Non Fiction | Susan's Place

Feb 22

Liberty

FFE

The following is written for a challenge over at Fandango’s called Fandango’s February Expression #22.

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, will be to post a story, a poem, an image, an interpretation of what the expression means to you, or to do whatever it is that you want to do based upon the daily adage.

Image by Mr_Incognito_ from Pixabay

This saying conjures up a memory from my past about a dog, a family pet, an Irish Setter named Liberty.

Quite often when I was a teen, my parents, our dog, and I would go for a car ride (usually for most of the day). That was back when you didn’t have to mortgage your house to buy gas.

Back to the point of this post…

We would always bring water and a dish for Liberty in case she got thirsty. She always refused to drink the water. When we would stop somewhere we would let her out of the car to have a bathroom break. The strange thing is that she would never relieve herself no matter how many hours we were gone. As soon as we got home however she’d race into the backyard to do her business. I don’t know how she was able to hold it for so long. Must have had a really good bladder.

Feb 6

4 Comments

A Woman’s Place is in the Home #FFE

Image by David D from Pixabay

A woman’s place is in the home, or a woman’s place is in the kitchen reminds me of a story my father told me long ago. He was in the Canadian Navy and was in Scotland during WWII. He’d just met a young woman and she’d taken him home to meet her parents. After the introductions were made and everyone was seated in the parlour the girls’ father sternly said to his wife, “woman, get back in the kitchen where you belong.”

This angered my father and he was about to say something when the girl grabbed onto his arm as if to say leave it alone and just let it be.

Shortly after my father said he had to get back to his ship and left.

The origin of this phrase dates back to 467 B.C., where it was said: “Let women stay at home and hold their peace.”

There were various forms of the saying over the years and in:

November 1970, Time magazine printed a piece titled Newcomers in the House. Bella Abzug campaigned for office in the US Congress using the slogan “This woman’s place is in the House… the House of Representatives.”

This piece was written for Fandango’s February Expressions #6.

Dec 6

6 Comments

How Much Farther

montreal to la

This was written for today’s FOWC With Fandango or Fandango’s One Word Challenge. Today’s word is “MAP”.

My dad and I were traveling from Montreal to Los Angeles and I was the map reader. This was many years ago. When I think back now about it I have to laugh. Dad would ask how much farther to the next city and I’d look at the map and instead of answering him with the number of miles to go I would show him with my thumb and index finger and say about this far.

Jul 11

23 Comments

A Lucky Day

Image by tookapic from Pixabay

I’m feeling lucky today so let’s go to the casino.

Nah, I never win, and my horoscope says my money is low, but you can go, I don’t mind staying home.

Just for half an hour, come with me and I’ll buy you a beer.

We went and a slot machine had my attention, so I had to play it, but the twenty I put in rapidly went down.

See, what did I tell you, I never win, I have no luck at all.

Then on the last spin, the machine burst into wild spins and ended up paying $220.00.

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This Six Sentence Story was written for a challenge over at Denise’s. This weeks word prompt is “BURST”

Jun 27

27 Comments

Follow Your Dreams

new in town

Available on Amazon

She longed to write poetry ever since she was three

determined to be a writer was her dream you see.

At six she decided she’d write a book one day

then someone told her she should write a play.

In school, she took a class all about Poe

and had to write a story to show what she did know.

When she was a young adult, she wrote poetry about life

and when she was older, they were about wildlife.

In her fifties, she wrote her first book

and followed her dreams without a second look.

She lived a simple fulfilling life

as a mother and a wife.

Written for Denise’s challenge; Six Sentence Story using the word simple.

Jun 20

26 Comments

Catch and Release

This was written for Six Sentence Story over at Denise’s.

Image by Mr_Incognito_ from Pixabay

Liberty, an Irish Setter, was a beautiful, well behaved, dog that my mom and dad had rescued back in the late ’70s.

She was funny as when we’d go for car rides, she wouldn’t do her business anywhere other than in our backyard. It didn’t matter if she was away from the house for six hours, she’d hold until she got home.

One day I was watching her in the backyard playing catch and release with a frog that came to visit.

She’d catch the frog, hold it in her mouth for a few seconds, then let it go and then run and catch it again, and again.

Liberty was one of the gentlest dogs I’ve ever known.