Do We Ever Really Grow Up" by Nancy M Bell

 

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 Lately I've been thinking about old times when I was a kid. Not sure what's brought this tide of nostalgia sweeping over me. It got me to thinking about how no matter how old I get chronologically I can still revert back to the child I was in an instant. Sometimes it's the smell of moth balls that takes me back to opening up the cottage at the lake in the spring time. The memories are so vivid it seems like I should just be able to step through the veils and become part of the scene again. There's people living in my memory that I'd love to talk to again and walk down the old roads again.

Just this week I somehow came across a posting on Facebook and learned that a person I knew many years ago had passed away. I never knew him well because he was a bit older than me. But his cottage was on the same lake as ours and I kind of grew up with him in the peripheral circles of my friends. I knew who he was, he knew who I was, and we always smiled and waved at each other. I had the hugest crush on him for years. Even though I haven't been to the lake since the early 1980's and frankly haven't thought about this guy for literally years, the news of his death saddened me very much. I think somehow in a corner of my mind I believe that all those years of memories are still living and breathing somewhere out there in the ether. In my heart we will all be forever young and vibrant.

Silly, I know. Sometimes the urge to return to those places is so strong. Almost as if I believe if I go to the places that held us then, that somehow some vestige of beings will still exist there. All those summer nights we built a bonfire on the beach and sat on the big granite rock and sang songs. All people I still love and miss even though I haven't seen them in years. I still remember the white violets growing in the ditch by the gravel road where I used to walk with Gramma Breckon and her little dog Mitzi. She wasn't really my gramma, but she was part of my extended family.

It's not just people, either. All the horses I have ever known still live in my memories. Realistically, I know they are mostly dead and gone now, but if I close my eyes I can still see their dear faces and feel them under me as we ride down old trails with old friends who are no longer with us. Each horse is subtly different in their movement and the connection to me through the reins. In my heart I am eternally sixteen. Now if only I could be sixteen with the knowledge of the world I have now, what a difference that would make.

I'm not sure I really want to grow up and leave all that behind me. The magic I felt the first time I rode down the ravine in Scarborough under a canopy of newly minted spring leaves, the air around me all green and gold and speckled with sunlight. The ravine is still there but there's a parking lot for the subway where the barn used to stand. The river is all concreted and civilized, but the wildness still exists.

In those days I wrote poetry and scribbled stories in duo tang folders on binder paper. I still have them, though I cringe to read some of it now. White Lightning- about a horse of course. Trails of Life which wound the lives of an old cowboy, a wild stallion and an twisted pine tree together. Wrote that in Grade 7 I think. It might actually be worth dusting off and doing a major overhaul on. Or not... It would have helped my self esteem at the time to know I'd actually be a real live published author. Late last night I finished the first book in a new series. It will be my eighth published novel. I still remember the thrill when I got my first contract. Something I thought would never happen.

The new novel is called The Selkie's Song and is the first book in the Arabella's Secret series. It tells the story of the heroine in my The Cornwall Adventures series grandmother. Unlike the Laurel storied, this series in not YA Fantasy, but Paranormal Romance. I may at some time do a G rated version of the story for those younger readers. Watch for The Selkie's Song in September from Books We Love.

Until next month...Oh wait, I forgot to tell you. Next month at this time I will be (should be LOL) all packed and ready to go on a Hawaiian cruise! Fifteen days of pampering and sitting on the balcony and watching the waves go by. Time to get in some reading and relaxing. I'll tell you all about it in October. Come November it will be time to update you on the Surrey International Writers Conference and shenanigans I get up to there very year. Until then Salient Be well and may you be in Heaven an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

Casting Your Characters with Janet Lane Walters Using Astrology - Leo #astrology #fantasy #swordandsorcery

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Leo characters can be a fascinating read.

Sun in Leo - These characters have an active mind and generally a sunny nature. They are ambitious, independent and determined. When they have a goad people should get out of the way. They are quick to anger and are easily appeased and that's a plus. They can be outspoken and candid. The Leo character appreciates affection. They are fond of drama and often employ dramatic scenes to get their way.

Ascendant in Leo - The face shown to the world is one that is good natured and generous. There's an impulsive element and this can result in some outspoken comment setting off a minor war. They do have great hope and fortitude. Grudges are not held for long. They are conscientious and charitable and are loyal friends. Then have a need to be in a position of authority.

Moon in Leo- The emotional nature is generally sunny. Watch out beneath the sunshine lies ambition, self-confidence and self-reliance. This is a loyal friend. Leo moon gives a fondness of home a particularity in dress, a love of pleasure. Those with a Leo moon like and enjoy the opposite sex.

The brother of the heroine in Lines of Fire is a Leo and one day will have his own book. My next Moon Child book will have a Leo hero.

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The Corner Drugstore by Roseanne Dowell

Back in the late 50s, we visited the corner drug store, after school and at least once a day in the summer.  

Our footsteps clattered on the wood floors as a group of us walked into Hagodornes. We sat on the high stools at the soda fountain, giggling and being silly as teenage girls are prone to do. Every day was pretty much the same thing, we ordered phosphates, malts, shakes or sodas while a highschool boy patiently waited on us.

A display with greeting cards, highlighting the nearest holiday, stood in them middle of the store.  A pharmacy, where Mr. Hagadorn filled prescriptions for the neighborhood, was in the far corner.  Everyone knew Mr. Hagadorn, and he talked to us kids from behind his counter when he wasn't busy. 

Back then you couldn’t find bread, milk, soft drinks or anything other than first aid, drug store related items. It was, after all. a drug store. The soda fountain was meant to serve customers waiting on their prescriptions, but we pretty much took it over. But if an adult happened to be waiting for a prescription, one of us always gave up our seat.

With only six seats by the fountain, and sometimes eight or ten of us in the store, some of us had to stand. Not that we cared.  We stood around talking and drinking our drinks or eating our sundaes. Oh those sundaes, they make my mouth water even now, piled high with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Not to mention those milkshakes. Thick, rich, chocolate shake. Made with real ice cream and lots of it. So thick you almost

had to eat it with a spoon and so cold they always caused me a brain freeze.

And those banana splits - vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream between a split banana, topped with nuts, pineapple, and strawberrys with a huge dollop of whipped cream and a cherry on top. To die for. We didn't order those often, especially after school. For one thing they cost more and took longer to eat, plus they filled you up and who wanted dinner after that.

 Sometimes we just ordered cokes. Mr. Hagadorn didn’t care how long we stayed, although most of us had to get home so we didn’t linger long. Except in the summer and on Saturdays, then we sometimes stayed an hour or two, drinking a coke and laughing and talking. The drug store was closed on Sundays, as were more stores back then. Nothing stayed open 24 hours like today.

We were only freshmen then and none of us had cars so there wasn’t much else to do.  In the summer, we walked from our houses to our friends, met with a group and on to Hagadorns. And of course there was the boyfriend, girlfriend thing.  Going steady was the big deal back then and most everyone did it.  It never lasted long a couple weeks or so and then on to the next boyfriend/girlfriend. I still remember my first love. I’m sure all of us do. I was in 7^th grade and crazy about a boy named Chris. I’ll never forget the first time he asked me to dance at canteen.  I thought I died and went to heaven. He walked me home afterwards, mostly because he walked past my street to get to his. He even held my hand.

Wednesday nights was canteen. What fun that was. All the kids went, didn’t matter if you were the class geek or not, everyone went to canteen and danced the evening away, but that’s a blog for a different time.

Looking back, I can’t help but smile at the memories. Memories of carefree times. Of course back then we didn’t think our lives were so carefree. After all we had homework and grades to keep up. Life should be so difficult now. LOL 

When Meghan Shelby inherits the family home, she returns to her hometown after a ten year

absence. Not only does she find the house is in a rundown, dilapidated condition, there’s a dead body in it. She also discovers a heart-shaped locket with a picture of a man and a journal that reveals secrets and deceit from years ago and learns why her parents never returned.

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