The Question

RDP Prompt: The Day After

The Day after Christmas

just as my alarm went off this morning

and before I even opened my eyes

I wondered if it was going to snow, eventually

I wondered if I should have eaten more instead of less.

I took a breath-just a little breath- and then

I opened my eyes, and I asked myself

the most important questions of all:

How many days is it until Halloween?

You Sleigh Me!

Word of The Day Challenge: SLEIGH

PHOTO A.M. MOSCOSO

I was in the fourth grade I wrote a story about Christmas Trees.

I didn’t get a grade on it, what I got was a note to my Mom asking for her to come in for a parent/teacher conference.

My Mom signed it, ” At least you get paid for being around her. ”  Then she told my Dad what I wrote and he told my story to everyone at Christmas dinner that year and they loved it. Here is  roughly how the story went:

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

My story began in a haunted forest full of restless ghosts.

A long time ago, I wrote, people who lived near the haunted forest used to chop the heads off of the prettiest people in their village and they hung the heads from the trees.

The Ghosts liked the trees full of pretty severed heads so much that they would stay in the forest and sit around the trees and they didn’t feel like they had to go and haunt anyone’s houses.

It was considered a great honor to have your head chopped off and hung from the trees in the haunted forest.

Later, after all the pretty people ran away to live in a village where they didn’t have to worry about getting their heads cut off, the Villagers started to hang pretty little ornaments from the trees in the forest. Lucky for the Villagers the ghosts in the haunted forest liked this idea.

So from then on every winter people started to hang ornaments on their trees and that is why we have Christmas Trees now.

By Anita Godfrey

Age 10

December 1973

PHOTO A.M. MOSCOSO
DECEMBER 2024

Remember Grover’s Mill, New Jersey?

WP Prompters ask: What skills or lessons have you learned recently and I have to say, it’s not what I’ve learned recently, it’s a lesson I have had confirmed recently and that lesson is: People never learn.

For example, lets talk about Grover’s Mill, New Jersey

1938 Martian Landing Site Monument

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Carl Phillips again, out at the Wilmuth farm, Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. Professor Pierson and myself made the 11 miles from Princeton in 10 minutes. Well, I—I hardly know where to begin to paint for you a word picture of the strange scene before my eyes, like something out of a modern Arabian Nights.”

“Well, I just got here. I haven’t had a chance to look around yet. I guess that’s it. Yes, I guess—that’s the thing, directly in front of me, half buried in a vast pit. Must have struck with terrific force. The ground is covered with splinters of a tree it must have struck on its way down. What I can see of the object itself doesn’t look very much like a meteor, at least not the meteors I have seen. It looks more like a huge cylinder.”

The words above were broadcast on the evening of October 30, 1938, as part of a radio drama adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic The War of the Worlds

According to social media, drones have been swarming the skies over New Jersey and it’s driving people a little crazy. I get it, but I live in an area where people have gone a little drone happy, so I’m used to seeing them buzz around. I mean, my friend got one for Mother’s Day a few years ago and when she wants to unwind she goes out and  flies it  around. 

I asked her if she’s every hit anything or crashed it and she said no.

For real.

I don’t believe her.

 

Drones over New Jersey
Photographer Unknown

In the case of the New Jersey drones, nobody knows why the drones are  bedeviling the locals but apparently shooting them down in self defense has been floated as an option. Fun fact, I remember my Grandfather telling me that people were taking up arms because they really believed Martians were going invading Earth. I remember thinking that was dumb. If something could build a spaceship and literally land it in your back yard I doubted a gun was going to be of much use to you.

In this case, you could have  fended a few Martians off I suppose.

In  the drone situation, there’s plenty more drones where these came from. I think you can order them from Amazon Prime and the shipping is free.

I don’t know about the car sized one that people say they’ve seen. You probably have to wait longer and pay more for shipping. My point is, you can bring them down and somebody can have it replaced with a tap of their finger.

Photo:William Dock OF Grovers Mill, New Jersey with his shotgun ready to take on Invaders from Mars.
Photographer Unknown
1938 New Jersey USA

I really do hope that nobody gets hurt in this drone sighting business. However, Trump supporters are now claiming ( let me throw this out there-  that somebody may have taken a page from Orson Well’s radio show  idea in order to ‘control’ the public ).

Somewhere in the great beyond H.G Wells and Orson Wells are looking down upon the Magats and then they are looking at each other and saying ” You cannot make this up and God knows I tried.”

 

No Words

After losing two of his dogs suddenly in the last few years, my cousin and Lexus  ( X-Man ) came into each other’s lives.

Lexus is John’s pride and joy even though he had all the  makings of John’s other champion show dogs, Lexus seemed to take on the role as a companion and was a couch dog.

Lex was a big dog but he really was John’s little boy.

Photo John Cox

My cousin passed away in May.

He was grooming Lexus when his heart failed.

When they found John shortly after his heart attack, Lexus was laying next to him- of course Lexus knew John had passed on but he stayed with him all the same.  I’m sure Lexus heart was broken, I’m sure he knew when it was that my cousin had truly left. I felt sorry that Lexus would never be able to tell his story.

But as I thought about John and Lexus I remembered that I’ve sat with friends and family who had passed on or were in the process of leaving us and the thoughts I’ve had I’ve never really shared with anyone because words can’t capture that moment and maybe they’re not meant to.

I suppose then, that Lexus doesn’t need to say a word.

I know how he feels.

John and Lexus

RDP SUNDAY MEDITATE