Melting Snow

Midweek Reflections on Being 16 and Character in a Park

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  prompt for Day 906
WDC is 16 years old! Thank you Story Master and Story Mistress! With that in mind, how did you celebrate your 16th Birthday?

I turned sixteen on December 24, 1962, I celebrated my birthday... OK, I don't remember how I celebrated my birthday. I don't think I had a party, but if I did it wasn't a memorable 16^th birthday party. The part of my 16^th birthday I do remember concerned a cake and blowing out 16 candles. My siblings and parents sang Happy Birthday and I opened birthday presents. I don't remember what I received that year. To tell the truth my teenage years were a bit traumatic and if I'm going to write about them then it's going to be in a short story or novel. I remember the song "Sixteen Candles" because it played on the radio and I sang along with it. Another reason I remember it is that the life of the sixteen year old sang about in the song was nothing like my life.

The "Blogging Circle of Friends "  prompt for DAY 1386
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?

In Las Vegas the homeless are not allowed to live or sleep in the parks. If the police find them dozing there they either move them along or arrest them. This is understandable because it's dangerous to live in parks. I know that living on the streets or in the parks of any city in the world is dangerous, but here there is the distinct possibility of dying of heat stroke if one stays out in the triple digit temperatures. There are places the homeless can stay out of the sun, such as the flash flood drainage system, but that is just as dangerous especially in monsoon season. In the summer the Salvation Army and other charities open cooling stations for the homeless where they can find a bed at night if the place isn't already full.

If I were to create a character that lived in a park my protagonist would be a woman. She would be between 50 and 70 years old with a little dog. I see several homeless women who have dogs and who appear to be closer to may age. All though looks can be deceiving because homelessness ages a person. I know there isn't a study on this, so right now that is only my opinion. There are several parks in Las Vegas I would use as her "home". Some of them have fences around them, but not all. There is a small park on Maryland Parkway just east of Charleston BLVD that doesn't have a fence around it. That park has several trees and a toilet. I haven't been there in a while so I don't know if the city keeps the toilets in working order. I'd have to check that out.