Tag: Swimming

A Road Trip to Remember #Open Book Blog Hop

Please be sure to read to the end of this post to find out about a live interview in which I’ll be participating tomorrow. If you miss the program, don’t despair. It’ll be recorded, and I’ll share it here and on Facebook as soon as it’s available.

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Stevie Turner’s Open Book Blog Hop question for this week is this. “You’re going on a road trip: where are you headed? With whom? What are your snacks? Music? Plans?”

Since today is St. Patrick’s Day, I’d love to tell you about a road trip through Ireland, but I’ve never been there. However, I remember many road trips I took with my family through the United States when I was growing up.

My most memorable journey was one I took with my father in 1971 when I was ten. We were living in Tucson, Arizona, at the time. My paternal grandfather here in Sheridan, Wyoming, had just passed away, and Grandma needed help with the family’s coin-operated machine business. That summer, Dad volunteered to drive up to Sheridan and give her a hand for a while.

Originally, he was planning to go alone, but at the last minute, he asked me if I wanted to accompany him, and, always ready for a new adventure, I said yes. We left one warm evening in our old Mercedes Benz. After driving for a few hours, we finally stopped at a campsite where Dad unrolled a sleeping bag on the ground next to the car, and I stretched out in the back seat.

The next day, still in Arizona, we drove through the Navajo reservation and stopped at a trading post, where we saw Indian beadwork and other items. Being visually impaired and only ten years old, I couldn’t appreciate such things, but I enjoyed sitting on the porch, drinking Coke, and watching people come and go.

We then drove into Colorado and spent that night in Durango. Below is a poem I wrote about that night, which appears in my collection, How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver. you can click on the Play button below the poem to hear me read it.

A Memorable Stop in Colorado

by Abbie Johnson Taylor

In the summer of 1971 at the age of ten,
I traveled with Dad from our home in Tucson, Arizona,
to Sheridan, Wyoming, to visit Grandma.
While bar hopping in Durango,
I had Coke–Dad drank something stronger.
One establishment served hot dogs.
I liked them plain with not even a bun.
I must have had at least three.
Intoxicated, we made our way to the car.
I slept on the back seat
while Dad slept on the ground nearby.
Who knows where we were when we woke up?

The next day, we drove to Mesa Verde, where we toured a cave, crawling through parts of it on hands and knees, which I found exciting. We spent that night with friends in Beulah. Despite my limited vision, I loved stairs, and this house had them on the outside. So, to get from one level to another, you had to go outdoors and up the stairs, then enter the house through another door. If I remember correctly, there were three levels. I also enjoyed playing with other kids in a nearby creek.

The next afternoon, we drove to Denver, where we spent some time with my maternal grandparents before traveling the rest of the way to Wyoming. In Sheridan, I loved to play the jukebox and pinball and bowling games in my paternal grandmother’s garage, which had been converted into the coin-operated machine business’s shop. I met a couple of girls close to my age, who lived down the street, and we spent a lot of time listening to music in the shop. I got to go swimming, and we spent one day in the mountains where we observed a log rolling competition, which was interesting, although I couldn’t see a lot of the action. We also attended a rodeo parade and local band concerts in the park, which I also enjoyed.

In August, when it was time for me to start school, Dad needed to stay in Sheridan a little longer. So, he drove me to Denver, and I flew alone back to Tucson, which was also exciting. Dad returned home a month later. In the summer of 1973, my family moved to Sheridan permanently, and Dad ran the coin-operated machine business for the next twenty years until it was sold.

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What about your most memorable road trip? You can either tell me about it in the comment field below or click here to participate in Stevie Turner’s blog hop.

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Thursday March 18, 2021, Tell It to the World – Chat with Author Abbie Johnson Taylor: 7:30pm ET, 4:30pm PT, 1.30pm HT

In this month’s call, guest author Abbie Johnson Taylor talks with us about her writing life and more. In a brief interview, led by Patty Fletcher, Abbie will give a presentation and then take questions from the audience.

Abbie Johnson Taylor is the author of two novels, two poetry collections, and a memoir and is working on a third novel. Her work has appeared in The Writer’s Grapevine, Magnets and Ladders, The Weekly Avocet, and other publications. She’s visually impaired and lives in Sheridan, Wyoming, where she cared for her totally blind, partially paralyzed late husband, worked as a registered music therapist with nursing home residents, and helped other blind and visually impaired individuals. When not writing, she participates in a water exercise class, sings in a women’s group, and enjoys walking, reading, and listening to podcasts.

Website: http://www.abbiejohnsontaylor.com

To join us and subscribe to our email list to receive the daily schedule, which will include Abbie’s call-in info, send a blank email to: Acb-community-events+subscribe@acblists.org

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New! The Red Dress

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My Books

Let’s Do This #TMI Tuesday June 16 2020

Here are my answers to this week’s questions. After reading them, you can find out how to participate.

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1. What do you think are the best and worst parts of human nature? The best part is our willingness to help others. The worst part is our temper.

2. What is something terrifying that you have come to accept as a fact of life? Even now, in the 21st century, there are plenty of racists in the world. Some of them are police officers who would kill a man simply because he’s black.

3. What piece of media (book, movie, TV show, etc.) changed the way you viewed the world? How? When I was in college, I read Ellery Queen’s The Chinese Orange Mystery. Before that, I’d enjoyed Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mysteries. So, I decided to try something of a more adult nature. This book takes place in the 1930’s when the police were more brutal than they are now.

For a while after reading it, I was terrified of policemen. Years later, this partly inspired my first novel, We Shall Overcome.

4. You must pick one:

– Facebook or Twitter? I prefer Facebook because there doesn’t seem to be a limit on how many characters you can post.

– Cake or Pie? I like cake because it usually doesn’t have a hard crust. But I love pizza, and if the crust’s too hard, I won’t eat it.
– Swimming or Sunbathing? I don’t do much of either one. On the rare occasions when I go to a beach, I usually walk in the water.

– Nice Car or Nice Home Interior? Since I don’t drive, I’ll take the nice home interior, please.

Bonus: If pressing a button meant you received five million dollars, (USD) but it also killed five people somewhere in the world, would you press it? This is a no-brainer. The lives of five innocent people are not worth five million dollars.

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Now, it’s your turn. Click here to learn how to participate. Alternatively, you can answer one or more of the questions in the comment field below. Any way you do it, I look forward to reading your answers.By the way, my latest book The Red Dress, is now available from the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled website. If you use this service, click here.

New! The Red Dress

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My Books

A Trip to Australia Without Leaving Home #Thursday Book Feature

In a Sunburned Country

by Bill Bryson

From the author of Notes from a Small Island and other travel memoirs comes an account of the author’s experiences traveling in Australia. He explains how he traveled across the country by train, drove through the Outback, and visited museums and other tourist attractions. He also provides some history and describes venomous snakes and other creatures, even seashells, that can kill you in Australia, contrasting this with the friendliness of most of the people there.

I enjoyed being able to swim and boogie board without leaving my recliner. I was fascinated by the idea that children in the Outback, who are isolated on cattle stations, receive their education via short-wave radio through “schools of the air.” It’s also interesting to note that Australians once treated the Aboriginal people not much differently than we treated the Native Americans in our country. If you’d like to visit Australia and don’t want to spend money on a passport, plane tickets, train tickets, rental cars, food, and hotel rooms, Bill Bryson’s book is the way to go.

New! The Red Dress

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My Books