Dear Reader,
The quality of writing in the 2020 Write a DearReader Contest was outstanding. Today's Honorable Mention piece was written by Elizabeth Ann Kissling. Thanks Elizabeth for sharing your story with us.
June on Waterman Mountain
My family enjoyed the same two vacations each summer while I was growing up: a week camping in our local mountains and a day at our local theme park. Theme park day was definitely not to be missed, but in my book it didn't compare with our week in the mountains.
It was our tradition to camp in the same campground each summer, ideally in the same campsite. Of the thirty-odd campsites in the campground we had four favorites, and I don't recall a summer when we weren't able to get one of them. My personal favorite was the very first site, which was at the end of a dark, ferny glen where a small creek sparkled along under seemingly ancient incense cedars and sugar pines. The ground on the mountain behind the glen was littered with the long, narrow sugar pine cones we'd gather and use as starters for our cooking fires.
Our family camping unit consisted of my maternal grandparents, my mother, and my two younger sisters. In the early years we pitched a large, hard-to-handle three-room tent; later we shared a cab-over camper. The week in the mountains was the highlight of my summer each year, because while we were there I would be allowed to hike to my heart's content, and I did a whole lot of hiking.
My most rewarding hike, though, occurred one hot mid-June when I had followed a mile or so of a long, looping fire road and found that it came out at the top of the local mountain's main ski lift. The ski lodge, rental hall, and other buildings were closed up tight for the summer, but I noticed a bird's nest in the gray coverless ski lift switch box. I walked over to the box to examine the nest, which had been abandoned for the season, and saw two round buttons, one above the other, each about the size of a half-dollar piece: a red one on top that said STOP and a green one on the bottom that said ON. This was too much temptation for me, and I yielded. I pushed the green button.
To my surprise the ski lift began to move. Faced with this new temptation I yielded again, jumped aboard, rode the lift down the mountain, and then jumped off. I watched the lift baskets continuing in their long, lazy circle, and then jumped back on and rode the lift up to the top again. I did this several more times, disembarking for the last time at the top, where I pushed the STOP button and watched the lift grind to a complete halt.
I hiked back down the fire road to my campground, full of excitement and ready to share the story of my adventure, when common sense got the better of me. This was not the kind of thing a twelve-year-old safely reports to her mother. So I never said a word, until now.
-- Elizabeth Ann Kissling
Honorable Mention, 2020 Write a DearReader Contest
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
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A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD (Fiction) by Therese Anne Fowler
I could never have anticipated how this novel's themes would resonate with the strange year that was 2020. Divisions among neighbors. Heightened racial and environmental issues. Struggles for young adults in this troubled country. But the story didn't foresee all of that; it reflected a history of it. Really, it's a modern fable about mostly well-intentioned people caught up in difficult situations--a timeless, cautionary tale of love and power that asks big questions about life today.
To enter to win one of five copies, click on Authorbuzz and the book jacket or email: trademarketing@stmartins.com with subject "A Good Neighborhood Sweepstakes."
Go to: AUTHORBUZZ click on A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD to read more and to email author Therese Anne Fowler, you'll get a reply.
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