Thursday, October 27, 2016

Six Sentence Story - Stick

Which direction should I go with this blog hop challenge?  I thought of several different ways the word is used, but a story seemed out of reach until tonight.  This took me back to childhood memories living out in the sticks.  I'm linking this post to Six Sentence Story - Stick at Ivy's Uncharted blog.


Her black rubber boots slipped on the muddy red clay bank of the creek behind the barn.  She almost plopped down right behind the cow she was herding, but she managed to stay upright as she gave the cow one last poke on the rump to urge her to climb up the bank.

Seeing that Bossy was contently grazing now, she turned her attention to the creek where sometimes she found interesting rocks, and if lucky, agates for her collection.  What really intrigued her about the creek were what lived in it:  mussels, tadpoles, an occasional trout, bullfrogs, slithering garter snakes, and crawdads, as most people called here, instead of crayfish.

The crawdads often went to the deeper areas of the creek where they weren't as easily seen, especially when they stirred up the mud underneath them.  She grabbed a narrow stick she found in the undergrowth, and slid it gently into the water toward what she thought were crawdad pincers and waited, hoping to carefully lift it up from the water when he took hold.


17 comments:

  1. And I bet that crawdad made for good supper fare. I moved from NYC to the shore area of NJ way back when it was also called "the sticks". I love this take on the cue.

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    1. At that point in my life, I didn't even know that some people ate them. I was just curious and wanted a closer look.

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  2. What a sweet memory of the perfect childhood to my way of thinking!

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    1. Thanks. Sometimes I'm able to come up with something for the challenge, and other times I have a complete blank.

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  4. This paints a vivid picture! Nice!

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  5. ...so that would actually work? (the fishing for crawdads... or 'lobsters' as we call them in the Northeast.... well, somewhat related)
    good story-tete

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    1. Yes, it does work! I think one would need a much bigger stick to get a lobster that way, because lobsters are a lot bigger than the crawdads.

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  6. Very nice pastoral scene Pat. Such a vivid description of the creek!

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    1. Thanks. I'm glad that you enjoyed reading this story.

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  7. Good job! I didn't come up with a response for the prompt this week, but I really enjoy yours!

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    1. Thanks, Kristi. I almost didn't come up with a response.

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  8. Oh man, the numberless afternoons I spent in the muddy shallows of the river turning over rocks to watch the crawdads skitter... Well done - really takes me back.

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  9. Looks like you jogged a few readers memories of fishing in the creek. My brother and spent a lot of time wading in the river near us so many years ago.

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