The Friday Night Dance

Earlier this year, a friend at the Portsmouth Public Library in Ohio, alerted me to a call for submissions of short stories about southern Ohio from the Shawnee State University English Department.  I submitted two manuscripts and was delighted when I was notified in late October that one would be used.  The committee at Shawnee State University selected "The Friday Night Dance," which was originally published in my memoir titled "On Harrisonville Avenue."

I re-purposed "Friday Night" for submission, taking out references to earlier parts of "Harrisonville" and clarifying other points to make the story stand alone and make sense.  I was also careful to retain the sketch of a naive and inexperienced 13 year old boy's first venture into being on his own at night, escorting a girl to her home, and receiving his first french kiss. When finished, the manuscript was 4500 words and twenty pages.

In revising "Friday Night," I was reminded of what a wonderful time it was to grow up in a town where there was Steel Mill full-employment, neighborhoods with alleys, kids your age, and shared parental standards where any adult who witnessed a kid doing something offensive could call that offender out on the spot (and then call the kid's parents to report what had happened).

Yes, there were more bars than churches, yes there was a den of iniquity that every boy was told "don't go in there" (the Tiger's Den Pool Hall), yes, you had to have your clothes taken off the line when the blast furnace was tapped at 4:00 p.m., and...yes, there was a town drunk who annoyed everyone with his too loud, off-key singing just as you were trying to go to sleep at night -- but there were more than a fair share of positives as well: Little League baseball fields, a lake, a football stadium, tennis courts, caring teachers and civic minded citizens who elected officials with clear principles.

It was a different time.

The Ryan Budget Plan

Below is the Ryan Budget Plan stated without any hyperbole, emotive adjectives or spin:

The latest (March, 2012) full-scale version of the plan, vows to cut spending by $5 trillion over the next decade.

Persons currently 55 or older would not be effected by the Ryan Plan. The plan would, a decade from now, give seniors the option of taking a government payment to purchase health insurance. That payment could be used to buy a private insurance plan, or go toward the traditional Medicare plan. The plan calls for extra assistance to help low-income beneficiaries and those with "greater health risks." 

The plan would overhaul Medicaid by turning it into a block grant system for states. 

The plan would cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. It would implement two individual income tax brackets -- 10 percent and 25 percent – and lock in the Bush tax cuts

The plan would head off the scheduled automatic defense cuts, first by diverting the planned $55 million defense cut in 2013 by implementing those cuts elsewhere. 

The plan would head off the scheduled automatic cuts to Social Security in 2013.

This post was developed by reading the ABC News version of the Ryan Plan, the Fox News version, the Wall Street Journal version and the Washington Post version.

Your New Driveway

HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR NEW ASPHALT DRIVEWAY

• We ask that you keep car traffic off your driveway for at least 3 days. If temperatures are real hot we ask that you try not to park on your drive for up to 5 days. You may walk on your drive right away.
• Your driveway will need 6-12 months to harden and cure. It will remain soft and pliable until then. Even after it has cured it will not be as hard as concrete. Your driveway will soften and harden as temperatures rise and fall. Please be aware of this in hot temperatures. If you wish, you may water down your drive with a hose on hot days to temporarily harden the drive.
• Spot damage may occur on your drive if cars start out or stop too fast. This also may happen if you turn your steering wheel when the car is not moving. To prevent pits, holes or gouges in your drive avoid using lawn chairs or kickstands on your drive. They exert weight on concentrated areas and will mar your drive. When using car jacks, ramps or storing boats or campers, place a piece of plywood under them to help distribute the weight.
• Large heavy trucks will depress your new blacktop. Keep concrete and other heavy trucks off your new driveway.
• Avoid driving off the edges of your driveway. They will crack and crumble due to lack of side support. You may support the sides by building up the edges with topsoil. But please do not do this until after the driveway has cured. (6-12 months)

• You must keep dirt off the asphalt surface at all times. The dirt pulls the oils out of the blacktop.
• It is natural for the texture of your driveway surface to be varied. It is caused by the various sizes of sand, stone and other ingredients that make up asphalt. Also, areas that are done by hand will appear different than those done by machine.
• Gasoline, Oil, Anti-freeze, transmission and power steering fluid will soften and break up your driveway. These should be professionally repaired.
• Cracks may develop over the winter due to the contraction and expansion of the ground. These should be filled with crack filler.
• If you wish you may seal your driveway with a Coal tar sealer, but we recommend that you wait at least 1 year. Sealer will protect your driveway if you have any gas or oil spills and will give your drive that new black look.

Locusts and Wild Honey, Part II

Yesterday, I posted a portion of my short story, "Locusts and Wild Honey," in which two of the storylines were revealed.  Below, are the opening paragraphs of the story in which another thread is established.  It is also the last one to be resolved.

Reverend Ted Talbot’s personal problems were nowhere to be seen on this Sunday morning; his demeanor and his words gave no indication of the roil that must have been under his surface. The seat where his wife sat on the aisle of the second row of pews was empty. The minister scanned the Sanctuary and without pausing passed over her vacancy, making eye contact with parishioners nearby.


Rachel Talbot was a force in the church of 1500 members. Effortlessly flamboyant in style, dress and demeanor, Rachael exerted influence in the cultural as well as the spiritual life of her community. Reverend and Mrs. Talbot were models of success and decorum in the large suburban town of Newman. She and her husband had raised two children—Dede and Darrel, fraternal twins—had gotten them through college two years ago and now the children were starting careers in Texas and California.


The empty nest and the separation from their children seemed to have been taken in stride by Rachel and Ted as they transitioned to a new phase of their lives. Privately, however, the undertow of the children’s absence, or their new married life together, or the simple tedium of their routine must have exacerbated a fissure in their relationship, unknown or suppressed until recently, when Rachael, unannounced, left Ted.

I have begun to write after a long interval of other activities. The current effort is a collection of short stories tentatively titled, "Locusts and Wild Honey."  In a section just completed yesterday, a middle-aged minister of a 1500 member church is delivering the fourth part of a sermon series called "The Wilderness."

In the King James Version of the Bible, the word “wilderness” is mentioned 304 times. In some cases, the word “wilderness” is biblically connected with the number 40, which is mentioned 157 times.

You may recall that Jesus wandered in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights without food and drink.  In that event, nothing happened for 39 days, but on the 40^th day of being in the wilderness, Jesus was hungry, thirsty and weak in body and spirit.  It was at this vulnerable time in our Savior’s life that Satan appears to Jesus, tempting him.”

The Sanctuary filled with 350 souls fell silent as each knew of times in their lives where they had been susceptible to temptation.  One man in the choir moved his eyes and head upward, staring vacantly at the patterned ceiling of the two hundred year old Sanctuary, as he recalled a recent incident.

“I’m going to say something now which some will find overly simplistic and others will find fundamental.  My friends, I believe there is a war going on between good and evil all around us, in ways visible and invisible. Further, I believe that every day, we are part of that struggle and subject to it.”

Reverend Talbot paused again as a period of silence uncomfortably permeated the space.

16th Century Illumination depicting Satan daring Christ to turn a stone into bread.                                           Simon Bening of Ghent