Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

I had no idea where I could post this in the Forum so I chose "Story Discussion" by default. I'm old. When I think back to my childhood, one of my fondest memories was of Saturday lunch. That was when my dad would give my brother and I each a quarter so we could go to our town's one movie theater for the Saturday matinee. That quarter would get us in the door, allow us to buy a box of popcorn, and leave us a penny to buy penny-candy on the way home. The matinee, which always included a couple of Looney-Tunes, would always end with a serial, a movie which would continue at next Saturday's matinee. The current episode would always end dramatically; in fact, those serials caused the term "cliff-hanger" to be coined. Often, the likes of Tom Mix or Lash LaRue would literally be hanging by his fingernails at the edge of a cliff and the guys with the black hats would be waiting to shoot him if he hoisted himself back to solid ground.

The other day, it occurred to me that I am now reliving those Saturday matinees by spending time reading stories on SOL. When I'm really getting excited about what's happening in a favorite story and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat glued to the computer screen, the chapter ends and I'm left starving for more, anxiously awaiting next Saturday when I can have one more episode. All that's missing is the quarter and the box of popcorn.

I just want to thank the authors who allow me to go back and relive that memory. Know that I appreciate the work you do even if I hate when the last chapter ends and I have to wait for the next to begin!

There is a Canadian coin, one dollar in value, called a Loonie. I am not sure about the spelling, my spell checker thinks I have it wrong. Maybe it is a Loony? Music about Canadian money could be loony tunes.

There is a picture of a loon on the back of the coin.

There is a $2 coin, perhaps it is called the Tooney? Then for $3 you could have both, a loony tooney.

I'm sitting on the edge of my seat glued to the computer screen, the chapter ends and I'm left starving for more, anxiously awaiting next Saturday when I can have one more episode.

What I said in the original post was never more true than with the newest chapter of "Bec4" (chapter 28). Of course, at least twenty out of those twenty-eight chapters have left me that way! I love it!

This young whippersnapper talks of inflated prices. My weekly quarter bought a ticket to the morning theater (9 cents) and the afternoon theater (9 cents), two Tootsie Rolls (1 cent each) and a Brock candy bar (one nickle, save the wrapper.) After three straight Saturdays, I could afford a Heath bar (ten cents) because with three saved Brock candy bar wrappers, the morning theater was free.

PotomacBob writes of his weekly quarter (I assume 25 cents).

When I started work I was on a specially increased salary because I could be sent anywhere at any time and without warning - the obvious places were the White Man's Grave (West Africa) and East Africa (from the Sudan to Rhodesia).
My annual salary was £425 (£8.17 per week)(equivalent to US$1020 (19.60 per week)). That had to cover accommodation (a long way from home), food, fares, posh work clothes and everything else. I couldn't afford even a Brock candy bar let alone the flicks.
Various things could get you the sack - marrying before the age of 25 without the employer's permission, not being properly dressed, using improper language .... One afternoon, standing behind the bank counter for eight hours (I was a cashier / teller) the manager noticed that I was not wearing regulation black shoes - because they wouldn't fit over the cast on my foot (I had broken a few bones the night before at martial arts classes). Definitely two sacking offences but I just got away with it; those were working conditions in those days.

If only I could do a chapter a week!