2024 Writing Prompts

Patience and Experience

/ animar64 / Leave a comment

RDP Tuesday: PATIENCE

Patience
Sebald Beham1540

My Great Grandmother ( six times removed ) was named Experience and her sister who died when she was only five years old was named Patience.

Their Father’s name was Lancelot and his wife was named Eve.

The name ” Patience ” shows up often in our family tree but not so much ” Experience “.

If you knew the women in my family, you’d think that was funny too.

Death Painting – Life and death by Unknown artist Life and death is a painting by Unknown artist which was uploaded on June 24th, 2022.Previous Image PREV | NEXT Next ImageFavorite 0 Comment 0
Life and death
Unknown artist by Unknown artist

One Request

/ animar64 / 1 Comment

Photographer Unknown

Wrap me in a shroud- a flannel one stamped with dogs and maybe a cat or two

don’t put me in  box, don’t line my grave with marble or stone

don’t bury me deep, leave me in a shallow grave,

that way I won’t have to work so hard when I claw my way back out again.

You made me work hard for it the last time you buried me.

Remember? You buried me deep.

Was that necessary? Was it really?

RDP Monday: SHALLOW

Sarah Was Here

/ animar64 / 2 Comments

Thursday’s Inspiration: SOUL

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Saint Mary’s Cemetery
“Annunciation Cemetery”
Fox Lake Wisconsin, USA

I explore cemeteries and believe it or not, what I am looking for are stories.

Sometimes I find those stories in a name, or in the artwork , so below I’ve jotted down  a few thoughts about the gravestones I’ve seen in my past adventures:

Oakwood Cemetery
Beaver Dam, WI
A.M. Moscoso

I was wondering why I saw dogs on the headstones of  mostly children’s graves.

They really must have loved dogs in life, I thought. Or maybe it was the hope the child would have a companion standing over them.

It turns out I was almost right. The dog is there to protect the grave and to express a wish for companionship for their child.

Some adults have dogs on their gravestones too, but I find it interesting that people leave an image of a dog with their children.

It’s like they asked themselves: do I trust angels to watch over my child in their eternal sleep, or do I trust a dog?

Dogs seem to be the choice a lot of people have made.

Saint Mary’s Cemetery
Fox Lake, Wisconsin USA
Photo A,M. Moscoso

A hand clutching lilies and the finger pointing upwards represent can represent  fidelity and resurrection ( it’s hard to tell what kind of lilies they are )  and the finger pointing upwards is showing that Sarah’s soul has gone to Heaven.

Is this a message to people strolling through the graveyard? Sarah isn’t here, her loved ones are saying to us.

She  isn’t’ here. She went that way.

But did she? Or is she standing right next to you with a bunch of lilies clutched in her hand and is she looking up trying to decide if she really wants to leave?

She has all eternity to make up her mind.

Photo A.M. Moscoso
October 22, 2023 · Beaver Dam, WI ·
— at Oakwood Cemetery.

This is the sarcophagus of Prince Thutmose’s Cat. The inscriptions serve the same purpose as the symbols on the grave markers above and like the hopes expressed in stone above, Prince Thutmose was asking that the soul of his cat be protected and guided to  ” The Field of Reeds “.

He carved symbols and instructions to how his cat’s soul should be cared for.

Good for the Prince- his priorities were in order and I’m sure he and his cat found each other in the end.

Photo A.M. Moscoso
Sarcophagus For Prince Thutmose’s Cat. King Tut Exhibit Seattle Washington

We leave stories behind us in so many ways. This way fascinates me to no end.

amm

Welcome To Camp Harmony!

/ animar64 / 1 Comment

For FOWC with Fandango: WOUND

In Puyallup Washington at the Puyallup Fairgrounds – where every year a jingle hit the airwaves that invited you to ” do the Puyallup ‘ in the exact spot where Camp Harmony’ once stood.

Before it was called The Western Washington Fairgrounds where you can now do things like eat fair food and pet giant Clydesdale horses  where you can see fireworks shows and ride carnival rides and watch people get blue  for their champion show rabbits and catch concerts by cool acts Joan Jett,   during WWII American citizens of Japanese ancestry were sent  to ” Camp Harmony ” ( now the home of the Fairgrounds ) and trust me, nobody sent there was bopping along to jingles like ” Do the Puyallup ” as they lined up in the mud and waited to be ‘processed’.

My friend’s family were among those Japanese- Americans sent to Camp Harmony and here’s the kicker- he was in the  US Army at the time. While he was off fighting for the United States, his family were sitting in Camp Harmony.

If you’re wondering if he ever got over the fact that while  his family were in a detention camp and he was not, he never did.

Bainbridge Island High School pupils bid farewell to their Japanese American classmates, March 1942

The location for the assembly center AKA Camp Harmony  was on and around the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington. It consisted of four distinct areas:

  • A, with a population of about 2000, located northeast of the fairgrounds.
  • B, with a population of about 1200, just east of the fairgrounds in the vicinity of the current Blue parking lot.
  • C, with a population of about 800, located northwest of the fairgrounds.
  • D, with a population of about 3000, located on the fairgrounds proper in the area including the racetrack and grandstand, east of the roller coaster

  • Internees lined up in the rain, Camp Harmony (Puyallup Assembly Center), 1942

You have to understand, all of these places listed above I’ve parked there, I’ve walked all over the fairgrounds and rode the roller coaster.

The Puyallup Fairground/ Western Washington Fairground  is a happy clappy place where you can eat cotton candy and send your kids off to play in a boucy house and you can even visit a ghost town but that doesn’t really change the fact that the Puyallup Fairgrounds WERE a concentration camp designed to hold American Citizens.

And today it would seem that the Trust Fund Brat who is now the President Elect wants to bring back places  like Camp Harmony and fill it with people brought there at gun point by US Soldiers.

Some wounds never heal like the one left behind by Camp Harmony.

Eventually they fester and pop and ooze  no matter how many bandaids you slap on them.

Puyallup Assembly Center, ” Camp Harmony “1942