The Barn by Cole Parker

[Rutabaga]

Another tale beginning here:

http://www.awesomedude.com/cole-parker/the-barn/index.htm

This one does not start with a cataclysmic event à la “First Year” but still looks ready for lots of stuff to unfold. 

R

[Rutabaga]

So far this story is proving to be more cerebral than I expected — kind of like a Tom Stoppard play. I will be interested to see where it leads. 

R

 

[Rutabaga]

I continue to be perplexed about the first person narrator, Dave.  Here is a teenager throwing in words like “plenipotentiary” in one paragraph, then using “icky” a few paragraphs later.   He seems to be channeling Holden Caulfield at one point, then Billy Pilgrim, then Pangloss (with a dash of Albus Dumbledore).  But now that something dramatic has just unfolded, I suspect yet another facet will reveal itself. 

Anyway, I continue to read, if for no other reason than to find out what the story is actually about. 

R

[Cole Parker]

Good to have at least one reader.  Keep with it, R.  Think you'll be pleased.  And I'd guess you had a decent vocabulary as a teenager as did I.  My editors hate it when I have teenagers speak like I did.  Hate it.  I have to be strong to ignore them.

C

[Rutabaga]

1 hour ago, Cole Parker said:

And I'd guess you had a decent vocabulary as a teenager as did I.

I did, but partly by conscious decision.  I had been working part time and after school at a manufacturing company, and realized at one point that my speech and vocabulary were mirroring the machinists in the back.  This alarmed me somewhat, so I made the decision (at that young age) that I was going to develop good speech and grow my vocabulary . . . on purpose.  It wasn't something that I took to the point of an affectation, but I did make a practice of speaking in complete sentences and choosing my words advisedly.  A few people noticed this when I got to college.

Anyway, I do look forward to discovering what the story is about. 😁

R

[Cole Parker]

11 hours ago, Rutabaga said:

I did, but partly by conscious decision.  I had been working part time and after school at a manufacturing company, and realized at one point that my speech and vocabulary were mirroring the machinists in the back.  This alarmed me somewhat, so I made the decision (at that young age) that I was going to develop good speech and grow my vocabulary . . . on purpose.  It wasn't something that I took to the point of an affectation, but I did make a practice of speaking in complete sentences and choosing my words advisedly.  A few people noticed this when I got to college.

Anyway, I do look forward to discovering what the story is about. 😁

R

I made the same decision; it was intentional for me, too.  I'd always been a voracious reader starting before I was even a teen, and early on I became curious about all the words I encountered that I didn't understand.  I started looking them up, and that became a habit.  I remember that reading The Count of  Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, I had to look up a whole lot of words, but I enjoyed doing so.

 

I learned early on not to spring this growing vocabulary on my friends.

 

C 

[Rutabaga]

On 5/2/2019 at 8:25 AM, Cole Parker said:

I learned early on not to spring this growing vocabulary on my friends.

A wise course of action. 

When I arrived in first grade I was already reading several grade levels above, and had taught my younger brother to read as well.  Miss Small, the first grade teacher whose name I still remember, got tired of my fidgeting during the “See Spot run” lessons. So she sent me to the school library, saying I should pick out a book I liked and bring it back to read while the rest of the class tackled Dick and Jane.  Of course I picked science books, and made a substantial dent in the school’s collection by the end of the term. 

R

[Cole Parker]

If you never got hell for it at recess, good for you!  But then, I'm not sure there's much bullying in first grade.  No one calling you a sesquipedalian at least.

C 

[colinian]

You're welcome, Cole!  😉

Colin 

[Cole Parker]

Knowledge is meant to be shared.

 

c

[Rutabaga]

Well, um, still kinda waiting . . . .

R

[Cole Parker]

Patience is a virtue

C

[Rutabaga]

And the plot thickens, or engorges, as it were . . . .

 

R

[Cole Parker]

See?  Patience pays off. Ha ha ha ha.

C

[Rutabaga]

From engorged to "libidinous fog."  Progress, I think.

 

R

[Ivor Slipper]

16 hours ago, Rutabaga said:

From engorged to "libidinous fog."  Progress, I think.

 

R

Is he a descedant of Phileas?

[Cole Parker]

I think that's spelled with two G's.

C

[Rutabaga]

19 hours ago, Ivor Slipper said:

Is he a descedant of Phileas?

Yes, along with siblings Perspicacious and Grandiloquent. And they dropped the second “g,” deeming it an affectation. 

R

[Cole Parker]

You would bring up affectations, wouldn't you.   /\

C

[Rutabaga]

I had to do something with them, before they become utterly insufferable. 

R

[Rutabaga]

Cliffhangers suck. 

R

[Cole Parker]

Anyone reading my stories know I love them.  Well, creating them.  Not so much reading them.

C

[colinian]

Come on, Cole! You know that you love to read your own cliffhangers. It's other writers' cliffhangers you're not much into reading.

Colin 

[Cole Parker]

Actually, I don't even mind those.  Cliffhangers get you thinking about the story, the characters, and anticipating what might come next.  What about that isn't good?  Now if you got one after each chapter, that might get tiring, but the occasional one, well, where's the harm?  I think it promotes the story and gets the reader looking forward to the next chapter.

C

[Rutabaga]

I have to admit that I laughed out loud when I read this description of the college roommate:  “He was a pleasant-enough guy, but anxious about things, not laid back like I was.  He worried a lot . . . .”

Sheesh.

This from someone who can’t seem to tell his brain to chill.   

R