Don Ford's Comments
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Dec 20, 2009 | comments: 1
Don Ford Dec 20, 2009, 6:50am EST
Hi Suzan,

Your ornament reminded me of the "Worst Christmas Gifts". At least your ball here is dated properly.
I have heard about and seen the following gifts handed out. The worst of them being the hand me down versions of clothing or ceramics. Another one that comes quickly to mind is the infamous fruit cake that shows signs of being wrapped and re-wrapped. How old are some of them? They all should be tested with carbon dating.

I can't forget the switch and bait tactic of getting a blank money envelope and the sad excuses. "It must have fallen out, and that's too bad, because it had a hundred dollar bill in it. "Oh, I'm sure it did." (eyes roll back in head)LOL. They may also claim they ran out of money and your name was at the bottom of their list.

We mustn't forget the hard stale cookies, so old they crumble in our hands.

I hate when I open a girl gift by mistake and hold up my prize - a pink bra. This happens way too many times. Once is too many as far as I'm concerned.

Another beautiful gift that serves little purpose, but makes a tree decoration, is the shiny glass ball ornament with the words Merry Christmas in silver or gold, but which is dated 1999. It seems to be still circulating some ten years later.

When the Santa gifts had all been handed out, my brother suggested we could trade with someone else, if the gift we got didn't especially please us. So a lot of gifts started flying around the room. Guess what? The exchange wasn't much better than the original choices we all made.

Cheers, Don
Dec 8, 2009 | comments: 26
Don Ford Dec 11, 2009, 12:00pm EST
This was very well crafted and it is a difficult style of poem to succeed at. But you seemed to have handled it nicely.
YOU SAID:
"I was about 15 and a half when this happened. Nov 18, 1978, I believe."

And I say I knew a man who in Bible School knew this man. The end was marked for Jim when he decided to throw his Bible down and declare that he knew what God wanted him to do. And off into paradise he flew. :{ Very sad that people are so easily drawn in to his charismatic personality to the selling of their own souls. I will have to post my Rose Colored Glasses soon for the purpose of exposing these fraudulent characters.

Where eagles fly,
Don
Nov 28, 2009 | comments: 4
Don Ford Nov 29, 2009, 9:24am EST
Tom,
I misspoke. I meant to say the barrier is LACK of TRUST.
Thanks for your comments. Cheers, Don
Nov 28, 2009 | comments: 4
Don Ford Nov 28, 2009, 2:01pm EST
Thanks Tom,

I know what you are saying, but convince everyone else and you have World Peace. Thanks for stopping by to share. Mom was Native American and Dad was Armenian. I am one of those shadow people. In their day it was better to be DEAD than RED in both their cases. Sad commentary on America, but Jews and Blacks will heartily agree with me. The hatred still flourishes, it just disguises itself now. So the barrier is TRUST. Cheers, Don
Nov 28, 2009 | comments: 2
Don Ford Nov 28, 2009, 11:33am EST
C.P.,
Thanks for the kind review, my friend. Much of what I write is directed at a child audience or folks at retirement homes where I speak frequently. Cheers, Don
Oct 26, 2009 | comments: 3
Don Ford Nov 14, 2009, 11:11am EST
Robin,
You are like my luck penny that keeps coming back to me. I see nothing out ahead but still am excited about the future. Why, because OUR God reigns. Cheers, Don
Oct 26, 2009 | comments: 3
Don Ford Nov 14, 2009, 11:01am EST
I wondered if there were any folks alive out there. I was worried it was just you and I, and guess what? So far it is. I was certain there were more folks on this site, but I never seem to generate hardly a movement out of any of them. Perhaps they are all out raking the last of their Fall leaves before the first snowfall or are on vacation. LOL Maybe I don't know how to use this site properly, Yeah, I mark it up to that. Cheers, Don
Sep 30, 2009 | comments: 11
in reply to a comment by Lee P.
Don Ford Oct 1, 2009, 6:25am EDT
Bill,
I knew a guy one time from Virginia, not that there's anything wrong with that state - or is there? He kept coming into the forum area of a site I was on peddling goods no one wanted. After a while he was reading beings palms, so to speak who weren't asking for it. He never asked what your birthday was he knew it from their profiles. As soon as I saw this happening, I pulled my pertinent data off my profile. Then he began harassing some of the weaker ladies and PMing them. One sharp gal saw right through his antics each time he posted.

He was thrown off the site, I'll bet six times before he managed to actually get the site to closed down. They figured it was the only way to rid themselves of him. All those folks then got scattered to the four winds.
Sep 30, 2009 | comments: 11
Don Ford Sep 30, 2009, 11:37pm EDT
Thievery knows no boundaries, they are everywhere. This is probably a half decent writer, just lazy. Half the fun for me is in being original. Fortunately, my work is all over the place, and lots of folks know who I am; not by the name but by my style and voice. Good article by the way, quite enlightening. It's almost Halloween, I wonder where he will masquerade next? Cheers, Don
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
in reply to a comment by Don Ford
Don Ford Sep 30, 2009, 8:52pm EDT
Brian,
I honestly could keep right on going as well. I am a prolific writer and storyteller. With me, I practiced on my young babies, and developed my style and performance over time as I went. What could my baby say when I started out. "Oh, Dad that was bad," but instead I got very good at telling stories on the spot. I could make up a tale from a tiny object. I could share my ant story right now, but that will have to wait for another time. LOL
Cheers, Don
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
Don Ford Sep 30, 2009, 8:03am EDT
Another freewrite:
Today I am just going to amble in my thoughts, just let the ideas come and go and I will grab whatever feels right and penn it down. Whatever comes into my mind from my surroundins i will incorporate in my wirk. This could take me in a hundred directions but I am prepared to wite until the words stop or my mind goes comletely blank. Blank is when there is absolutely not a fragment of thought that ci=omes into the mind and interrupts the qiuetness of just emmptying my thoughts of everything. The only way I will stop this transmission is when i come to an empty space in my thoughts, then I will bring all things to a halt. THE END>

Shall I write again? Why not! I am ready always to share ideas and thoughts and stories with anyone around who would listen. This is fun as long as I knoew what to say from one line to the other. It gets scary when I can’t remember wht I was going to say or where I was going again with my thoughts. Right now I am just throwing words down and compiling what seems ans even feels like nonsense, but is it. Are my thoughts alloeed to express themselves, since that it what is happening here. I enjoy sharing stories and talking about the things I enjoy in life and of course writing is a major one with me. Without my pen and pad where would I be. It will lead the way in what i do now in my future. I look forward to where it will take me. I’m excited at the many propects, I’m just waiting for the doors to swing open, I’m ready to answer the call. Tha is all!
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
in reply to a comment by Don Ford
Don Ford Sep 29, 2009, 3:18am EDT
Hi Susan,
I don’t want to bore folks here with my meal offerings. Usually we have whatever good fortune the day provides. I will draw back the curtain a little in my life to share that there are a lot of great people who have found themselves without gainful employment at this time. We may be out of food at times, but never out of ideas or resources to make it to the next day. This is not survival of the fittest as much as a survival of the wits.

I am well connected, though.

Some days are a feast, while other days are simple meals but still very tasty. Never do we experience famine though. So Tuesday night we dined on toasted cheese and a large bowl of vegetable soup. It hit the spot! I’d invite you all over but we finished it off; guess we were hungrier than we thought. Instead of counting what cans are in the cupboard, we count instead our blessings.

That’s my rich connection.

Cheers, Don
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
Don Ford Sep 28, 2009, 8:44pm EDT
I saw a writing prompt for a Halloween story and decided to get in on the scary action. So I put up my first sentence in Word and began to run a story out to a not so great conclusion. After-all, this was horror. Now it was starting to scare the pants off people and I am not into horror, trust me. But I am into storytelling and that made it easier. Cheers, or should I say BOO! Don
P.S. So turn some of these into stories too from your freewrite writing prompts.
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
in reply to a comment by Don Ford
Don Ford Sep 28, 2009, 8:36pm EDT
Marianne,
Now if I can just convince them how lucky they are. LOL Cheers, Don
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
in reply to a comment by Marianne M.
Don Ford Sep 28, 2009, 7:28pm EDT
Hi Marianne,
I think these writing prompts could be springboard ideas to much larger works that we could craft later on, using these as the bones and adding flesh to them afterwards. Cheers, Don
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
in reply to a comment by Don Ford
Don Ford Sep 28, 2009, 7:25pm EDT
Hi Janice,
My son is 35 and my daughter is 12. I know, I know, that's a story for another time. My son is the director of a NY Art Museum and was recently interview in the NY Times and on NPR for his outstanding work in the area of Pop Art and Street Art collectively. He is very articulate; I could learn from him to be sure. My daughter is blossoming in the area of music and is very expressive and outgoing.

I am currently employed as a storyteller and poet in area retirement homes, schools and churches. I am waiting for the garden clubs to call also as I am a graduate forester and professional nurseryman (Tree hugger mostly). I live in Central New York and have been as far east as Cooperstown NY to share my writing hobby.
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
Don Ford Sep 28, 2009, 6:29pm EDT
6:24pm
Sorry to disappoint everyone. I will switch gears and concentrate on the idea of this writing prompt being like storytelling to children at night with the emphasis of making up a story as we go. Ithink that our imagination, giving enough to work with couldcook up a pretty spectacular story whether it was spooky or funny for that matter. I used to tell stories at bedtime with my children. I would pick an idea or a simple subject and then my mind would pull things out of the air to share about. I remember one time I finally felt I had covered every subject imaginable, after hundreds of stories night after night with my son. I told himfrankly that i was all spent that there was just nothingleft in the well to pull out. He took it sort of literally and said: "Dad, I see something at the bottom of the well, it is an eagle with a broken wing. This was the start of storytelling that would now involve my child in the process. Each night I would say I saw nothing in the well and he would stop me saying he was seeing a goose with pink feathers or a saw ans a hammer or a ...

twenty tree years later I am having a late in life child. She was perfect in every way and was a lot like her brother. She clamored for stories at bedtime as well. She was made to come up with suggestions as I told her what happened to her brother. "Honey your brother took everything out of me and there is just nothingleft in me. ( Finished at 6:34)
Sep 28, 2009 | comments: 33
Don Ford Sep 28, 2009, 4:21pm EDT
I will be happy to engage you Sue - only because it is you. But not right at this moment. Ten minutes isn't long and I can squeeze it in to be sure, but I am being distracted at the moment. I will stop back and I hope you are ready for my piece. I will attempt a scary piece, since it is nearing Halloween. Maybe in about a half hour I will get back to this. I promise not to apply any notes. Oops, Dinner calls...

Don
Sep 17, 2009 | comments: 33
Don Ford Sep 17, 2009, 10:24pm EDT
Lonnie,

My good friend. I hung in there, just waiting long enough to hang you out to dry. I was listening and getting ready to form a lynch mob(LOL) Then the tone changed, and what I hoped to hear in the end is what was there in flashy gold. You hung none of this dishonor on the Lord. The flock, well that's a whole different matter. Don't worry church leaders, you aren't off the hook here by a long shot.

Yes, at times Lonnie, you were a bit dramatic and I thought you were staging a church uprising or simply a Great church play that would act as a mirror to the shepherds and a reminder to the rest of the flock to not get too wrapped up in shock and awe presentations. This was presented in a good fashion and led to an even better conclusion. An editor would hold up the sign of the cross as you got a bit too carried away by the GIANT BOLD LETTERING - OMG. But other than that, I applaud you for a good word. One we hope will not scare away newbies from finding their way into the Everlasting arms of Jesus Christ.

Cheers,
Don
Sep 3, 2009 | comments: 25
Don Ford Sep 3, 2009, 2:17pm EDT
If you want it in Barnes and Noble, I would try looking into their packages as well. They are a bookstore chain and they go by www.iuniverse.com If I self-publish in the future, I will seriously consider them. They have a few packages you could look over. That's if you haven't already signed on the dotted line, they take care of the isbn issue for you, I understand. Don
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Don Ford
Between the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits
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