As you may have realized, I enjoy writing across genres. A lot has happened this past year as I worked hard to finish the third book in the Dynamis fantasy trilogy as well as launch the latest book in my Taking Back series, Taking Back Bible Study. All this while walking alongside my brother who was fighting pancreatic cancer and went to reside in his heavenly home this past March.
Often, we don't realize that the things we write are stemming from our past experiences and things that are deep within our psyche. My latest effort is entitled "Growing Up with Eddie," and it is a nostalgic look at growing up in the 70s. Now being the last person in my family to know what it meant to grow up in our house on that street in Richardson TX, this has become a therapeutic journey for me personally, but I have also come to understand that many of us share the same nostalgia for that simpler time and my family stories could also be a blessing for my readers.
As a member of my writing team, your support has been a huge encouragement both emotionally and in tangible ways that support the actual cost of writing. For this month's "thank you for being a member," I'm sharing a snippet from when I was growing up that will eventually be in "Growing Up with Eddie." I think it is quite humorous but will also hopefully evoke a sense of nostalgia in you that makes you smile as you envision the scene I describe.
The Brown Bean Bag
The den became our play area when we got the bumper pool table. I’m not sure what year it was, but I am guessing I was in around sixth grade when Mom and Dad let us get a pet ribbon snake. We agreed to name him Bojangles after the song sung by Billy Joel, Mr. Bojangles, and he lived in an aquarium against one wall. One of my sweet memories with Eddie was building the stand to hold the aquarium. Fortunately, measurements were not critical since it wasn’t holding water (besides a small plastic pond for Bo to refresh himself in) and between the two of us we managed to find enough pieces of wood and a hammer and nails to piece it together. I’m not sure why we decided to paint it black but I’m guessing it’s because we had some left-over paint from some other household project. Bojangles enjoyed being handled and liked to zip around the bumper pool table. He would even disappear down one of the pockets and emerge out another one.
Another staple in the den was a brown bean bag chair. I remember being so excited when Mom bought it for us. Back then, bean bag chairs were so cool! It became a familiar and beloved seating option, and I am sure I must have plopped into it hundreds of times. So, what happened in the front yard is somewhat of a mystery...
I don’t remember why we dragged the bean bag chair into the yard, but it must have been for some sort of game we had thought up. Most likely, we were taking turns running and diving onto it. That is definitely something we would do. At any rate, the bean bag chair was in the grass in the front yard facing the porch that led up to our front door. Somehow, the bean bag exploded, and the yard became thick with what seemed like thousands of white Styrofoam pellets, the “beans” that used to be in the bean bag chair.
Mom came out to check on us and by the look on her face, we knew we were in big trouble. Our vacuum was not an upright but rather, a pale blue and white canister model. I still have this picture in my head of Eddie holding the vacuum’s tube, as he walked around our front yard, sucking up those white pellets, while I picked up the shreds of brown bean bag cover. Digging through old family photos for "Taking Back Eddie," I ran across an actual picture Mom must have taken. I guess she found it humorous, although she wasn't about to let us know that at the time!