1968 - The Hoochie Coochie Tent -CR99

I was 17 years old at the Acton Fair. I was determined to gain access to the Hoochie Coochie tent. Last year, the hawker out front laughed and sent me packing.

How could I get in? Security was tight. Without an ID, it seemed destined to be a failed effort. It was no longer about ogling naked women. It was now me against the rules.

As I walked away, it came to me out of the blue.

I would come back in my military school uniform. They might let me in then.

It worked. 

Oddly, I left totally unimpressed.

_________________________

Challenge was "In a Flash". Write about a Eureka moment, sudden realization, etc.

True story. I compacted it into 99 words so I could enter it in this weekly Carrot Ranch Flash Challenge. It has been awhile since I tried any Flash Fiction. I really enjoy Flash challenges. They force me to focus on the essence of the story, without all the trimmings that so often are just that, trimmings.

I have a much longer piece about this incident from my teen age years. It has languished now for at least a decade.

_______________________

I had a song picked out for this story before I even wrote it. I heard the song for the first time in college, several years after I sneaked into that Hoochie Coochie tent. Please enjoy "Sharon", by David Bromberg.

Danger Zone

CR99 - for 6/18/2022 -99 words

“We’d made a promise when we were kids that we would never see each other again. Yet, here you are on my doorstep and once again asking for help I cannot imagine giving you.”

“When I helped you bury that other friend of yours, I told you that was the last time. I won’t even loan you a shovel. Now take your sorry ass and ………….”

“Wait now. Let’s not get excited. No need to brandish such a large knife. You know what? Screw that promise we made when we were kids.”

“How can I help you old friend?”

___________________________

Since Charli,the author of this challenge,  used Kenny loggins' tune, "Danger Zone" as her prompt, I will follow suit and use it here.

The Secret of God

 The Prediction Weekly Writing Challenge

for Thursday June,16, 2022 - midnight GMT 

100 word maximum - Three words - Available, Third, Yoke

The Secret of God

Eons before any other species began to gain self awareness, our kind learned in their third epoch the most efficient method for conquering the Universe.

It wasn’t with grand, extravagant, expensive violence. No.  Cost too many lives. Instead, we learned unexpected and unseen infiltrations were consistently more successful at bringing another race or planet under our yoke.

Our asteroid will collide with Planet 13 in Quadrant 2334 soon. There will be no need to prepare to land. Available DNA strands safely ensconced deep inside this rock will ensure a successful conquest.

Patience and time is all that is needed now.

 _______________________________

So, for this post, I had to include two musical choices :

"Galaxy Song" - Monty Python

&

"Space Oddity" - a one off cover by Astronaut Chris Hadfield in 2013

In a Dream

 First Line Prompt- Writers Link – FB – 5/27/2022

 I’ve been here before, in a dream

But before I was here in a dream

I had never been here in a dream

I never dreamed when I was here

That here is where I dreamed to be

Dreams come, Dreams they go

But only in dreams when I wasn’t here

 

Never Show Fear

 

Should he tell his mom he heard her on the phone last night?

 Should he tell her he knew someone far away threatened his life?

 Should he run to her, grab her, hug her; tell her everything is alright?

 Even at the age of nine, Mark knew the answers.

 His family always kept their eyes dry above their stiff upper lips.

 Never show fear.

 So he held back, restrained himself; quaking and shaking under his blanket until daylight.

 The next day Mark was on a plane to Florida to join his father who had just started a new job.

__________________________________

This is about a day I will remember as the first Reality butt kick I received as a child. My idyllic life to that point changed dramatically. The next four years in Florida only reinforced that Life was not just TV cartoons and comic books.

Two fingers of Sweet Sour Mash 9.0

Two  fingers of Sweet Sour Mash

Two ice cubes in a short glass

Smokin small tokes from

My last chunk of hash

 

Punching up the playlist

Punching it up to WOW

In the mood to relive, retell

Some blasts from my checkered past

 

The here and now fades

A fog rolls in from my earliest edges

My feet begin their tap

My fingers begin to type

I shut my eyes remembering

Sleepy eyed LSD memories 

I hoped would awaken 

My mescaline infused soul

 

“Good times, bad times”

“I never know for sure”

Rockin Blues were the tunes

 shuffle your feet, juke joint funkin

Superslab shit kicking Cotton Eye Joe

Blasting loud and proud from my radio

 

Passing through the where

To nail down the when

I continue to write

Hoping my strolls down tired lanes

My moments of misspent youth

Will find my deepest darkest truths

Not the memories I usually carry

Pointing out just rose colored views

 

Two more fingers of that sweet sour mash.

Close my eyes and open my mind

My head can’t hold it all 

I need some relief, a respite of sorts

Or more of that tasty sativa green

 

Finally, the rushes begin to roll

Traveling finger to finger, nose to toe.

My hair stands on end, I raise my paws.

Butt dancin in my chair

The music washes over me

The music humbles me

As my past 

Comes back to life

Lying Truth Reborn

Lying Truth

Facts injected with conjecture and foregone conclusions,

 Cast Truth aside in pursuit of knee jerked solutions.

 Lost in a sea of deception,

 Specious goals are massaged by lying hands,

 Replacing Honesty with Truth’s ugly step sister,

 The Half Truth.

 

 The Midway Squawkers and Snake Oil Salesmen

 Insist and demand the Half Truth into our lives

 Hoping their deception lasts long enough

 For them to cash in their nickels and dimes.

 

 Assaulted long enough,

 We allow recent lies to become our New Truth.

 Delusion casts itself in stone

 Brain dead populations dance around it

 Happy as if they had brains.

 ___________________

I first wrote this as a Flash fiction 100 word composition quite awhile ago. I have now converted it into a poem with some minor changes. It is no longer 100 words, it is now 99 words.

I thought given the current political moods clashing and thrashing worse than ever, re-posting it here and now might just impart how I feel regarding the current crop of leaders and their lackeys.

___________________

So I had no problem locating an appropriate tune for this post. 

"Lyin Eyes" by the Eagles will do just fine.

______________________

The Image at top is an enhanced photo taken in Stalingrad during World War ll. 

It is titled " Barmalej " (Children dancing around Crocodile )