Wednesday, April 18, 2012

CLOSETS AND HUCKLEBERRY FINN

It's Day 18 of the WEGO Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge and today's prompt tells me to choose a book, open to a random page, point to a phrase — and start writing. I grab the first book I see on the shelf: a 1948 copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I'm not sure I can write a blog post based on whatever I find in here, but I'll try...

(Copyright © 2012 The Big C and Me)
Page 100: "By and by, when we got up, we turned over the truck the gang had stole off of the wreck, and found boots, and blankets, and clothes, and all sorts of things, and a lot of books, and a spyglass, and three boxes of seegars."

I haven't stolen any trucks with my gang lately, but I did clean out my closet this morning — and found some boots and clothes, along with the following:

  • a burgundy tablecloth from Christmas
  • a map to a beach town I recently visited (I picked up the map when I was there last summer, so it's obviously been on the floor of my closet most of the year)
  • an old bathrobe (that finally found its way to the rag pile)
  • a small rattan picnic basket (holds one bottle of wine, two wine glasses, two cloth napkins and a corkscrew, and has never left the house)
  • A pink bed pillow (I used it while recovering from my bilateral mastectomy last year)
  • A Jersey Boys playbill
  • A coupon to California Pizza Kitchen that expired July 3rd — of last year (I'm seeing a pattern here...)
  • A black and white photo of Husband and I on our wedding day (I swear, I'm not that old; I had a print enlarged and made black and white, but then promptly forgot to frame it. Maybe for our anniversary?)
  • Slippers from the Four Seasons (the hotel, not the Frankie Valli variety)
  • My gym bag (which reminds me: I need to join a gym)
  • Several cloth grocery bags (why they insist on hanging out in my closet and not in my back seat, I'll never know)
  • A few of my late father's shirts (just because)
  • A metal thingy that has six hooks on which I will hang belts (once Husband attaches it to the wall)
I didn't find any blankets, or books, or spyglasses. (And definitely no seegars.) But I have to admit: It was an adventure!

4 comments:

  1. Renn, I can so relate to this. When I moved out of my house, my walk-in closet was packed to the gills with all kinds of items like that. They went directly from closet to storage unit. But I am going through them little by little, discarding thing I've never used and will never use.

    Those maps and slippers resonate with me. Why I take those types of things from places I've been escapes me. They just end up on the floor of the closet, like you said. I've learned now to be much more selective about what I take home as a souvenir from a trip. Just more clutter, otherwise.

    Thanks for the fun reading. Huckleberry Finn's a great choice. xxx

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  2. I loved the adventures of Huck Finn when it was televised years ago - this made me feel all nostalgic. I love where your reading journey took you- i had no idea where you were going to go with those lines from the book!

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  3. @Jan and Marie: Thanks for sharing this journey of BC and WEGO with me! :-)

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