Early Retirement Sweater ~ A 28-Minute, Five-Minute Freewrite ~ Prompt: Sweater ~ Original Story and Original Photography ~
Sometimes, You Just Gotta Finish The Story
28-Minute, Five-Minute Freewrite
Prompt: Sweater
“Bing Bong”
The doorbell echoed down the hardwood hallway, rousing me from a short nap in the back bedroom. I stretched, rolled off the air bed on the floor, and padded to the front door in my favorite daily attire. Bright blue down camping booties with cushy leather bottoms, silver pleated, 1960's long underwear that looked like the lower half of a Spaceman Spiff outfit, and my favorite green and brown sweater. The one my roommate was ALWAYS going on and on about over dinner. "Take that DAMN sweater off. It's the UGLIEST thing I've ever seen. Looks like somebody ran it over with a lawnmower.”
It was obvious he was very jealous. My sweater was ULTRA cool. Plus, it came from my Dad. It was his favorite ski sweater, many many years earlier. When he was about the age I was now.
I swung the front door wide to the sunny, crisp, late-morning wintry air of Boise. A short, thin man with straight, black, bowl-cut hair and a small mustache, heavy-rimmed glasses and freshly-pressed dress shirt shifted from foot to foot on our front stoop. He piped up in a sprite voice, as the screen door swooshed by his nose.
“Fuller Brush Man! ”
I eyed him suspiciously, looking around to the bushes in front of the house, then back into his shiny lenses, as he went on with his full schpeel.
“Is the lady of the house in?”
“You're lookin' at him!”
The poor guy appeared more than a bit flummoxed. But he recovered well.
“Have you seen the newest aid in our line of house-cleaning brooms and brushes? The Onyx Floormax-8000. Cleans under and around ALL your household furnishings, with the greatest of ease. Only $9.95, postage paid.”
I looked back over my shoulder into the 'full furnishings' of our expansive, green shag-carpeted, 20 acre living room. Somehow the two aluminum folding lawn chairs, enormous, up-turned wooden spool with Idaho Electric Company burned into the sides, and old, green velveteen Barkalounger we found by the curb down on State Street, just didn't look like anything the Floormax could help out with.
I turned back to the Brush man, fully prepared to let him know we weren't interested in his nifty cleaning brush, when he took a step back on the porch, clapped his hands to his face, and said in a most happy voice, “where DID you get that wonderful sweater? ”
I signed the order for three brushes, closed the door, and smiled widely to no-one in particular in the rambling, empty ranch house. I couldn't WAIT until my roommate got home that night from his part time job as a janitor at Sears.
"Ugly sweater, schmugly sweater" was all I could think of, as I padded back down the hallway to the bedroom beyond.
"Won't HE be surprised by the big day I'VE had today?!!"
~ Finto ~
Here is the link to the post about the Five Minute Freewrite, put on by @mariannewest:
Day 194 ~ 5-Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: Sweater
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-194-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-sweater
Thanks for stopping in and viewing the second installment of the 28-Minute, Five Minute Freewrite. If you have any thoughts about Fuller Brush people at the front door, ugly sweaters, early retirement based in a seasonal job, or anything else this post reminds you of, please feel free to comment away in the spaces below. I'd love to hear from you.
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And go to @ddschteinn -- There's a whole lot more...
Posted: 05/01/2018 @ 17:52
Excerpts From Late-Night Conversations With A Mechanical Cat
Fact Number 67
Hello how are you? will you have the 3rd installment of this? I like the 28 minutes of writing I liked that unpleasant suerter that happens to us when we are fond of some garment we do not always put them on until that garment speaks and says that it does not want to be used anymore
Ha haa, yes, I have more than a few pieces of clothing that 'suggest' they be retired, and put in the rag-bag. I ignore them most of the time. Until as Jerry Seinfeld, the commedian used to say..."until they float out the window as a couple of loose strings". Or something to that effect.
I am well, I hope that you are too. This is probably the end of the line of this story. But it is a small part of a much larger story about living as a seasonal employee in the winter of forestry work. I hope to do more some day soon.
Loved the voice of your main character. A very engaging and entertaining write, DD:)
Thanks, so glad you enjoyed the story. Some manage to stay in at under five minutes, some do not. All are fun to write, that's for sure. That voice was a bit familiar ( :
Is he a little like someone you know?
Oh, maybe a small touch. Old habits die hard.
Ah! “Wonderful sweater”! Really funny story! Good job! ;)
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it. I still have that sweater. And I still look really good in it ( :
You are much welcome! Ah! I'm sure you look really good in your wonderful sweater! ;D
I look dapper ( :
Ah! That's great! ;)
Very good salesman indeed.
He had the touch...and some folks are SO gullible...
Hey, you promised a 28-5 minutes reading!! It only took me 3 minutes to read this! I want my 28-2 minutes back! 😅
Wow, you ARE a fast reader. Though the twenty eight is the time it takes to WRITE it. The reading part, is WAY beyond me. You might be sitting with a cat in your lap, eating snacks, or watching TV or juggling. Or doing all of them at once. I've yet to discover a way to watch everyone perform on here, and then try to cover all these humanistic bases in my estimates. So I apologize for that. I can start to call it 'who knows' reading....Nah ( :
Im gonna need more hands and legs if im gonna do all that at once! 😅
An octopod's got nothin on you...
What a wonderful sweater indeed. I could just picture you surroundings as you painted your word picture. Even the lure of the fuller brush man sales tactics can sometimes be the boon to an otherwise uneventful day.
I wonder, do they have door to door salesmen anymore? I guess the internet did away with that, mean do they even have newspapers anymore? Well, I do know that they still have lovely old sweaters once donned by ancestral fathers smiling from the black and world pictures of the past. Moth eaten or full of pills, an old sweater is like an old friend and deserves a good compliment, even when it IS a sales tactic.
Ha haa, love how you put things in perspective. And finding the joy in the mundane is a necessary necessity in the life of we exceedingly exciting folks. "Ooh, fluffy slippers and old sweater, the day is complete". I'm not sure if the Fuller Brush Man still exists. That was a few years back. But I think you are correct...the internet and such has made him move on to other realms of income. Like maybe telemarketing his odd little door to door brushes. Or wearing a too-small blue hat and serving very flat burgers to folks in a long line. The world moves too fast for me...
Love your take on the old sweater. There IS nothing quite like it. Maybe having another, so when one is being rent asunder in the spinner-wash, you still have that required comfort, both mental and physical. Ah, more of the joys of life. Hope your day is a bonny great one in the world of robot ladies and garden delights.
Great write mate - I loved the protagonist, a noble layabout, brimming with confidence :) You've got to be careful with those door-to-door guys, they'll say just about anything to get in your good books!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the small journey into a world now long gone. The door to door salesman. Now they just call my cellphone! Like your take on that, the noble layabout, brimming with confidence. Very keen. and kind of sums up a large part of my world ( : Hope your day is a good one. Cheers.
Hello @ddschteinn, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Thank you, I really appreciate you stopping in and viewing and supporting my 'art'. I look forward to more in the future as well. Keep up the good works.
Perhaps if it was a jumper instead of a sweater....
Why would you have a 20 acre living room?
Nice writing, dude ;)
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the write. These are a lot of fun. If only I had a jumper instead (aren't they the same thing, nuarrt, nuaartt). We had a HUGE living room, in a huge house. For 3 goofy guys. And that was all the furniture. Except the BW TV on the cable spool. With the homemade volume mute with a 20 ft. wire. And ski's in the corner. Just no furnishings. Like a shag carpeted caver or dungeon. What fun. The joys of the poor seasonal worker.
hahha :) look at the vendors!
What a fun article! my friend is always so wonderful
They are persistent. And a pain sometimes. I'm glad you enjoyed the writing. It was fun to write. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the weekend, and the next week as well.