Next post
A quote: “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” ~~ Ronald Reagan
I’ll start with a story …
********************************
There’s this image my parents took of me, a child stomping from the house to go live with gram-gram. They thought it cute. Then I was given hot chocolate and sat down to facetime with her.
“Cute” wore off as my efforts to leave grew with my age.
Especially after grams was taken away.
I never knew why … my parents cried, but no one said anything.
Her name is not spoken. Her images erased. Even her paintings that hung above my bed left in the hands of authorities.
I’ve had years of practice, this time I won’t come back.
*********************************
Now, it’s your turn.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. featured image, cropped, Adobe stock standard license
Fletch says: Samuel O’hannigan sat his seat at old Muldoon’s having a bit of the rye.
His face twisted in grimace – His head down with dreary eye.
“What is your matter,” asked Henry O’dell as he polished his glass to a shine
“Oh,” said Samuel, “It’s just that I’m missing that little daughter of mine.
“She’s taken her suitcase, and taken her bear. And taken this heart as well
I guess for now she’s a daddy’s girl and probably always will.
And so I’m sitting here just pining some – waiting for the day
when bright-eyed, and happy cheery makes her way home to stay.
Navig8r says: “We really appreciate you agreeing to watch over our place while we are gone.”
“No problem. Where are you off to?”
“Grand parents. Where else.”
“Your little man seems to have this travel thing down. His own suitcase and everything.”
“He helped pack it and he knew exactly what he wanted in it.”
“So it really is over the river and through the wood?”
“Yep. We might end up regretting teaching him that song though. He only knows the first line and it’s on endless loop now. Could make it a long trip.”
“But you’re smiling when you say that.”
I don’t remember it, but when I was three years old I packed a toy suitcase with my favorite shirt, put on my coat, and marched out the door announcing, “I’m going to the Moon.”
By the time I got to junior high, the dream was beginning to fade. By then I knew that NASA got hundreds, even thousands of applications for every selection group. Even if I made the grade, there was no guarantee I’d make the cut.
By the time I finished my engineering degree, a job at McHenery’s aerospace division looked like the closest I’d ever get to the Moon. At least I could help build the rockets, even if I’d never get to fly on them, let alone work at the moonbase.
And then McHenery started building the first commercial lunar outpost, and everything changed. They needed a lot more people to run the mining and manufacturing operations, not to mention all the support infrastructure like landers and crawlers. When our division boss asked me if I’d be interested in a job up there, you know what my answer was.
3 Comments