A friend of mine leads a writers club. I attend each meeting, but never wrote a fiction story – I attend his meetings to be more of an observing learner than a participant.  But, he and I have been talking about setting up a sub-group of folks from the writers club and

the photo club to write stories around photos we take.   Last week he assigned this challenge – write a story around this photo:

I took it a step further and said let me try to illustrate each paragraph that I will write.  So, rather then take time to photograph the needed illustrations, I went to the internet and found some photos.   I was testing an idea – How many photos, where to place them – with or without captions – Wow, I have much to learn. But, for this test, I was sure borrowed photos would work OK, since it was only a test.  Read on and tell me what you think.

FIRST: Click on the TGO Photo Club page in the left column.  Dave Cesari posted some  photos of winter in the North country that you will not want to miss – not only for their beauty but if you study them, as we talked in our last meeting, what a learning experience you will have just by studying these photos – they are great.

“IT IS A GOOD LIFE” by Jim Brubaker: Here is my first fiction story:

 Woody was a farm boy in the mountains of Pennsylvania. From day 1 of his life he was surrounded by love. His parents were Brethren church members, his aunts and uncles were Brethren, his 6 neighbors were Brethren church members, and they were all farmers.

Foot Washing

Did you know that part of a special church service four times per year was a foot washing and a love feast – a feast of fellowship and love. 

The farm was large enough for Woody to have a portion of the farm for he and his new bride. But, OOPS!

Where did woody go to school – on the bus – the first generation that did not attend the two room school in the middle of the 7 Brethren farms of woody’s birth place. No, the county decided that all local schools would be closed and all would be bussed to a central school in Center City – a headquarters for the coal  mine that literally owned the company store, all houses, the streets, and even th

Town and people owned by the Coal Company

e swimming pool in Center City.

  They did not own the 2 Catholic churches, so they said (Roman and Russian).  Of course the Brethren folks did not wish to acknowledge such a life – there was never a bad word spoke of it – just sort of a “They do not really exist as real people – they are a foreign sort of human”  

Let’s leave this back ground stuff and jump ahead to when Woody married Mary

Mary and Woody’s wedding was not in the tradition of the Brethren simple life

– both age 18 -Yipes Mary was Mary Sloviechi, a Catholic, from Center City.

Would the “simple life”  traditional Brethren share the farm with Woody and embrace this Union?

In short, they did not get their share of the farm.  So, to quickly move on – Mary and Woody hitch-hiked to California.

Their first ride took them all the way to L.A.

What happened there? You guessed it, they turned to drugs, parties, small burglaries to support their life style.

Mary was not satisfied with her life of small drugs, sleeping in the park and laying on the beach. She needed more money – You guessed  it, her new boy friend

Sleeping in the park

and her schemed to do the First National Bank – did not go as planned – that was obvious when the boy friend jumped in the getaway car and left Mary standing there to shoot it out with the police – not a good shot proved to be the end of Mary for this story.

Jump ahead two years.  Woody, to Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island.  Just out of rehab, taken in by Mary’s mother, Mrs Sloviechi, who by this time owned the Mining Company and had a home on the cliffs of Rodman’s Hollow on the south side of the Island.

The Good Life Estate on Block Island by ocean

They became family, Woody clean of drugs – Oh, he did keep one dose of drugs in plain view on the mantel, just to prove to Mother Sloviechi that he was clean.  Mother completely relying on him to feed, dress and care for her for 2 years. Woody expected to spend the rest of his life on this very expensive estate on the cliffs of Rodmans’s Hollow – THE GOOD LIFE

Monday morning after the reading of the will. Woody got nothing, the Nature Conservancy of the Island got the estate with instructions that Woody should leave the estate within two days – this legal requirement was done to show how much Mother Sloviechi hated Woody for taking her daughter to California and destroying her.

Running as a child – pretending to be an airplane or a California Glider.

Monday Noon – The mantel is empty.  The crashing of the Atlantic waves are hitting the rocks below the top of the cliffs on Rodman’s Hollow.  Woody’s mind is back in the Brethren Pennsylvania farm community, dreaming he is running along the farm road, arms outstretched as if he is a California glider plane about to launch from the end of the road at the cliff’s edge.  WHAT HAPPENED NEXT in the story of “IT IS A GOOD LIFE” by Jim Brubaker

As you swing thru life – Think about the twists and turns that shaped you – or did you shape the life – anyway you control “What Happens Next”