Campfire

and stove, along with two small bedrooms. Each had a bed and window, along with a little washbasin. The blacksmith shop was one of the most interactive parts of the ranch. They had an actual blacksmith, and we got to watch him build a stand for a campfire. The blacksmith even had one of the boys in the crowd assist him in using all of the tools and equipment. There was also a pasture that held buffalo, Clydesdales, and longhorn cattle, where we were allowed to drive through to get a closer look…

The Hook Man and the Morality in Horror Imagine seeing your significant other hanging above your car with his throat slit from ear to ear and his eyes his eyes having been gouged out by a hook. Painted on your car you see the words “I could have gotten you too” painted in his blood (Dalton 1). Coming from a telling of the story of the Hook Man by Carolyn Dalton, the aforementioned scene is not a pretty picture. In spite of its grim nature the story of the Hook Man has been passed on for…

My favorite campsites close down mid summer due to the lack of water. Campfires are often prohibited because of the inability to extinguish an unnatural wildfire. And our rivers are all but dried up. Water allotments forced my family to gather our shower waste in buckets to flush our toilets with. We filled two-liter bottles…

Urban Nest: Gift For Gab—Getting to Know Portland’s Storytelling Scene There is something amazing about a live storytelling show. The intimacy between the storyteller and the audience can be almost palpable at times. Whether it’s the nature of the story being told, the artistry of the teller, or just something about hearing a true story told live from a firsthand witness is practically irrelevant. What matters, for the devoted audience members attending contemporary storytelling shows, is that…

Attention Getter: We all have best friends. For a long time, I had an odd best friend that lived in my head. My best friend was some twisted little thing, telling me awful ways to deal with things. My best friend was my eating disorder. Eating Disorders are, any of several psychological disorders characterized by serious disturbances of eating behavior according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary. Purpose: See, today I am in here because I need, not want, but need to talk about eating disorders.…

It represents the first definition of realism: to show things as they are, and to address a social issue but also beauty in the ugly. In this story, we can see that the little young girl, Marian going to the Old Ladies’ Home as a campfire girl to simply gain points for her charity work. What is quite odd is that at the very beginning, instead of describing the home that is supposed to be warm and welcoming, it was worded as “whitewashed brick and reflected the winter sunlight as…

The night air unsullied and fresh, frogs croak, barn owls call back and forth to each other, and cicadas sing in the blackness. The moon casts shadows from the colossal hundred year old surrounding oak trees, your belly is filled with M&M’s and campfire cooked s 'mores. You can feel a sense of belonging in the mid summer air. Your closest friends surrounding you, and within the comfortable silence not a word is spoken but there is so much noise. The noise of the river 10 feet away, the warm…

the valley to supply our slightly damp fuel, a rubber tire surrounding a well-rusted rim to contain our small-scale experiments with the art of arson, and, of course, a can of Axe body spray to ease the wood’s ignition, we were ready to enjoy our campfire. Brendan, whose red, curly hair, like wisps of flames, perfectly illustrated his inner pyromania, held a Bic lighter in front of the can of deodorant and sprayed a stream of six-foot flames towards the pile, setting our fire ablaze. To our…

Exactly 17 months and 15 days ago, I left my siblings behind in Springfield, Oregon to move all the way to Flint, Michigan. At the time, Emylee, my sister, was only 7 and Trevon, my brother, was 9. After we moved out here, I met my mom’s boyfriend’s children, Whitney, Logan, and Jacob. Whitney was the oldest, at 20, Logan was the same age as me, 15, and Jacob was 12. I was slightly weary of them at first, I was a little bitter with having to leave my family behind for this new one, but I grew to…

Trust for me is a difficult thing. When you can’t trust the people in church you pretty much grew up in, trust becomes nearly impossible. People ask me why I’m so guarded, and here I’ll let you in on a little secret: people change people. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst. You want to know where my hurt from the church comes from, well then sit down, and enjoy the show, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. It all goes back to the first church I was hurt by. I had gone to this…