PHOTO PROMPT © Anshu Bhojnagarwala
A CHILLING NOTE
Indian build small fire, sit close, keep warm.
White man build big fire, keep warm chopping firewood.
Damn global warming!
Damn the EPA!
Damn bureaucracy!
This will be the last night we can do this. Tomorrow, the City’s open fire ban goes into effect. The kids will be the ones most affected – no more toasted marshmallows, no more charred wieners, no more waving glowing sticks in the air.
We can still sit around and drink beer and tell lies in the dark. Somehow, I don’t think that an extension cord and a radiant heater are going to bring back nostalgia.
***
Go to Rochelle’s Addicted to Purple site and use her Wednesday photo as a prompt to write a complete 100 word story.
Archon's Den 
But… but… what about all the marshmallows that will go untoasted? Oh! The horror.
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They may commit suicide by diving into my mug of hot chocolate. 🙂
Years ago, my Dad dug a shallow pit in the back yard and ringed it with 4 concrete blocks. When we visited my parents, we could enjoy a campfire in the dark, and the minimal smoke kept mosquitoes away.
Then the town ordered no more open fires. I fabricated a square of open metal grating, standing 6 inches above the ground on steel legs. Functionally it changed nothing, but legally qualified as a lid. Ahhh…. the good old days. 😀
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Polar Vortex heap bad medicine! Oh Canada, please take back!
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I would have thought that it would be balanced out by that hot air factory near BrainRants’ place. Thai’s why there’s no glaciers in the Appalachians. I guess you’re too far from it to benefit.
That thing got smoked up on BC Gold, now that pot is legal in Canada, and wandered in your direction way out west. Now it’s stumbling back towards me. 😯
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It’s just not the same!
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I have childhood memories of late-Sept./Oct. when entire small towns had the constant, delicious aroma of burning leaves. Then, increasing allergies and stupidity took that away.
The idiot next door, a Presbyterian minister, spent a Saturday afternoon clearing every leaf off his property. He raked them onto the town-owned boulevard, piled them around a creosote-treated, wooden power pole which supplied electricity to the small hospital across the street, set it ablaze like a Rajah’s funeral pyre…. and went inside for supper.
If I hadn’t quickly dragged out our garden hose, the entire neighborhood would have gone dark. Maybe ‘the good old days’ weren’t so good – but I still miss them. 🙂
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Oh my goodness! You saved the day – and the neighbourhood!
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It was the first, but not the only time as a child, that I saw just how unthinkingly DUMB some adults could be. The next year, just before I turned 13, I met an American tourist and his family, who had come to my Great Lake coastal town – to go skiing…. on Labor Day weekend, because – you know – Canada has snow. 😯
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Yes, it’s sad to say goodbye to so much – backyard campfires with marshmallows, coral reefs, low-lying islands, countless species of animals and sea creatures. Damn that global warming indeed.
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😯
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Ah toasted marshmallows. Lovely write.
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Thanx. That was an L of a nice comment. 🙂
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I still have a firepit. I like livin’ on the edge… 😉
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Or sittin’ ’round the edge, with some wine. 🙂 No problems with the neighbours? 😕
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Exactly. Wine is nice.
Nope. And the one who would complain is a fat S.O.B. who doesn’t respect his neighbours with the noise level he ans his brats
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*and
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Take heart–if they ban open fires, they’ll probably ban marshmallows for being pure sugar, and hot dogs for all the chemical additives.
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Oh, that’s already happened. If there’s a wisp of enjoyment, there’s some self-appointed policeman telling us that we shouldn’t/can’t do it, saving us from ourselves and any temptation, whether we want it or need it. Canada’s young Prime Minister, Prince Trudeau II is a sad example. He’s not a leader. He’s not even a politician. He’s a social engineer. 👿 I’d trade you him and his society butterfly wife for Donald and Melania, any day. 😦
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Oh no you don’t! I’m not a loving and adoring fan of The Donald, but I admire him for the fact that he’s still standing after 2+ years of continuous fire from all sides. He really is trying to keep his promises.
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Which is why I would gladly take him in exchange for drama-teacher Trudeau the Younger.
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So many things that we all grew up with, that have changed entirely, or been banned and are gone. No doubt, some of it is for the betterment overall, BUT I believe some essential and magical things have been lost in the process. Your story really got me thinking. We may not agree on politics (from comments), but methinks we’re aging at the same rate, and share many of the same childhood memories. Lovely piece, with some humor too.
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Thanx for the follow and the kind words. 🙂
Are we disagreeing North, or South of the 49th? 😕
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The story shined thru’, and I’m South–– but only 20 minutes from BC. Lucky me!
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