Had a Walk Down Memory Lane?

Jason · Nov 11, 2016

My folks just sold their house in upstate NY recently and have retired to the South. In doing so, they sent me a care package of many many reams of mementos kept over my childhood years. Many of these were short stories (and when I say "short" I mean really short.

I started scanning these into my computer and this one made me stop and laugh, so decided to share it here (spelling corrected of course!). Take it with a grain of salt, and if you have your own memories to share, by all means, share away!

The Friendly Ghost
Once there was a ghost named Georgie Mondellow. He was like every other ghost except for one thing, he was a friendly ghost.

Georgie's ghost booing records were falling down like ripe apples. The ghosts that keep the records wanted to find out what was going on.

"Georgie, your records have been falling down like ripe apples lately. Why aren't you booing like other ghosts?"

Georgie shrugged his shoulders and went on his way.

Then a green ghost came along in Georgie's path. Georgie got an idea. The second Georgie and the green ghost met (oh, by the way, the green ghosts' name was Mark), Georgie let out one great, big, loud BOO!!!!!

The minute that happened, the green ghost was a scared, flying away white ghost. That moment the ghost record keepers came along. Then Georgie knew everybody was going to be happy.

The end

Maggie Maxwell · Nov 11, 2016

Haha, this is adorable.

You could probably easily rework it into a children's story with a few minor changes.

Jade Rothwell · Nov 11, 2016

That's a really cute story

Silva · Nov 11, 2016

Haha, I have a couple preciouses from childhood, too. It's super fun reading them now, huh? Hope I'll feel that magnanimous about my current work in the future. :tongue

Jason · Nov 11, 2016

Maggie Maxwell said:
Haha, this is adorable. You could probably easily rework it into a children's story with a few minor changes.

Heh, not a children's author despite my childish behavior from time to time but ty!

Feel free to share your own!

Scripty said:
That's a really cute story

Better than most of the drivel I am trying as an adult, that's for sure!

Again, feel free to share your own!

Silva said:
Haha, I have a couple preciouses from childhood, too. It's super fun reading them now, huh? Hope I'll feel that magnanimous about my current work in the future.

Hang on, I gotta go look up "magnanimous" Share you own as you wish!

shakeysix · Nov 11, 2016

Georgie the Ghost is a children's book character in a series by Robert Bright. I read the books as a kid and have a copy for my grandkids--the one I am holding is called Georgie Goes West. Better change the ghost's name. Other than that, and that Georgie is a friendly ghost, your story is not like the story I have. captain Kangaroo used to read the stories on his program. How's that for memory lane? --s6

Jason · Nov 11, 2016

shakeysix said:
Georgie the Ghost is a children's book character in a series by Robert Bright. I read the books as a kid and have a copy for my grandkids--the one I am holding is called Georgie Goes West. Better change the ghost's name. Other than that, and that Georgie is a friendly ghost, your story is not like the story I have. captain Kangaroo used to read the stories on his program. How's that for memory lane? --s6

Ha, I must've read it as a kid, and been emulating the author. The date from the writing assignment was Oct. 16th, 1980 (oh God, I was ten years old! LOL). Seeing as I have no intention of really doing anything with it, nothing is going to change, but thanks for the suggestion.

Feel free to share your own stories you wrote as a kid though as that really is the purpose of the thread

ETA: I remember Captain Kangaroo, but never had the pleasure of watching it - my folks refused to succumb to the television until much later - they were old skool! Of course now they use an Apple TV and all they do is watch news shows and sports stuff in their twilight years! Go figure...

shakeysix · Nov 11, 2016

Mine is copyright 1973 but there were others in the series. I was in my twenties in 73. The line drawings are cute and look more like the sixties. I'm betting you read one as a kid and loved the idea. It is a cute idea, a friendly ghost. I think you should do something with the idea.

I used the kid's book. "Georgie the Ghost" in a chapter in a novel of mine, a dad read it to his daughter. Always loved a ghost story when I was little. I wrote several but they all trailed off without an ending because I don't believe the really scary stuff and did not want to use anything over the top. To me a real ghost story is something subtle, that can't be proven one way or another--like "Turn of the Screw" or "Wuthering Heights" (it begins with a very good ghost story) -- those are harder to write because so many readers want the real bloody writing on the walls action, action, action. None of mine are worth sharing. --s6

A. F. Blackmon · Nov 11, 2016

CBJason said:
Georgie's ghost booing records were falling down like ripe apples. The ghosts that keep the records wanted to find out what was going on.

Love the ripe apples! When you find a good simile you milk it for all it's got, haha

Silva · Nov 11, 2016

Okay, I'll play.

This piece is about an army of safety pins vs. a kleptomaniac happy meals toy from the Babe era. I think I was ten when I wrote it. It's a bit long, so I'll just post the beginning:

SLIP-JAW AND THE BEADNAPPING

A long time ago, in the laundry room during the year of 1999, a strange occurrence happened. It wasn't all that strange for Ferdinand the goose, he was doing his normal thing, but it would seem quite strange for humans. This is how it happened.

Slip-jaw the safety pin was doing his usual job,visiting all the sentry safety pins, making sure they were doing their job, and so that they could report anything strange they had seen or heard. He was walking along, his thumbs stuck in his buttonholes whistling some strange new-fangled song that he had heard Pearl Poke, his advisor, humming.
All of the sudden, he heard something, and stopped mid-hop and mid-tune. Then he listened.

Silence.

More silence.

Then he perked up. He listened, then he heard a very quiet mumble. It obviously wasn't one of his sentries, they never complained. So he listened some more. The noise was coming closer, He heard aslap-aslap.

"Hmm." He thought. "That narrows it down to a duck or a goose. And they're much bigger than me." He looked around frantically. "Ah-ha! I knew it! A small pile of flour!" He exclaimed. He ran toward it and buried himself. Just after he did that a large goose (tiny for us but large for Slip-jaw), mumbling to himself, waddled by.

Slip-jaw just managed to hear, "Hope they have better pickings here than they did over there." And then the goose was past and Slip-jaw got up to follow it into the laundry room.

Jason · Nov 11, 2016

That's awesome! I like yours better!

Silva · Nov 11, 2016

How magnanimous of you.

Jason · Nov 11, 2016

Hmmm, maybe toward myself, but not toward you:

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/magnanimous

magnanimous
[mag-nan-uh-muh s]
adjective
1.
generous in forgiving an insult or injury; free from petty resentfulness or vindictiveness:
to be magnanimous toward one's enemies.

And thanks, I'd forgotten to go look it up!

Silva · Nov 11, 2016

Hah. That's not the definition I had in mind. I understand it to simply mean "having a generous spirit towards others."

Jason · Nov 12, 2016

Ah, gotcha...any others wanna share a story they wrote when they were younger that just made you smile?

Lillian_Blaire · Nov 12, 2016

I don't have it (it's in a box at my mom's house) but in first grade we made a book all about the things we liked. Each page (and there were about 20 of them) we had to write what we liked and then draw a picture of it. But somehow the teacher neglected to point out to me at any time during those 20 pages, that I was spelling "like" wrong. So, page after page says stuff like, "I lick my family", "I lick my dog", "I lick my friends". "I lick pretty flowers". Every time I read it I laugh myself to tears.

Had a Walk Down Memory Lane?

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

Maggie Maxwell

Making Einstein cry since 1994

Jade Rothwell

rolling dice

Silva

saucy

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy

A. F. Blackmon

Silva

saucy

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

Silva

saucy

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

Silva

saucy

Jason

Ideas bounce around in my head

Lillian_Blaire

Procrastinator Extraordinaire