by Pat Ritter
Facebook I’ve deleted the newsletter section on my website and now directly interact with those e-mail users on Facebook. At first I found there were a few old fashioned users who would rather read the monthly newsletter; however with time these users dwindled and now the numbers have again build using Facebook.
E-mail is our latest address book and I wonder how my mother would feel now after fifty years when she gave me my first address book. Although I didn’t use it – the book continues to hold a deep feeling of love in my heart because it was given to me by my mother.
Word count: 395.
I Dare You.
The words ricocheted through my mind and instantly I visualised the television advertisement about the commercial ‘Dare Milk’. There have been a number of these commercials produced and screened on television, one of which comes to mind. A couple are seated at a table of a restaurant. The male had a look on his face as if he was about to propose marriage to his female companion.
The camera projected onto the female actress who said to her companion, ‘I’m pregnant – your father is the father of my child’. Without a blink of an eyelid the male actor listened and heard the female actress tell him she also had a venereal disease. He was holding a carton of ‘Dare Milk’.
Another commercial shows two male actors standing on the footpath – one holding a carton of ‘Dare Milk’ and the other appeared to be his boss. ‘You’re fired,’ the one who looked like the boss said to the young fellow holding the ‘Dare Milk’. He takes a drink from the carton.
When I first viewed these commercials I actually thought they were funny, until I looked inside of the commercial to see what the marketing strategy could be. Obviously by drinking the brand of ‘Dare Milk’ gave you instant courage to say what was on your mind and dare the other person to tell you their thoughts.
If only by drinking a carton of ‘Dare Milk’ would provide sufficient courage to tell another what you actually thought of them. ‘I dare you’ is a challenge to another to either carry out the dare or to walk away. Does it make you a lesser person to ignore ‘the dare’ and not carry it out? Or do you carry out ‘the dare’ and hopefully don’t make a fool of yourself. It is purely dependent upon the person who either accepts or denies ‘the dare’.
Speaking for myself – unfortunately I can’t play these type of games because knowing me and my past life experiences if I carried out ‘the dare’ I would lose. I’m a little slow in the brain compartment. There are many other ways to deny the other person the satisfaction of ‘the dare’ by ignoring the proposal in the first place. It takes greater courage to walk away from an argument or confrontation than to become aggressive and carry out a stupid act controlled by the other person.
If it means being humiliated and disgraced by not carrying out ‘the dare’ then so be it for it is easier to carry your head high than to be placed in a position of not having control over your actions.
Word count: 443.
First Encounter.
Do you know how our mind works? I’d love to know because life would be easier to understand. For instance, after I left the writer’s group last week and began my journey home, I thought about the title of this story ‘First Encounter’. Nothing flashed into my mind to give me ideas of what to write.
Our mind is a wondrous and magnificent appliance to have in our brain. However, this issue of not knowing how our mind or thoughts affect us has left me wondering over many years. It’s a bit like intuition. When we think a thought; I know because my mind never stops thinking thoughts, of what is on my mind at the time, the number of times the thoughts actually become true is amazing.
Let me explain. In this case on my journey home I constantly thought about ‘first encounter’. The title didn’t spark any magnificent channels of vision, nor did it give me anything to start the story, until I began to watch the television programme ‘Diagnose Murder’. Each day whilst I have lunch I watch the television programme ‘Diagnose Murder’ starring Dick Van Dyke as Doctor Mark Sloan with his offsider Doctor Jessie Travis.
On this particular episode, Doctor Jessie Travis was captured by aliens and locked in a cabin in the bush. After escaping from the aliens he wandered through the bush; finally rescued and taken to the hospital where Doctor Mark Sloan examined him. Doctor Jessie couldn’t remember anything during his absence and at times when he looked directly into light his memory returned vividly seeing men in space suits.
It was creepy crawly stuff for a large part of the programme until Doctor Mark Sloan discovered Doctor Jessie Travis had been drugged and everything he saw became an illusion. It turned out Doctor Jessie Travis had discovered a new drug which would have revolutionised medical science and pharmaceutical companies may have lost a lot of money. One of the pharmaceutical companies hired a ‘hitman’ to discredit the character of Doctor Jessie Travis. Doctor Mark Sloan came through again to solve the issue.
Doctor Jessie Travis honestly thought he’d witnessed his first encounter with aliens but when Doctor Sloan explained everything to him, he finally understood it was not aliens he thought he saw but visions and illusions whilst under the influence of drugs given to him by the ‘hitman’.
What surprised me about this story is the coincidence of thinking about the title and when viewing the story only a short time later how Doctor Jessie Travis thought he had his first encounter with aliens. It boggles my mind to think a thought could actually turn into the event I was thinking. What are the odds to determine the chances of seeing a programme on television showing a scene as an example of the title of this story of what I about to write. It’s either a remarkable coincidence or are there aliens out there?
Word count: 499
Object Of Desire.
There it stood, black in colour, of German design, tough, solid and made to withhold the roughness for a twelve year old boy. The man said he wanted five pounds to sell his pushbike. The boy’s throat filled with glee.
‘I’ll give you a week to come up with the money or there is another who wishes to buy it.’ The owner expressed to this excited twelve year old child, eyes bulging from their sockets at the thought of owning this particular pushbike.
If he owned this pushbike he would show it off to his school friends, beat them up the hill where they raced. He would be the king of the kids. How could he buy this pushbike, he pondered. Five pounds was a lot of money. It was a week’s wagers his father earned.
With excitement churning through his mind he ran home to speak with his father in the hope to purchase this wonderful pushbike. All he could see was a vision of riding this pushbike to school and showing it off to his school mates. Some had new pushbikes but the majority of them had old broken ones recycled from the local rubbish tip.
‘How can I afford to pay five pounds for a pushbike?’ his father bellowed in an angry voice when asked about the purchase.
‘Can you at least have a look at it Dad?’ The son pleaded in hope once he saw the pushbike he may change his mind.
‘Alright, we’ll have a look at it but I don’t know how I can afford to buy it. It’s a week’s wage.’ His father informed him. Father and son visited the pushbike’s owner and while the son was immersed in looking at the pushbike and dreaming of owning it, his father and the owner discussed the purchase price.
The owner walked over to the son and said, ‘I’m sorry I’ve decided not to sell the pushbike. I’ve changed my mind.’
Shock erupted through the veins of the twelve year old boy with a lump in his throat suddenly nothing could stop tears rushing from his eyes. He sobbed. On their way home the father explained to the child there was nothing certain in life and to make it up to him he would look for a cheaper pushbike.
It mattered not to the twelve year old boy for the father had made many promises before and had never carried out one. Although the pushbike was the object of desire for the child, his father for the first time did carry out his promise.
In the following weeks the child witnessed his father re
build a gent’s 28 inch pushbike from parts he obtained from the rubbish tip. After it was painted a bright red and white the child was pleased to have a pushbike he could show off to his friends even though it wasn’t the original object of his desire.
Word count: 492.
A Brush With Fame.
It was 12.30pm on 29th August 1989 at Parliament House Brisbane. Top State Queensland was proud to organise the event of the book launch ‘Closing The Gap’. The Honourable Brian Littleproud M.L.A., Minister for Education, Youth and Sport officiated.
If ever a dream came true for the authors, it was at this very moment. Who would have thought when one of the authors, a Detective Sergeant in charge of Juvenile Aid Bureau Petrie, a Brisbane northern suburb would became so frustrated with an issue of ‘teenagers running away from home’ that he and his fellow author wrote and published a book to help all parents improve communication with their teenager.
Three years before the launch, the journey began when the Detective Sergeant couldn’t find an answer to ‘teenagers running away from home’. His superiors couldn’t help. By accident, he enrolled in the local TAFE to participate in a management course. A lecturer, his co-author, taught him a subject named ‘Behaviour’. One weekend the class attended a two day workshop on the