Danny, Jimmy, and Me: A Writing Prompt

   

Mrs Roeber never seemed to let Jimmy go outside, which, to my thinking as an 11 year old, was why he was so smart.  Most days after school, I’d rush two houses down the street and get Danny Gannon to come out and play. Then the two of us would go to Jimmy’s house next door.  If Mrs Roeber answered, she would always be polite and say something like, “Jimmy needs to catch up on some science work. Perhaps he can play later.”  If Jimmy answered, he’d usually be out of breath from running upstairs from his basement “office” and plead with us not to give up on him--or at the very least go out back and talk to him through the basement window.  So, me and Danny would sneak out back and lay on our stomachs on the pokey grey gravel outside his basement window. Five feet below, Jimmy would be doing his work at his workbench (which, in all honesty, was a pretty cool place).  I always wished I was smarter, so I could  do his work for him and get him outside to play. I was better than Jimmy at a lot of things, but those things were never get graded until you can appreciate them “later in life.“  But, to my Tom Sawyer way of thinking, I preferred being outside and average to being inside and smart.  Danny was an outside kid and smart, too, and that always troubled me, but not enough to let it call my inside/smart: outside/not smart philosophy into question. Danny’s voice was always the one that tried to tell me that the sledding jump was too high, or that branch would not support my weight, or those snakes would bite, or that we couldn’t run faster than a nest of bees we just destroyed.  Once we got Jimmy outside, he was like a mad scientist: ”We’ll, just have to see how high Fitz can go on his sled,“ or, ”I’ll distract the snake so Fitz  can grab it from behind,“ or ”Bees have been clocked flying at 80 miles per hour.“ Looking back, we probably seemed like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, and we did tend to go our different ways as we grew older, but we always still manage to reconnect somehow, and it doesn’t seem like we are a day older. It’s kind of hard to put into words because Danny and Jimmy might not be my best friends, but they will always be my best friends. Just thinking of the three of us together is like a window opening to a cool and welcome breeze. And the coolest thing is the window is always there. It might be that the only thing we actually had in common was living next door to each other, but still, we made it work. Imagine if the world thought this way.

Writing Prompt: It was fun for me to sit down for the hour or more it took me to write that paragraph and remember Danny and Jimmy.  Because it is only one paragraph (I could probably break it in two or three), it can only give a glimpse into our friendship, but (hopefully) it gives you enough to know how important they were--and still are--in my life. For the first writing prompt this week, tell a story about someone you consider to be one of your best friends. It can be as long as you want it to be, but it should be at least one ”meaty“ paragraph. The reason it took me so long to write my paragraph (apart from the fact that I spent too much of my childhood outside:)) is that I ”tried“ to use specific scenes to help tell my story; I used dialogue a little bit, and I used some ”reflection“ (which is a fancy word for saying what I thought and felt).  If you put all three of those writing techniques together, it always makes for more interesting reading.  Try it!!!

Comment: PLEASE, please, pleez, pull-ease comment on the other blogs in your community.  Just click on their names in the sidebar, read what your fellow writers are writing and leave a nice comment because it is really nice to know when people appreciate the work you do.  Heck, you can even go to my blog and post a comment. It will make my day!

Write what you want: The prompts are just a part of what you should be writing on your blogs. Half the fun of writing is just sitting down and seeing what comes.  Write movie and book reviews, describe a day in your life in the summer, write poetry or songs, post pictures--anything! because everything you put in your blog will help to make your blog a treasure trove of memories you can have for the rest of your life.

Comments

[Scott B]

Nice creative prompt. Your example reminds me of two of my own childhood friends - I suppose your "Tom Sawyer philosophy" is pretty much everywhere in growing up.

[Scott B]

Thanks for your comment; I'm not quite sure I know what you mean though, so I'd love some elaboration.

[Adam]

I like the prompt a lot. It reminds me of my best friend from virginia.

[Scott B]

Thanks for the comment. I haven't read any Eliot - though I'd love to know the predecessors to my favorites Kerouac, Snyder and Ginsberg, I've always steered away from him or Pound or Proust or what have you. Per your recommendation though, I'll try to get a volume before camp! (Actaully, I have read "The Wasteland," but that's the extent of it).