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Bookends by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Theater

/ Stories

As introverted and retiring as I am now, I was much more so back in 1975.
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The How and the Why by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Trauma

/ Stories

I am an ACOA.
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Here Comes the Sun by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Changing Times

/ Stories

...although the time shifts of DST have been regular occurrences my entire life, only since 2012 have they become somewhat important to me.
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Very Very Frightening Me by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Lightning

/ Stories

The storms began as I left her house with her kiss still on my lips, and grew in ferocity as I drove south along the Turnpike.
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“Maawidge…is a Sake-wid Institution…” by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Ceremony

/ Stories

No one had ever gotten married at the station before.
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Waking Up With Retrospect by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

We are yet mired in anxiety.
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A Rewarding Experience by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Retail Rewards

/ Stories

But for a long time, being an oblivious sort of person, I, um, sort of forgot about it.
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Slightly Lost by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

We were now very lost, and out of time.
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Jersey Discount by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By My First Computer

/ Stories

I inadvertently found myself in the business of selling hot merchandise.
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Not With a Feud, But a Whimper by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Family Feud

/ Stories

My family has had a few feuds, but they were long ago and I only heard of them as rumors and legends when I was very young.  One involved a marriage deemed unsuitable for ethnic reasons, resulting in disowning of a daughter and lifelong estrangement of grandkids from grandparents. This prompted my Dad to say,…
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If You Want Me, I’ll Be in the Lab* by
100
(102 Stories)

/ Stories

I'd like to say that it was a summer out of a Ray Bradbury tale...
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Well Meant Advice by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Changed My Life

/ Stories

Like any kid, I banged back and forth among various “what do I want to be when I grow up?” fantasies.
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The Political vs the Personal by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Assassination

/ Stories

I remember her funeral
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Schmucks, Then and Now by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By First Time Voting

/ Stories

My home town was home to a large, and now defunct, youth organization.
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Comments on “Priciest Purchase” Prompt by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Priciest Purchase

/ Stories

STILL cannot post comments on other people's stories, so...
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Rider on the Storm by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Planes and Trains

/ Stories

I was not at all nervous; my fear of flying, like so many of them, developed later.
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Comments On This Prompt by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Favorite Teacher

/ Stories

I STILL cannot post comments on other people’s stories, so…. Comments on “Favorite Teacher” prompt. Educator of the Year – Remembering Milton by Dana Susan Lehrman A very evocative tale for me…my grade school had a Milton of its own, although he was the shop teacher, not custodial staff. Mr. Crawley never got full peer-to-peer…
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Les Beaux Pharmaciennes by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Customer Service

/ Stories

Behind the counter were two very attractive, serious looking women in crisp white lab coats...
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Thunderbolt by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Priciest Purchase

/ Stories

I, in the throes of the Dunning-Kruger Effect*, decided that it was obviously the bike that was blocking my path to Über-ridership.
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DH Edwards by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Favorite Teacher

/ Stories

"Dave Ventre? Did you have Dr. Edwards at FDU?"
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My Comments on the “Procrastination” Stories by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Procrastination

/ Stories

"My latest attempt to post a comment the normal way yielded a new error message"
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That Old Hot Iron Metaphor… by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Procrastination

/ Stories

This might have been a lesson learned, though.
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Why Do You Think They Call It “Dope”? by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Drugs and Alcohol

/ Stories

Having never had a pot experience that was either pleasant or memorable, I just stuck to tried, true and non-felonious ethanol.
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Commenting Problems Update by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Procrastination

/ Stories

Commenting Problems Update
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My Comments on the Stories on This Prompt by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

Commenting the only way I know how....
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Dave’s Comment-o-Rama by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

(Please note: I am actually reading, and wish to comment upon, other Retrospect writer’s stories. But for some reason, since early August I am unable to reply to anyone’s stories but my own, no matter where I log in from. I also can’t even reply to other writer’s comments. All I get is a 503…
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The Play Was a Thing by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

(Please note: I am actually reading, and wish to comment upon, other Retrospect writer’s stories. But for some reason, since early August I am unable to reply to anyone’s stories but my own, no matter where I log in from. All I get is a 503 server error. Until and unless this changes, I will…
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The French, As Usual, Have a Word For It…. by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

Santiago Calatrava's Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the strangest buildings I have ever seen or heard of.
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Avocation, Delusion, Masturbation by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Why We Write

/ Stories

"...the chimera of Security"
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The Rule of Three by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Riding a Bicycle

/ Stories

  This story makes more sense if you know a little about the mechanics of riding a mountain bike. Think of a catcher getting set for a pitch, or a tennis player preparing to receive a serve. Picture their posture. Knees bent, elbows bent, hinged at the waist, maybe swaying a bit. They are loose,…
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Boof by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Car Trouble

/ Stories

More of a "boof."
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Swimming Through Treacle by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

Hi, fellow ‘spectors, I’m working my way through the backlog after a 4-5 week down time (long story…and I am not sure what it was about). The only thing I have apropos to this prompt is: https://www.myretrospect.com/stories/veni-vidi-ego-erravi-male/
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Impressing the Tough Guy by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

His favorite athlete was Rocky Marciano.
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Birthday Girl by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Special Birthdays

/ Stories

One of the birthdays I remember best was not one of mine.
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The One Who Got Me by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Mind the Gap

/ Stories

Fact is, my whole family was sufficiently fractious and dysfunctional that generational differences were swamped by more direct issues.
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Terror, Reified by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Banned Books

/ Stories

As far as I know, no ban has ever been imposed on any book that I wanted to read in the place and time that I wished to read it.
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Inside Looking Out by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Sleepy Time

/ Stories

Looking outward, unseen and unheard, I take solace knowing that for a while at least, I am safe.
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Emily’s Eyes by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By The Eyes Have It

/ Stories

No, no no…I will NOT sneeze!
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I Can See Your Fists So Clearly Now! by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By The Eyes Have It

/ Stories

This upset me terribly.
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In Vino, Veritas by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

One day, in my late teens, at a family wedding, Mom was drinking as she usually was back then...
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David the King! by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Refugees

/ Stories

They were always readmitted, though; Dave seemed unable to hold a grudge.
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Uh Oh… by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Photo Booths

/ Stories

It was in a shopping mall in NJ.
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Superior Accommodations by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

In Copper Harbor, we always stay at the King Copper motel.
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Just Follow the Bouncing Ball by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

And yet....
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Thank You Very Much, Thank You Very Much… by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Cheating

/ Stories

That August, Veronica walked out on me.
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A Hero in the Basement by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

Eventually I was permitted basement access, and found it a fascinating place.
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The Sea Wolf by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Time

/ Stories

As I made that move, the brunette cutie to my right clasped her hand around my wrist and whispered "that is SO annoying!"
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“An’ it Harm None…” by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Guilty Pleasures

/ Stories

I don't have any guilty pleasures
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Aboard Ship 2 With JT by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Scouting

/ Stories

My only company was a little Sears AM transistor radio.
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She’s Got Legs by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

One hot summer, I built a Mount and Brungs Proportional Diluter.
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You’ll Live Like Magic by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

As the Covid pandemic gripped us in fear and sadness, working from home, I felt a growing need for cheerful, upbeat things.
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Cold Comfort by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Comfort Food

/ Stories

Summertime ambrosia.
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Stopping by the Diner on a Snowy Evening by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Newspapers

/ Stories

And then back home, me and Dad, under spooky tracks and past dangerous dogs, to warmth, maybe a snack, and my friends Dick Tracy, Moon Mullins and Rick O'Shay.
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Cathedral Rocks by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

The sun was just at the horizon. I could hear a strange sound which I could not at first identify through my thick rubber hood.
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I Should Have Stayed Home by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Snowy Days

/ Stories

Judging by the store I went to, I can place this story some time in the late 90s. Gina was away in Lawrence, Kansas doing some collaborative research with a scientist at KU. Of course I picked THEN to get the flu. After a couple of days, I started to feel very ill. I had…
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The Wellen Man by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Snowy Days

/ Stories

I had always been fascinated by the ideas of working at night, working outside and working alone.
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Fifteen Miles to 14A by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

It was a June night of thunderstorms in central New Jersey
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I Must Go Down To The Lake Again by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

It's a challenging, exhilarating drive that cries out to be done fast in a small nimble open-top rear-wheel-drive sports car, or a good motorcycle.
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The FDU SCUBA Club by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Group Photos

/ Stories

This photo, snapped from atop a tripod on my old Fujica SLR, captures a pivotal time in my life.
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Does It Count If You Make It Early? by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Resolutions

/ Stories

I broke with personal tradition and resolved to change myself
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A Piece of the Action by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Holidaze

/ Stories

Then the paramedics began running up the hill with stretchers and backboards. Still, no Cindy.
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Mostly Tricks by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Trick or Treat?

/ Stories

I have many Halloween memories, but can’t recall a single specific Halloween from before I went to college. All I have are fragments. Sepia-tones Instamatic snaps in my mind of me and other little kids wandering in and out of the pools of light and shadow of the streets in my neighborhood, seeking candy. No…
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The Fruit Stand of Love by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Lemons to Lemonade

/ Stories

I don't wish to give the impression that I am compiling a screed against Perfidious Womankind...
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Snowbound by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Parking

/ Stories

We were creative and determined.
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Veni, Vidi, Ego Erravi Male by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Regrets

/ Stories

I have always had a fascination with obscure words and terms.
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Bringing Backup by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Children's Books

/ Stories

This is more about books and reading and being a weird little kid than about any single book. I was a nerd. A geek. A prototypical Poindexter (a nickname I was actually saddled with for a time). Books didn’t beat me up the way other kids did, so I loved them with all my heart…
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Just Keep Driving… by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Going to Work

/ Stories

Neither the nondescript stores and the black wilderness of the Meadowlands on one side, nor the dark cemetery dotted with barely visible white tombstones on the other, gave me any assistance.
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Hello, Darkness by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Attention Span

/ Stories

Mom used to joke that I had "the attention span of a gnat."
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A La Famiglia! by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Mealtime

/ Stories

One meal, though, stands out because I took pictures.
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The Gift That Keeps On Giving by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

I have always been one who prefers to deal with negative emotions by assiduously not focusing on them
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Drunk Bool by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Manners

/ Stories

Her name was Barbara but her nickname was, for some reason, "Bool."
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The Devil is in the Details by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Dating

/ Stories

Boticelli could not have painted an angel more lovely than Angela.
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Scaredy Kat by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Dating

/ Stories

And a very fetching cat she was
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A Memorable Birthday by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Anniversaries

/ Stories

My Mom decided that having a kiddy tea party would be fun.
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The Word by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By In Trouble

/ Stories

She stared at me, burst into tears and ran across the street and into her house. I was surprised at how powerfully she reacted.
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What is “late for school?” by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

The problem with Jeopardy was that it ended at 12:30 PM
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Club MTB by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Cliques and Clubs

/ Stories

The meanness of spirit, the self-centeredness, that had oozed through American society in the 80s and 90s had polluted my beloved sport.
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“Turn up your radio” by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Remembering Radios

/ Stories

I needed a present. I wanted it to be special. I was as poor as the usual working-class undergraduate.
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A Regular Ray Bradbury by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By The Twilight Zone

/ Stories

My first thought when it appeared was chagrin
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Part of the Union by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Working

/ Stories

When I graduated high school in 1974, I was a bit of an arrogant little shit.
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BAH! by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Rewatchable Movies

/ Stories

Movies are complex beasts.
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Bad Moon by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Cold War Coping

/ Stories

I'd run, trying frantically to find a place to hide, while it implacably followed me, laughing.
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Names Have Meaning by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Inequality

/ Stories

A family down the block from us took in foster kids.
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My Brown-eyed Girl by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Concerts

/ Stories

Van Morrison might have done me a huge favor. He certainly didn't mean to, but some things work out for the best if given enough time.
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Exit 14A by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By My Hometown

/ Stories

But I wasn't raised in Jersey City.
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Mario! by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Big Fan

/ Stories

My extreme introvert's response was to focus on solitary sports like bicycling and track, and on pastimes that none of us could actually play.
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Kindertotenlieder* by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

"You're right....with Eversharp!"
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The Evil Luncheonette by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By First Memory

/ Stories

Down there among the warehouses, trucking firms and junk yards that populated the Jersey City side of the Bay was a working-man's bar and luncheonette.
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TBI by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Reconnecting

/ Stories

I've heard that with a true friend, absence means little.
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The Exploding Lab Bench by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By How We Met

/ Stories

The fact that she is tall, shapely and extremely attractive was not lost on me....
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Egrets in Morning Sunlight by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Hello Darkness

/ Stories

The trees, bushes and brush would give me plenty of privacy to do what I needed to do.
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Wherein She Learns That I Am Fine With Making a Public Spectacle of Myself by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Embarrassment

/ Stories

But I couldn't just say yes. I broke into song.
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Fast Times at FDU by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Marijuana

/ Stories

I recall none of it.
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Rain by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By 9/11

/ Stories

A comforter Of mottled gray-black clouds To hide beneath.
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Even I Have Limits by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Good Trouble

/ Stories

Understand that my Mom loved all animals, and was absolute death on animal cruelty of any kind.
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A Single Track Mind by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Finding Your Tribe

/ Stories

A switch clicked in my brain. I have no idea why. I looked at Gina and said “I need to do that.”
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Deepest Dive by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By Close Calls

/ Stories

"If I left her, if I followed my dark muse into the deep sea, there was a good chance that, one way or the other, Holly would die."
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Summertime Thoughts by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By The Crush

/ Stories

Never to escape and never to want to.
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Letter from the 21st Century by
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(102 Stories)

/ Stories

The twin fears of failure and conflict have been a crippling problem for us.
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Lost and Found by
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(102 Stories)

Prompted By Close Calls

/ Stories

A sulfurous smell of decay seeped into my mask. I looked around in vain.
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Pizza and a Bad Movie by
100
(102 Stories)

Prompted By First Dates

/ Stories

Made nervous by being alone in a deserted lab building on an actual dark and stormy night, Gina, a grad student working in her lab downstairs, came up to my lab seeking company in the now spooky and very dark building.
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A Certain Cachet… by
100
(102 Stories)

/ Stories

Smell is the sense most connected to our inner brains, to our memories and emotions
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