The Red Dodge Charger

 

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This video is about 6 min. long.  First minute is interesting.

Charles sighed deeply, gazing at his brand new, fresh off the show room floor, Fire Red Dodge Charger, lying in a field just off the road. Just a dent...I wouldn't mind that.  But this??

Taking that last U-bend on hwy. 238 and then skidding to miss a stray sheep had sent Fire Red spinning out and over onto weeds and grass of some rancher's field.

For a moment, just a moment, Charles thought maybe this was all because some skewed form of espionage.  But, no.  Did his wife learn how much this cost?  This car was costly, but to total it? That's just evil, Lucille. Damn.

It did not matter now how many fluoride rinses and teeth extractions Dr. Charles Bentley, DDS, had done to buy Fire Red, now a totaled mass of metal, seat belts, open door, and shattered windows. 

He managed to extract his phone, and call 911. Sigh.

   This is a Wed. Words 2015 from Delores who first created this writing challenge.The bold and underlined words are from her delightful brain.

 

Hoarding eats up ones life

   Grandma and Grandpa Cardiff with four daughters: Mom, Minerva, RoseMary, and Vada.

 

Hoarding is at last a recognized danger, especially for older people. Most people can think of friends and family that fit into the category, having no idea how to help people who are strong in denial, strong in holding onto the towers that are part, of their history and collections over decades.

My late brother and his wife lived on the edge of implosion. When he died, their house had just a narrow path through to bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. Why our family did not see this as a mental issue and not a character flaw, I will never understand.

 

Then, my precious Aunt and husband were the same. Can't bring myself to describe her home, except for this one story.

A neighbor gave a sweet potato to my Aunt Vada and husband Uncle Darrell. Their counters and table were so crowded that pots and pans were on the floor.  The kitchen table had just enough places for eating, boxed in by whatever. A sweet potato had been placed on it and eventually fell behind the table, onto the floor. She didn't remember it was there.

 

One day a mysterious vine crept up onto the table. Startled, she peered under the table. The sweet potato had new vines winding up and around the table. She laughed loudly and unwound it all, telling all friends and family about it. The new plant was placed on the TV cabinet.

Dang it. That monster went like a snake over the cabinet and down to the TV. Then it twisted around and down across the TV. At that point, her son came visiting and whistled with amazement. Within an hour  or two, the vines were tossed out in the trash.
Since then, Aunt Vada believes it is 1964 and asks about my mom. Aunt Vada was my "crazy fun aunt", being only 15 years old when I was born. She held me, rocked me, changed my diapers. She is the one remaining sister.

This is serious. Think about those whom you love. Check in on them. They were part of your life at one time. Now it is time for you to renew that relationship.

Her son Sean tried to attack the stuff laying around, out of their sight. The basement was stacked from floor to the floorboards. Over time, he managed to clear out money that Uncle Darrell had sequestered away within those newspapers. At last count, there was $600,000 and more. Where did it all come from?? Aunt Vada's husband Uncle Darrell was a state police officer and she was a secretary for the city. Where?

 

 

 

 

 

 



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We all speculated and could not come up with an answer. The answer had to be something that was illegal.

 

 Hoarding is more than hanging onto those items that were handed down from ancestors. Hoarding is a mental issue.

 

  If you know an adult who is like Aunt Vada, take care to check in on them now and then. No guarantee that there won't be a sweet potato involved.

 

It's a hard rain, it's gonna fall

It's a Hard Rain is gonna fall

Bob Dylan

I grew up between two powerful rivers, the Illinois and Mississippi. Numerous creeks (criks) meandered around towns and farm, all heading to those rivers. Powerful. In 1993 there was one of the worst floods that had its own web site.  yahoo.com/news/25-years-later-great-flood

These rivers flooded into flat farm land, delaying or preventing planting crops.  The water reached to the top of telephone wires, leaving strands of vegetation hanging from the wires.

 

Never underestimate what rivers can do: destroy towns, wipe out fields, wash away forests and trees, livestock. We waited every spring for the rain and snow melt from up north. If all the preparation for such rolling powerful water was adequate, many would be survivable.

But what happens if the levees can't hold back the water? What happens if the flood walls are not quite tall enough? What if. What if.

 Year after year, floods have hit many states with horrendous destruction. Here is mine, in Illinois, where my people and towns are.

                                 Horrid flooding in the Midwest                                              

 Below is the town of Grafton, Illinois. The town experience floods like these too often to say. Once it was nearly destroyed. People were offered house value money to entice residents to rebuild uphill, out of the flood plain. Most people refused the offer. This was home, after all.