Listed below are 5 statements, four that are TRUE and one that is FALSE. Your job is to guess which one is false. After the first 10 guesses, I will come back and reveal which statement is the FALSE one. NEXT, I tag five people to play the game and likewise pass it on to others. Each tagged person should be notified by email, with a copy of your Truth or Dare's web address for your article. Here are my five:
1) When I was four years old, after watching the old “Batman” show on TV, I used garbage cans to climb onto the roof of our back porch, then up to the top of the two-story home’s steep metal roof. I spent about 15 minutes sliding down, then climbing back up to the top, then sliding down again before I was caught.
My father, who was deathly afraid of heights, had a pretty negative reaction to this. My explanation that Batman and Robin climbed skyscrapers all the time did nothing to calm him down.
2) Pennsylvania started its state lottery around the time I was in sixth grade. To mark the occasion, I started a school lottery with my best friend, who also happened to be the principal’s son. Our sixth grade teacher was furious and told us how evil lotteries were. Ten years later, when I was working at my hometown paper, that same teacher called us with a hot news tip . . . her son had been named head of the Pennsylvania lottery. I wasn’t allowed to write the story.
3) I first voted during a presidential election as an 18-year-old in 1980. I went to the polling place with my parents. My mother voted for Republican Ronald Reagan. My father voted for Democrat Jimmy Carter. I voted for Independent John Anderson. We laughed the whole way home about canceling each other’s votes.
4) I Mapquested directions for a trip from Knoxville to Portland last year. Of course, I meant Portland, Maine, but mistakenly got directions for Portland, Oregon. I drove 200 miles in the wrong direction before my wife figured this out.
5) I ate some bad clams during a lunchtime interview for a job in Maine. That evening, when four of us were going out to dinner, I had to ask my prospective boss to pull his car over to the side of the road so I could throw up. Once we got to the restaurant, I asked him to take me to the hospital. They gave me an IV and after several hours, sent me back to my hotel.
Maybe it was pity, or the fact that I kept my sense of humor, but nobody held the experience against me. A few months later I did a feature on the emergency room that treated me. The hospital staff remembered me and was glad to hear I’d gotten the job.
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3) I first voted during a presidential election as an 18-year-old in 1980. I went to the polling place with my parents. My mother voted for Republican Ronald Reagan. My father voted for Democrat Jimmy Carter. I voted for Independent John Anderson. We laughed the whole way home about canceling each other's votes.
Here is the link:
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977031717
But if that link does not work. Just put these words into the search article box at the top of the screen and it will pull it up
Barbara B Tagged
Thanks for the email.
Since they're all pretty darn beliveable, I'll pick the 1st one as false. It's the least gallant and dramatic of the bunch.
And even if you Were that numb, surely your wife isnt! *wink*
Thank you for sharing this with me Terry, as always, I enjoyed reading you....t
That song is playing in my head now ".....only 13, and she knows how..."
#1 is too cool not to be true. We're almost the same age (I'm younger tho!), and I can relate. Four seems young for this, but I'd say true.
#2 is too funny not to be true.
#3 Too cool! I was in 8th grade at the time and in all our "mock elections" I was John Anderson's promoter. I convinced my mom to vote for him, and was shocked when he didn't pull off the victory. LOL - which leads me to wonder.....8th grade, you're 4 years older than me...hmmmm - you're listing your bday as 10-28-62, so if that's true you would have just turned 18 before the election, but something about this doesn't seem right.
#4 is the obvious one that couldn't have possibly happened to someone as intelligent as you - besides you'd already been to Maine before - your novel is set there. This couldn't possibly be true. So, I'm thinking it is.
#5 - Great story. Too embarassing to reveal unless it really happened to you.
My official guess is #3. I think there's more to this story, but an 18 year-old going to the polling place with both parents and then laughing about canceling each other's vote is too Andy Griffith for me.
Then again, I don't think I've guessed ANY of these right yet!
:-)
Terry, I just found out a few days ago that I know your sister-in-law Donna, through an Internet foodie group in which we are both members. I want you to know that she was very proudly bragging on your First Chapter win and was amazed when I mentioned that we were connected and I had read your entry!
The Portland thing sounds stranger than it is since I'm assuming from TN the directions would have been for NORTH first rather than east/west. 200 miles is a lot but taking a freeway north/northwest as opposed to the one that would take you northeast is possible....even for someone as intelligent as Terry.
So I'll say #4...
Cathy
Good work Terry! A good writer wins over his readers every time!
Anna TWO
Anna -
It had to be four,
It Had to be four,
There's no way at all
Anyone can recall
Mapquest taking a fall,
Your ONE, two and five,
And three are too dour,
It had to be four
It had to be four
IT WAS number four!
-Wunnerful, wunnerful-
Thanks, Terry.
When two of my brothers were little, they climbed up on the headboard of my mother's bed, grabbed the window shade pulls and jumped off yelling, "Rip cord"!
Bill