John — Left Holding the Bag

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No matter where John and neighbor Logan are, it is game time. Logan threw his backpack on the ground and ran to the light pole and back. As we ambled toward the bus stop, John picked up the school bag. It somehow became a punching ball, a target, and a shield. They didn’t have enough time to formulate rules.

The laughter was from neighbor Marla and John. You won’t hear me, because I tend to hold my breath when recording. I cannot stand hearing my own voice coming back at me. Is anyone else like that?

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

31 thoughts on “John — Left Holding the Bag”

  2. I thought the ‘in thing’ a few years ago was to video a chapter from one of your books. I settled down to try with Ju’s help. It took a couple of go’s but once it was done I uploaded if to Youtube. I can’t stand to see it as I’m slumped like a sack of potatoes not sitting elegantly as I imagined. I can’t stand to hear it either since my voice seems high to me and I have a dreadful accent. I never go near it now.
    xxx Huge Hugs xxx

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      1. I think 60 degrees sounds perfect – we are half that now at 31 degrees … no rain today, so will make the best of it. Tomorrow morning I can walk as well … after that it will be anyone’s guess. Just looked at the Weather Channel for Saturday as they are predicting high winds … no wind advisory issued yet and just 22 mph winds. I worry about the winds as we have a lot of old trees in the two houses behind and they have not been pruned or tended to in years. Behind me, the roots are coming out of the ground, so I have much angst when we have those wicked thunderstorms with the heavy winds, usually in the Spring and Summer months.

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          1. I always worried about the trees, then when we had the 39 mph windstorm about four years ago now, it split Marge’s pear tree in two, pulled a branch off the other one and blew my tin shed over and it crumpled in the yard. That was just a 39 mph wind gust, so worry about those large trees. We had a derecho back in 1981 and my father needed to cut the lawn that night as the grass was getting long. When I came home from work that night, the grass was all laying over like it had been combed back like a pompadour.
            The City had planted new saplings all along the median of Fort Street. They had been staked, but were all listing and eventually had to be taken out. I was in an office building and it blew the corner office windows out. It was the senior partner and he was an avid traveler and had many mementos on a glass stand – they were all swept off the shelf, many broken and did much damage to his office. It was very scary, then we lost power for one week.

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              1. I had the news on at the time but that is because I often have the news on during the day, not necessarily listening for bad weather. It had been pretty windy out there and you feel the house move, but didn’t think much of it until Marge called and said your shed just rolled across your yard. I had just heard the weather forecast (we have traffic/weather every ten minutes) say 39 mph winds. I have pictures of how the shed looked in Shutterfly and I will look for them when I am back … just came apart at the seams. But the wind picked up later that afternoon, but only took the big branch off the other pear tree, then they were cut down a few days later. It happened around Thanksgiving. I was sure I put pictures of it here on my blog – searched some key words, then remembered I used the word moorings … shed had rusted on its moorings. Here is the post about it and shows the shed before it fell apart. Also you see my butterfly bush which died after Polar Vortex I. I lost all three butterfly bushes – the backyard does not look anything like it used to as I lost all my butterfly bushes, many of my perennials … used to have daisies, coneflowers and black-eyed susans lined up each side of the backyard and the shed matched the house … all gone now.

                https://lindaschaubblog.net/2014/11/25/all-about-that-pace/

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  5. Love seeing the love and joy in that photo Anne! Yes I am the same way about my voice. I hate calling our home phone because if my husband is not in the house I have to hear myself telling myself to leave a short message!

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  6. Grandchildren are the best. John becomes such a little boy with Logan. And your camera is ever ready to capture a shot. I was wondering if you would make a scrapbook for Logan, so he could have things to look back at.
    Susie

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  9. I enjoy your Logan stories so much, Anne. They help take the sting from my grandchildren being so far away and not real good at phone conversations. God bless you all.

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  10. Great little film! To hear oneself is definitely a shock. I had to do a little speech a couple years back, and my son recorded it. It’s strange, but I never even realized I had an accent until I listened to that recording.

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    1. That is amusing. I KNEW I had an accent, especially when I married and moved to NY. I stuck out like a sore thumb, then got used to it and liked it. I’ll bet my ears would find your accent comfortable.

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  12. OK, I think I’ve figured it out, Anne! Logan brings out the inner kid in John, so they play as peers!! Er… obvious I guess, but it just hit me now!
    BTW, no, I can’t stand my own voice either! And since I write songs and sing them with guitar, recording myself for posterity so the songs aren’t ‘lost’ – I go ‘ugh’ when I watch AND listen to myself later. Maybe I should just do the recordings but not watch them after! Isn’t it strange how different our voice sounds when we speak or sing, vs. how it sounds to us when played back?

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    1. No, it’s not obvious that John and Logan play as peers, but you can tell they have a special relationship. Your conclusion was a good one, one I hadn’t thougt about.

      I can accept a recording of my singing and playing much easier than just a conversation. I think there is more control when music is involved. I haven’t watched myself, though. That could put it on a different plane. I’d probably want that plane to crash.

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