Henry Gant, Man About Town. This episode: 50-word story challenge. "Lemon. "
This week's Prompt is the word "lemon". The full post can be found here:
https://steemit.com/challenge/@jayna/thisweeks50-wordchallengepromptandlastweeksround-up-tapxsp2pdp
So I present a story about current affairs.
Acidic Bust.
“Unless you have a permit to do business here you are going to have to shut this stand down.”
The policeman reached for the cup of dollars and proceeded to pour the pitcher of lemonade on the ground.
“It’s against the law, children.”
The little girls started to cry.
The image used is provided by Henry Gant . . . and is now laying on my floor.
H. G.
I found this on YouTube.
https://streamable.com/00887
Nice one @henry-gant.... I can picture the scene, new cop on the beat, uniform spotless, everything to the letter of the law, everything perfect, just that he forgot to be human... Just that little detail :o)
Yes, @ablaze, we have all met them in one form or another.
Very good. I have read/watched on the news so many stories like this. It's hard to believe something like this can happen in real life, but it does. You kept the element of suspense to the end. Great.
I don't blame the police for enforcing such ordinances. There are things that go on before they are called to the scene of the "crime". In the YouTube example, it is the competing sidewalk vendors who demanded that the lemonade stand be taken down. My 50-word story is really a story of a simpler time having slipped away.
Thank you for your reply, @hlezama.
H. G.
That is what I got from it too — that bittersweet memory of a time when a lemonade stand was just a bit of summertime fun.
I'm reminded of simpler times: Riding bikes without helmets; skinned knees, black eyes, smiles, and Norman Rockwell paintings.
Thank you for your comment @jayna.
H. G.
You are welcome. I also share this sense of nostalgia for so many things that have slipped away in the name of .... order? progress? globalization? tech advancement? And, in the particular case of children, it is ironic that a society (and i mean globally) that boasts to love and protect them, we see so many absurd legal decisions that totally contradict such premises.
I saw this earlier but was so buy to join going to make mine tomorrow.Nice plot HG but sad for the kids.Bad policeman
Thank you @purpledaisy57. The fine men and women of law enforcement are doing their job. When a citizen calls the police on an illegal lemonade stand they have to investigate.
Hahaha, sometimes the police is like that, I think is for the uniform.
And sometimes they are just between a rock and a hard place. Mostly it's the paper pushers and self -appointed permit-patti types who cause the most problems.
IMHO of course. But, writing that provokes a response is the kind of writing I like.
Thank you.
H. G.
That's a great point: thought-provoking writing. In Grad School, i met many creative writers (i was doing Lit) who thought they had no responsibility with their readers. They did not care whether they even understood their art. And to me that makes no sense.
Art for art's sake has always sounded so petulant to me. The artist (whatever art they do) does not exist in a vacuum. They owe their inspiration to things around them and it is ultimately to people outside them, who are also affected by the artist's sources of inspiration, who they owe their fame or reputation. What would be the purpose of producing something no one understand?
Fiction can transform peole's conceptions and eventually lead to social transformations.
short but describing, nicely done :)
It's a 50-word challenge. So, yeah, kinda short.
Thank you for your comment, @reinikaerrant.
Very nice story, @henry-gant! And thank you for shedding light on the critical social issues of the day. 😊 I’m glad they did a news story on the incident in Denver. I respect our police officers, but if they want to build trust with the citizens, it’s not going to happen with this kind of PR!
I'm glad that you have the 50-word challenge. I'm wordy in my writing and the micro-writing challenge/contests force me to cut . . . cut . . . cut; improving my overall writing.
As to the social issue: I think we are seeing a lack of common courtesy and respect for others.
I know that these seeds exist; recently, they seem to be blooming without withdrawal.
Today's citizenry seems to think this is the norm.
Thank you for your comment, Jayna.
H. G.