Words For Sale

Lately I feel as if I've turned into a bit of a word prostitute...selling them off for a few dollars at a time until the dollars add up to something good.

If you're one that follows the articles I post on Associated Content, then you've probably noticed that the subject matter of my recent articles is a bit off from my normal gig.

I mean common?

Me?

Writing about bed wetting and toilet training?

There would have to be some reason that I had chosen this subject matter for the crazy collection that has been recently published.

There is a reason.

Dollars.

Writers aren't a whole lot different from artists...

Most of us are starving...

Only a few of us ever get noticed...

And that's only after we're dead.

As I wrote that just now I started thinking...

What if, years from now, long after my bones have turned to ash, someone decides to do a bit of snooping into my portfolio of work?

I have turned my legacy into a collection of articles highlighting the joys of excrement.

Wonderful.

Of course in a perfect world I'd be one of the featured authors in Oprah's Book Club and would spend my days lounging on the deck with my handy laptop. Sadly, my world has yet to reach that stage of perfection just yet...so I bide my time hooking out my talent 450 words at a time.

It's a hard knock life...

But one day, when I'm hanging out by the pool in my $1.7 million dollar house overlooking the ocean in Hawaii - I'll drop you a post and let you know how I'm doing on my tan.

Saving Pennies

My daughter stood in the doorway holding a handful of money.

"This is what I've made so far."

She passed me the stack of twenties and I counted them out.

"$240," I smiled at her. "I'm impressed."

"And I get paid again tomorrow," she grinned. "That'll bring me up to $300."

"You're doing a fantastic job."

She trotted off with her wad of bills in hand.

She's spent the last five weeks, her entire summer vacation so far, babysitting for the kids across the street. It wasn't exactly how she had wanted to spend her summer, but the bait of making a few dollars was to much to resist.

"So what are you going to spend your money on?" my mother asked her after she found out about her summertime gig.

"A car."

My mother laughed at her answer, but was quickly met with the determined stare of my 15-year-old daughter.

"I'm serious. I want to buy a car next summer when I get my driver's license."

My mother assured her that she had plenty of time to save money for a car, but she held firm to her original answer. Every penny she earned from her babysitting job would be stashed away for a car.

It was a lesson she had learned from her brother, who, after he turned 16 worked for an entire summer to be able to save enough money to buy his first car. She watched him scrape together every last cent he had so that he could purchase the $1500 car from the local car lot.

That summer her brother taught her a valuable lesson about money:

If you want to buy something, you have to save your pennies to be able to get it.

That summer also reinforced an important "mom rule":

If you want to have your own car, you have to buy it yourself.

"So if I start saving my money early," she said during that same summer, "then I can buy a nicer car, right?"

"That's how it works."

Now we'll just have to see exactly how dedicated she is to achieving her goal.

American Pride...Small Town Style

The claim to fame for the small town where I live is that it's the site of the oldest consecutive 4th of July celebration.

Forget the east coast towns of our founding fathers, instead a tiny little town tucked in the midwest lays claim to the fact that through times of peace and times of war, through times of economic hardship and times of booming success they have always come together to celebrate the national holiday.

Here are some scenes from this years 4th of July Parade...a little American Pride...Small Town Style!

Matty enjoying some sucker goodness! Nothing like some candy first thing in the morning!

Lily showing some American Pride with her tiny flag!

To see more photos....click here!