the wedding dress

December 5, 2008 – 2:21 pm

This notice appeared recently in the classified section of a large city’s newspaper.

FOR SALE: Very beautiful, brand new wedding dress, never been worn.

There is most certainly a story behind the notice. But is it a story of relief as she canceled the wedding because she was about to marry the wrong person? Or is it a story of heart break because she was abandoned on the way to the altar?

I prefer to believe it was a story of relief; that her “Mr. Wonderful” will arrive soon, a new even more “very beautiful” dress will replace the one being sold, and the world will right itself again.

I belief that wishes do come true. and I also believe in the power of positive thought. If all of you will join me and think positive thoughts, we can make this possible.

Come on, think positive! Let’s make this story have a Cinderella ending.

© 2008 by John Daly

By John Daly . Posted in Vignettes . Comments (0)

oatmeal raisin cookies

December 4, 2008 – 1:34 pm

I was in a Bakery/Delicatessen section of a large grocery store recently looking for something in the freshly baked cookie category. A very pretty, very southern talking, twenty something year old woman was behind the bakery counter.

“Do you have any oatmeal raisin cookies?,” I asked her, they being my favorite cookie.

She said she did. I didn’t see them because they were partially hidden by trays of peanut butter cookies , which I consider to be inedible.

I ordered a dozen, and she beamed her brightest smile.

“I hope you like them. I made them myself. It’s my first time baking in this store.”

“How many did you make?”

“Twenty dozen. I never made that many of anything before!”

Being an aficionado of oatmeal raisin cookies, I exercised my right to try one even before I left the store. It was great!

I went back and told her so. I also gave her a victory hands clasped together over my head high sign. She was in the middle of weighing delicatessen food for a customer. She stopped in the middle of her weighing chores, and digested what I had just told her.

When she had finished enjoying the compliment, she gave me another dazzling smile. Who knows, I may have been the first customer of the next new pastry and desert chef of future fame. I like to think that I was.

It’s fun to be present when a star is born.

© 2008 by John Daly

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storage boxes

November 27, 2008 – 12:20 pm

Maybe some of you can identify with this scenario that I witnessed recently. It happened in an office supply store. I was waiting next in line to take my turn with the check out cashier. First in line was a man with a shopping cart filled to capacity with large storage size plastic boxes. He had seven boxes in his cart. Four were pink and three were blue. An uneven number.

“Don’t you have one more blue box back there in your storage room?,” he asked the clerk in a pleading voice.

“I’m sorry sir, everything we have is here on the sales floor.”

The man looked over his shoulder at the check out line building up behind him. He sighed and then removed one of the pink boxes from his cart.

“I’ll just take these six then,” he said.

We all waited while the clerk totaled up his purchases. While we were waiting, I said to him,

“It’s probably good that they didn’t have anymore blue boxes. All the experts tell us we should all down-size.”

He turned to me and smiled wistfully and said,

“I know, I know, but when you have kids—. I have two, a boy and a girl. You have to keep the number of boxes equal. You can’t have favorites. My wife tries to keep all their stuff together in these boxes until she has time to go through them and throw out stuff. But somehow she never has time. I try to help but she says she can do it better by herself. My job now is just to keep buying more of these damn boxes. It seems sometimes like it will never end.”

Then he paid and left. I saw him a few minutes later in the parking lot trying to cram all the boxes into the trunk of his car.

Can any of you identify with this story? I thought so.

© 2008  by John Daly

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conversation on an elevator

November 17, 2008 – 11:12 pm

 

Did you ever wonder how authors who write fiction find ideas for their stories? I sometimes do it by observing, and later recording on paper, those small life stories I have witnessed. I prefer to catagorize them as Vignettes. Here is one of those Vignettes.

I was in an elevator one day in a condominium building at an Atlantic Ocean beach resort, about 10:00 AM on a sunny day in August. The building was facing the ocean, but it also had an indoor swimming pool. The walls of the elevator were made of glass so that the passengers could have a view of the pool as they rode up and down 

As I was waiting for the elevator to arrive and take me down to the pool level, a young little girl about three and a half feet high, in a swim suit, with a pony tail, and carrying a small stuffed Teddy Bear approached me.

“Have you seen my friend?  She’s dressed just like me,” she announced.

I allowed that I indeed had not seen her. We then entered the elevator together. Since we were the only two people in the elevator, it was very quiet. My young companion was looking out of the glass wall of the elevator toward the pool, searching for her friend.

“Is your friend younger or older than you,” I began.

“Oh, she’s older. She’s nine. I’m only eight.”

There was a long silence while she reviewed her statement. Then finally,

“I’m really not eight yet. My birthday is two months from now–then I’ll be eight.”

Now that her conscience was cleared, she turned to me and said,

“Goodbye,” and then she left the elevator headed for the pool to find her friend.

 I think that there was a message in there for all of us. I know there was a story there for me to write.

© 2008 by John Daly

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