Goodheart Ranch: You have an excellent feel for dialog, Mark. Your characters are strongly limned, and your unexpected ending was just right. An entertaining piece!
Getting Up There In Age - If you’re the youngest person in a senior-only community, you’ll be the cool and hip one!
The Smell Of Cedar - A chair full of unwrapped toys? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone doing that before, but that’s actually very smart. You save time by not having to wrap all those presents, and the money you’re not spending on wrapping paper could go towards another small gift. “She had a fun sense of humor and frequently told us if we didn’t behave, she would give us to The Goodwill.” Your grandmother was hilarious! This was a nice entry. I really like this one.
Dilemma At Goodheart Ranch - A bittersweet ending. At least Tobias won’t hurt anyone else.
I had a Lane Cedar Chest. The younger generation didn't want to inherit it, and I sold it for $20 when I saw hundreds of them for sale on eBay. It was my grandfather's wedding gift to my mother. That's what I think of when I smell the scent of cedar.
"Getting Up There In Age" - we moved into an "active seniors" community when DH was at the minimum age and I was younger. Eight years later, I miss not seeing children and teens in the neighborhood. The ambulance is coming more frequently each month, and residents then are no longer seen walking and waving hello. We can't move right now, but wish we could. We try and do as much as we can in the larger community.
Ahhh cedar, love it. Being the youngest of 7 children we would file out of our bed rooms( the boys bedroom held all 4 of them barely and girls room held us 3 barely, it was a very small house my dad built) to see what Santa left us...only after eating a bowl of oatmeal meal or cream of wheat. The only time we were allowed to eat in our rooms. Mom wanted to make sure we ate good knowing we would fill up on goodies from our stockings. One of my many favorite memories, Christmas is still my favorite time of year. Mom and Dad were busy wrapping and hiding gifts in the attic and neighbors house which was my Aunts ironically. Lol. They were such big kids. As you can see this took me down memory lane. Love it Mark..thankyou 😊🎄
I loved “The Smell of Cedar”, Mark. It’s beautiful. The added photos only made it come to life that much more for me. My parents used to do the same thing on Christmas morning, too. Talk about torture. As a kid, those minutes felt like eons! 🤣
It's so interesting how smells and sights and sounds can bring up memories. For me it was the western story you included in this one. Made me think of my grandma. She's always watching old westerns when we visit.
Your cedar story reminded me of Deb’s place when I met her. The 3rd floor was built as storage, but a previous owner “finished” it as a large bedroom without paying to run heating up to it. The heat (such as it was) came through a large grate set in the middle of the floor, allowing warm air to go up while cold air flowed down the stairs. In theory, anyway. In practice, nieces and nephews who stayed over had to choose between the chilly independence of their own huge bedroom, or sleeping on the couch. Deb tried a space heater, which lead to the discovery of the electric circuitry also not being upgraded.
Sounds very similar. I am not sure why my Grandfather didn't run heat up there. Maybe the furnace couldn't handle it. Or maybe it was a money issue. But with three daughters, they needed that upstairs bedroom.
I just remembered why the presents weren't wrapped. They were from Santa!
When we had kids we didn't want to make Santa the focus of Christmas, so we only gave our kids one present from Santa and the rest came wrapped, from us.
Thanks, Scott. My parents had to stuff the trunk with presents for the drive to Grandma's house so we wouldn't know about them. So it was probably easier to just not wrap them. 🤣
Goodheart Ranch: You have an excellent feel for dialog, Mark. Your characters are strongly limned, and your unexpected ending was just right. An entertaining piece!
Getting Up There In Age - If you’re the youngest person in a senior-only community, you’ll be the cool and hip one!
The Smell Of Cedar - A chair full of unwrapped toys? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone doing that before, but that’s actually very smart. You save time by not having to wrap all those presents, and the money you’re not spending on wrapping paper could go towards another small gift. “She had a fun sense of humor and frequently told us if we didn’t behave, she would give us to The Goodwill.” Your grandmother was hilarious! This was a nice entry. I really like this one.
Dilemma At Goodheart Ranch - A bittersweet ending. At least Tobias won’t hurt anyone else.
I had a Lane Cedar Chest. The younger generation didn't want to inherit it, and I sold it for $20 when I saw hundreds of them for sale on eBay. It was my grandfather's wedding gift to my mother. That's what I think of when I smell the scent of cedar.
"Getting Up There In Age" - we moved into an "active seniors" community when DH was at the minimum age and I was younger. Eight years later, I miss not seeing children and teens in the neighborhood. The ambulance is coming more frequently each month, and residents then are no longer seen walking and waving hello. We can't move right now, but wish we could. We try and do as much as we can in the larger community.
Your story about Christmas visits to your Grandma's brought back so many similar memories. Thanks, Mark!
Ahhh cedar, love it. Being the youngest of 7 children we would file out of our bed rooms( the boys bedroom held all 4 of them barely and girls room held us 3 barely, it was a very small house my dad built) to see what Santa left us...only after eating a bowl of oatmeal meal or cream of wheat. The only time we were allowed to eat in our rooms. Mom wanted to make sure we ate good knowing we would fill up on goodies from our stockings. One of my many favorite memories, Christmas is still my favorite time of year. Mom and Dad were busy wrapping and hiding gifts in the attic and neighbors house which was my Aunts ironically. Lol. They were such big kids. As you can see this took me down memory lane. Love it Mark..thankyou 😊🎄
Sounds similar to my experience. Great memories. Thanks for sharing them. 🤓
Yes wouldn't trade them for anything in this world 😊
I loved “The Smell of Cedar”, Mark. It’s beautiful. The added photos only made it come to life that much more for me. My parents used to do the same thing on Christmas morning, too. Talk about torture. As a kid, those minutes felt like eons! 🤣
Thanks, Justin. Yeah, the waiting was torture! 🤣
It's so interesting how smells and sights and sounds can bring up memories. For me it was the western story you included in this one. Made me think of my grandma. She's always watching old westerns when we visit.
So true! I remember watching Carol Burnette at my Grandma's house. And my uncle laughing so hard it made us all laugh.
Your cedar story reminded me of Deb’s place when I met her. The 3rd floor was built as storage, but a previous owner “finished” it as a large bedroom without paying to run heating up to it. The heat (such as it was) came through a large grate set in the middle of the floor, allowing warm air to go up while cold air flowed down the stairs. In theory, anyway. In practice, nieces and nephews who stayed over had to choose between the chilly independence of their own huge bedroom, or sleeping on the couch. Deb tried a space heater, which lead to the discovery of the electric circuitry also not being upgraded.
Sounds very similar. I am not sure why my Grandfather didn't run heat up there. Maybe the furnace couldn't handle it. Or maybe it was a money issue. But with three daughters, they needed that upstairs bedroom.
Good story Mark. Thank you! My favorite tree is Insence Cedar - specifically in the Lassen National Forest - because of the smell.
Thanks, Nathan. That sounds like a great place to spend time. 😀
Totally is 🌲hope you are well in the world sir
The Christmas story is my favorite, I like the idea of not wrapping the gifts.
I just remembered why the presents weren't wrapped. They were from Santa!
When we had kids we didn't want to make Santa the focus of Christmas, so we only gave our kids one present from Santa and the rest came wrapped, from us.
Thanks, Scott. My parents had to stuff the trunk with presents for the drive to Grandma's house so we wouldn't know about them. So it was probably easier to just not wrap them. 🤣
I loved all of your tales this morning. I enjoy reading on a rainy, cold Monday!
Thanks, Kim. Rainy days are great reading days. 😀
Thanks Mark. I truly enjoyed the story.
Thank you, Finlay. I appreciate it! 😀