Written for Sadje’s What Do You See #307.
Here’s where the two photo prompts took me.
Tag: Anniversary
The Continuing Adventures of George and Martha, Vol. 4: Sea of Love
Written for Friday Fictioneers where our host Rochelle
has asked us to use the photo below as inspiration
to get creative in 100 words or less,
making every word count. Here’s my flash.
Love Happens
Written for Weekend Writing Prompt #367 using the required
word “party” in exactly 88 words; Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge,
with the required word “peak” and Weekly Prompts Wednesday
Challenge using the required word “sunset“. Here’s my flash.
Yesterday was our anniversary, wed 52 years. No party necessary.
None of our friends who married around the same time are still together. How sad is that?
People have asked “What’s the secret to a long and happy marriage?” For us it’s pretty simple: respect, communication, honesty, having a sense of humor.
When you combine those ingredients, love happens. You can manage the lows and celebrate the peaks, watch the dawns and the sunsets, walk hand-in-hand through the ordinary and make it extraordinary.
That’s us. Uncomplicated. Happy together.
NAR©2024
88 Words
This is “Happy Together” by the Turtles.
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.
Catch Of The Day
Sammi at Weekend Writing Prompt is challenging us to
get creative with the word “adventure” in exactly 76 words.
This is my response to that word challenge.
You ever have that feeling you get when you meet someone for the first time …. and you know?
That’s what happened to me when I first met Bill …. almost 56 years ago to the day. It was our first date, the dreaded blind date, but we had chemistry and we still do.
Sure, we’ve had our misunderstandings …. who hasn’t? …. but what an adventure our life has been.
He’s the fisherman but I caught a keeper!
NAR©2024
76 Words
These are The Marvelettes and this is “Don’t Mess With Bill”
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.
Muffins And Croissants
Our gracious host Jenne at The Unicorn Challenge
has offered up this photo prompt hoping to inspire us
to creatively write something in 250 words or less.
This is my 250-word response to the photo prompt.
The year was 1987. Bill and I were celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary by going on a cruise to the Bahamas with our sons, aged 10 and 8.
On the third day we made plans to disembark at our next port of call …. St. Thomas …. and asked one of the stewards to recommend a nice beach. He gave us a name, saying it was not a touristy place and if we were lucky, we’d see some iguanas. Having had a pet iguana before, the boys were excited.
We ate breakfast in an outdoor cafe with thatched umbrellas before heading to the beach, bringing with us some leftover croissants and muffins too delicious to leave behind. The steward was right; the beach was deserted. It was pristine with the clearest, bluest water we’d ever seen. After a couple of hours, there was still no sign of iguanas anywhere and our boys were sorely disappointed. We searched a large rock outcropping, knowing the little lizards like hiding in crevices, but none were there.
Rounding the rocks to check out what was on the other side, we stopped dead in our tracks. It was like a land before time with iguanas the size of small dinosaurs sunning themselves on the beach. They were magnificent and, aside from their enormous whip-like tails, appeared harmless.
Cautious yet unafraid, we slowly approached as the herbivores watched from heavy-lidded eyes. To our sons’ utter delight and amazement, iguanas enjoy being fed leftover muffins and croissants!
NAR©2024
250 Words
This is “Island Boy” by Kenny Chesney
All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.
MR. & MRS. BILL
UPDATE:
Mrs. Bill just read her story to Mr. Bill
who smiled sweetly, told her it was a
wonderful story, just like all her others,
and very nicely reminded her that it was
actually their 51st wedding anniversary,
not their 52nd. They say it’s the short-term memory
that’s the first to go.
😂 🍾 🥂 😂
It was 52 years ago on this day in June when a young woman sat in the kitchen of the finished basement of her family’s home in The Bronx, NY. This was the only home she knew and now she was about to leave.
She was ready. She was always ready, never late a day in her life. And she wasn’t the least bit nervous. She’s Sicilian!
Here she was, dressed in her finest at 9:30 in the morning, eating Oreo cookies dunked in a tall glass of milk while everyone upstairs was running around like a bunch of headless chickens.
And by her finest I mean her wedding gown! Who eats chocolatey Oreos while wearing a pristine white wedding dress? She does!
Let them run around upstairs checking things off the “To Do” list. She figured if it wasn’t done by now, it probably wasn’t very important.
No, she was ready – not just for her wedding day but for every day to come. And not a dribble of Oreo-speckled milk anywhere on her spotless dress.
In exactly 90 minutes she was going to marry the finest man she’d ever met. Of course, he was handsome and tanned and smelled like salt water and Aqua Velva. He was insanely smart, brilliant actually, and funny as hell but not in a goofy way. He was clever and kind and amazing. And he treated her like cut glass.
He was tone deaf and colorblind – two things she definitely was not – but she was willing to overlook those flaws. When your world spins a little faster and your heart does a tarantella when you’re with him, little things like that don’t matter.
Well, she better go brush the Oreos out of her teeth, although that would make for unforgettable wedding photos! She headed off to the bathroom, the train of her wedding gown flowing behind her. She grinned at her image in the mirror and cracked up.
This was a big day. The biggest. The best. The beginning of Mr. & Mrs. Bill.
And, to top it all off, there was going to be cake!
Happy 52nd Anniversary, my love, my Mister Bill. Something tells me we’re in this for the long haul.
Cake, anyone?
NAR © 2023
BLIND DATE
In March of 1968 I went on a blind date. This was a new experience for me and I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was the guy’s name. I insisted my best friend and her boyfriend (who set up the date) tag along in case my date turned out to be Hannibal Lecter (hey, it could happen).
As soon as I answered the door, I felt like I was in the middle of a chick flick. I stared at him, smiling; I heard birds tweeting and angels singing “Today I met the boy I‘m going to marry“. On the other side of the door my date was staring and smiling back at me. I think he heard the music, too.
His name was Bill.
I’d just turned 17 and he was not yet 20. Bill was different in so many ways from any guys I knew, most notably was the fact that he didn’t look like he belonged to La Cosa Nostra. He was tall, lean, tan and blonde and the way his biceps looked in his white t-shirt made my stomach flutter.
We went to another friend’s house for a party and spent the whole night talking to each other. After that blind date, we didn’t go out with anyone else ever again.
Bill’s what I affectionately call “a mutt” and he’ll be the first to agree. He’s 1/2 Irish, 1/4 Finnish and 1/4 Italian. He’d never met a first generation Sicilian girl like me before let alone gone out with one (we’re a rare breed, you know!); he thought I was “exotic” and looked like Sophia Loren. Every time he said that I got goosebumps – and he said it a lot.
We were crazy about each other; two years after that first date we got engaged and two years after that we got married.
Bill’s a real handy-man, the kind of guy who can fix just about anything. Back in the Stone Age before Google, we had a bunch of ‘do-it-yourself-books’. If Bill didn’t know how to fix something, he’d read about it. And if the books didn’t help, he’d solve the problem himself. He wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty – whether he was repairing an engine or changing a diaper.
Not only is he a hands-on kind of guy in every aspect of our lives, he’s also very smart and I don’t mean smarter than your average bear. Bill is flat out brilliant and that’s not a word I toss around lightly. He’s got the degrees to prove it but he’s too humble for that and definitely not the type to rub his smarts in your face. He has a classic wit – a dry and clever sense of humor that makes me laugh every day.
They don’t come any better than Bill. He’s the homebody type, not one looking to go out partying. His one guilty pleasure is fishing. He’s loved fishing since he was a kid growing up on City Island and you can find him on his boat every Saturday. In fishing terminology, Bill’s ‘a keeper’.
Now you can go ahead and call me delusional but I know what I know – and I know Bill.
* He’s colorblind but can identify blue; that’s why it’s his favorite color.
* He’ll ask other shoppers which bananas are ripe because he can’t tell yellow from green; he’s found people are very obliging and happy to help with his “handicap“.
* He loves Carvel soft serve vanilla ice cream in a waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles.
* All his food has to be cooked well done; if you think his burger is done,
cook it for an additional 10 minutes.
* He’s very proud of me and tells everyone I’m “an author”.
* Our doctor adores him and will spend the first 15 minutes of our appointments looking at new photos of our grand kids.
* He’s a die-hard NY Rangers Hockey fan.
* He and his identical twin brother were number 18 in the Vietnam draft
but they failed the physical due to pilonidal cysts.
* He would walk our newborn baby to sleep every night for as long as it took, most times more than an hour.
* He’ll do whatever it takes to avoid an argument.
* Family comes first, always.
* He’s a very generous tipper; people are grateful and remember that.
* I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like him.
* His favorite song is “Only You”.
* He’s a ‘one woman man‘. He doesn’t flirt or stare at other women;
that’s just not his style.
* He’s never given me reason to be jealous.
* He’s the most decent man I know.
* He never forgets my birthday or our wedding anniversary, especially this anniversary because it’s TODAY. And today’s not just any anniversary – IT’S OUR 50th!
I have to believe God knew what He was doing when He brought us together. Fifty years – it just doesn’t seem possible! I look at Bill now and I see the same guy I fell in love with the night of our blind date. I’m awfully glad he was the one on the other side of the door that March night in 1968.
NAR © 2022
The Elephant's Trunk 