enjoyed the child's COMPANIONSHIP.
He could ONLY try, and enjoy the time doing so.
(Two notes about the above.
First, on EC's blog, both lists contained the word "care," but i think that was a glitch between her and the prompt giver, as his story in her comments section includes the word "wet" in uppercase. I have substituted "wet" in the second set, with my apologies if i was wrong.
Second, in the USA, the average age of a farmer is 65, and rising.)
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Today is:
Clean up Your Room Day -- one of those holidays that no one knows how it got started, but it's a good idea, especially if your house is decorated by teens in "Recently Ransacked" style!
Constitution Day -- Federated States of Micronesia
Donate a Day's Wages to Charity Day 2023
Golden Spike Day -- finishing the first US Transcontinental Railroad in 1869
Mother's Day -- Belize; El Salvador; Guatemala; Mexico (always May 9 in these countries)
National Nightshift Workers Day/Third Shift Workers Day -- US (remembering those intrepid souls who keep things running smoothly through the night)
National Receptionist Day -- US (because that first impression is important; National Receptionists Association)
National School Nurse Day -- US (the school nurse is there to help!)
National Shrimp Day
Occupational Safety and Health Professionals Day -- US
St. Cathal's Day (Patron of blind people, drought relief, epileptics, paralyzed people; Taranto, Italy; against blindness, drought, epilepsy, hernias, paralysis, plagues, storms)
St. Father Damien of Moloka'i's Day (Patron of lepers, outcasts, those with HIV/AIDS; Hawaii)
St. Job the Patriarch's Day (Patron against depression and ulcers)
Trust Your Intuition Day -- practice, and you'll get better at it
Birthdays Today:
Kenan Thompson, 1978
Amanda Borden, 1977
Jason Brooks, 1966
Paul "Bono" Hewson, 1960
Phil and Steve Mahre, 1957
Donovan, 1946
Dave Mason, 1946
Marie-France Pisier, 1944
Judith Jamison, 1943
Gary Owens, 1936
Barbara Taylor Bradford, 1933
Pat Summerall, 1930
Ara Raoul Parseghian, 1923
Nancy Walker, 1922
T. Berry Brazelton, 1918
"Mother" Maybelle Carter, 1909
David O. Selznick, 1902
Fred Astaire, 1899
Max Steiner, 1888
Karl Barth, 1868
George Ross, 1730
Emperor Fushimi of Japan, 1265
Emperor Claudius, 213
Debuting/Premiering Today:
Twister(Film), 1996
"The Rest of the Story"(Radio), 1976
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major(Shostakovich Op. 102), 1957
Today in History:
The Roman armies under Titus open a full scale assault on Jerusalem, 70
Vienna's church orders all Jews to wear a distinctive garb, 1267
Scottish nobles recognize authority of English king Edward I, 1291
Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves on a voyage to the New World, 1497
Christopher Columbus "discovers" the Cayman Islands, 1503
Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland, 1534
Scottish Protestants under John Knox uprise against queen-mother Mary, 1559
England forcefully annexes Jamaice from Spain, 1655
Benjamin Franklin first tests the lightning rod, 1752
Louis XVI becomes King of France, 1774
The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America, 1801
New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels, 1837
In India, the first war of Independence begins, 1857
The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike, 1869
Romania declares itself independent from Turkey, 1877
The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883, 1893
The first Mother's Day is observed, 1908
J. Edgar Hoover is appointed Director of the FBI, 1924
First successful launch of a V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground, 1946
Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts, 1954
The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth, 1960
The Federated States of Micronesia becomes self-governing, 1979
François Mitterrand becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French 5th republic, 1981
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president, 1994
Deadliest day on the mountain: a rogue storm on Everest claims 8 lives, including experienced climbers, 1996
The Maeslantkering, a storm surge barrier in the Netherlands that is one of the world's largest moving structures, is opened by Queen Beatrix, 1997
Solicitor General Elena Kagan is the youngest Justice and third woman nominated for the Supreme Court of the United States, 2010
Microsoft announces plans to purchase Skype, 2011
An Indian fertility clinic announces that a 70 year old woman has successfully gave birth to a baby boy, 2016
The United States Geological Survey releases a report saying that some glaciers in Montana have receded by 85% in the last 50 years, 2017
Mahathir Mohamad is sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, the world's oldest leader at 92, 2018
Taxi service Uber becomes a publicly traded company, 2019
Prince Charles delivers the Queen's Speech at the state opening of the UK parliament for the first time, 2022
Thank you - and you were not wrong about the glitch. I don't know what the average age of farmers is here - and hope it isn't that high. I fear it might be.
ReplyDeleteI like your story and hope the little boy does take up farming. Someone needs to grow the food to feed the chickens that supply the eggs...
ReplyDeleteIKEA would like that sign LOL :-)
ReplyDeleteHave a doityourselftastic week 👍
Do it yourself. Good motto.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
If only some people would go ahead and do it themselves, things would get none quicker and maybe even better if they used a little elbow grease.
ReplyDeleteFarming is a hard life and it has to be something you do because you love it. Mom always prefers to do things herself because then she knows they are done.
ReplyDeleteYep, if you want it done right, you gotta hold close to heart the "Do It Yourself" motto because that's the only way it's gonna happen. :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your story and makes me wonder as well about future generations to come. Where will the food come from if not maintained across America? I prefer my food products to come from within the country. It's bad enough most everything else is imported.
Have a happy WW!
I think the average age of UK individual farmers is pretty old but so much land is now owned by conglomerates who employ people without the same sort of connection with the land. I think land is just too expensive for young people to buy now
ReplyDeleteDo it yourself is a good thing. Been doing that all my life.
ReplyDeleteI love your use of the prompts. Always so entertaining.
Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. Big hug. ♥
Nice story. Sadly, there is no money in farming so no one wants to work so hard for so little. XO
ReplyDeleteI loved your story. Yes we need farming, I don't understand people who think a magic bean may appear to feed them! Good Lord we can not trust those in high places. All farmers I know, I respect. My husbands uncle Bud is still farming and he is 94! He is the most youthful man I ever met. Its called hard work and breathing fresh air! Tipping my hat to all farmers.
ReplyDeleteFarmers are more deserving then most in this wasky world of ours. My sister-in-law Joyce grew up on a farm. Her dad planted corn and moonlighted as a janitor at the local high school. My friend's husband attended Yale. Says now he has had to spend his entire life unlearning all the lies he was taught. He is a 4th generation farmer. He & his wife and children farm together.
ReplyDeleteThat was a good story. Hey, I've know several people who needed that desk sign.
ReplyDeleteGreat job with those prompts, Mimi. Sometimes I wish I had that sign on my desk at work for certain folks to read. LOL
ReplyDeleteThats a sign I can relate to! A great story - never mind they weren't straight as an arrow!
ReplyDeleteThat sign might be a little off-putting!
ReplyDelete