Blog @ Work

Sweet Sixteen and nomads

Prompt: WDC is 16 years old! Thank you Story Master and Story Mistress! With that in mind, how did you celebrate your 16th Birthday? (BC)

At first my mind went blank with this prompt, as I was not able to recollect any significant memory. But while sitting on the time frame I came up with memory flashes of that period. I think I was at sailing camp around my sixteenth birth day. In one of the northern parts of my country. It was a week of theory and practice sailing every day in a small sailing boat called ‘16 square’, a very small boat where I learned about navigating the sails, adjusting the gear etc. I totally aced the theory exam, but I flunked out with the practical part as I was not able to learn tacking from one part of the boat to the other trying not to get hit by the mast.

But the main memory comes from falling in love with one of the other attendents for sailing camp. I think his name was Johan and he was a few years older than me, a very interesting, lonely boy, always on his own with a book. I never spoke to him at all but was looking at him from a safe distance and growing very fond of him, in other words I had a crush. I recall that when I was home I rang up the camp with a lame excuse I had borrowed a book from Johan and could I please have his phone number, so I rang him up. Strangely enough he was interested and since he had family in the nearby city of The Hague he would come over and visit me, which he did. Safely to say we had a very nice day talking but we never hit it off. When I was in his home town a few months later and had made arrangements to meet him again he never showed. I forgot all about him rapidly.

Create a character that might live in a park or recreation area near you. Why do they live there and how do they interact with visitors?(BcoFs)

People who live in a trailer park are called campers, dwellers or nomads. They live mostly by themselves in groups of family and have a rather bad reputation. In earlier days they were famous for collecting metal and junk, living near such a collector’s place. Now the only time they are in the news is when the police is doing a raid inside the camps, for drugs, illegal money and that sort of thing. I know nothing about them so I would have to do a lot of research first before creating a tattooed Jay from the camp. They are nomadic people descending from the gypsies and roaming the earth by wheels. Since there is no place for nomads in modern society they only live in trailers as a reminiscent of those travelling times. I think you can visit only by invitation; otherwise it’s a no-go area.

Day THIRTY NINE "Give It 100!"