Sour Cream, Blueberries, and You: An Anthology

By John Shubeck

Sour Cream, Blueberries, and You
offers a new look at life and how we live as described by author and photographer John Shubeck through more than one hundred short stories, poems, observations, and photographs recording everyday happenings. What you now see as mundane can be revealed with hidden opportunities and humor, providing new insights through his observations. An occasional bit of reality presents food for thought and opens doors to what could be.

From the emotion of A Woman in Love to the vicarious sadness expressed in Today I Saw a Friend, Shubecks writing considers friendship or love in a new light. He uses the experiences he has gleaned from his family, business, and society; even nature is exposed and seen differently.

By opening wonderful new worlds, new experiences have come his way with each life change. He has not only become more aware of the world around him, but he also revels in the new and exciting relationships that have come with each new start in his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475963137

John Shubeck

John Shubeck is an author and photographer with a knack for getting into the heart of an article and exposing new insights to consider. His marriage to his wife, Elaine, soon after leaving the service (1955), resulted in four children, six grandchildren, and fifty-two years of commitment. Now widowed, he lives in Cranford, New Jersey.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 John Shubeck

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6311-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6312-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-6313-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012921987

iUniverse rev. date: 03/05/2015

Contents

Introduction

Observations — Chapter 1

Required Scribe

Poet Enclosed

Future Residence

I’m Inside Out

Intentions Are Just … Intentions

Is This as Good as I Get?

Aged Out?

My Heart and I

A Little Smile

Intelligent Life Survives

Life on the Seesaw

Performing the Laudable

Uncooperative Behavior

My Lap Waits

Helmets on Every Head

Unfair Vitality

Ultimately Benefit?

Loneliness and Despair

Amour — Chapter 2

A Woman in Love

Improbable Things

This Is Your Day

Cupid’s Day

Love Shines in Me

Life Is about Love

Love and Marriage

Present Love

Love Must Grow to Live

Separated, Why?

Just a Word about Us

My Heart Sees You As …

Special Poems — Chapter 3

Little Bluebird

Life and Death on Display

Remain Reclined

Rising Sun

There Are Lessons to Learn

Your Dear Life

Freedom Required

Did It Snow Again?

Winter Snow

All Snow Must Go

Be Careful at Sea

From Santa to Me

Life’s Cruel Nature

How Will We Die?

Change of Heart

What Makes a Man … a Man?

Why Do We Not Live Today?

A Friend

Our Sons, Daughters, and Immortality

Heroes Big and Heroes Small

The Purple Band around My Wrist

Who Is Lost—You or I?

Change Is Constant

It Is Not What We Get, but What We Give

Seniors in General

Friendship — Chapter 4

Today I Saw a Friend

A Pair of Mugs

Choose Your New Beau

Dear Special, Longtime Friend

Hi, Confidante

Favorito Santo

Short Stories — Chapter 5

The Mystery of Cabin 828

First Bacon

The Blue Coat

Finally, Amy Is Safe

Aliens Invade Revelers

Two Sloops at Sea

No Dreams, Please

13D—Willie’s Favorite Seat

Frozen Mustang

Continuous Evaluation

Topsy-Turvy World

On the Lighter Side — Chapter 6

Pasta in Prose

A Birthday Died Last Year

My Lost Checkbook and Me

Crushed Arachis Hypogaea

Flavored Gelatin

Some Words Are Dead

My Bagel and Me Can Answer the Call

Octogenarian

A He Named … a She

Final Statement

Photo Gallery — Chapter 7

Dedicated in Memory of

ELAINE T. SHUBECK

Special thanks you to:

My Family and Special Friends who helped

with words of wisdom and support.

Introduction

My 80+ years did present me with many opportunities not only to live life but to just watch it go by, and in some cases to write my observations. I hope my curiosity gave some insights that I will use to tickle your fancy and have you saying, Yes. I never thought of that, but now I see.

While recuperating from a heart attack in 2004, I walked the streets of Cranford, New Jersey, and as a resident photographer, I recorded it’s lifegiving beauty and atmosphere.

Since my wife died in 2007, and after a period of mourning, I have been writing to an old friend. No, old is not the appropriate word.

She is my long-time friend. (Over 60 years). I will say some of the writings do contain references to our present relationship. Marriage is not in our plans but after our friendship of over 60 years, (minus the years we were each married to someone else) we qualify as good friends.

During that time, I wrote in college and I free lanced writing for an advertising agency, though not seriously. I rewrote some old short stories for this book and updated them into the 21st Century. I tried to put a little mystery into the stories and present them as fun, informative and uplifting without sermonizing.

I particularly like my short story, The Mystery of Cabin 828. In the same light, many thought AWoman In Love, got inside them, as did, What Makes a Man: a Man. First Bacon, has a pleasant surprise as does 13D: Willie’s Favorite Seat. I call them short stories but they are really short-short stories.

l smile every time I read, Aged Out. But please don’t linger on, Love and Marriage. It’s original title was, Natural Conflict. You will probably find, A Bachelor’s Lament is much more fun to read.

I suggest you limit yourself to only one story a night if you can in the Potpourri, section. If you have any seniors around I also suggest a tissue-in-hand before you start to read, Today I Saw a Friend. Then hurry to, A He Named, a She, to give yourself a little lift.

Observations — Chapter 1

Required Scribe

A writer I must be. Nothing else will satisfy me.

There are no fish in the sea that are attractive to me.

There is no game that I want to play.

Nothing can draw me off my keyboard and my paper, I say.

Even if it is a short story I seek within my brain,

I know I will try and try again to set it down and set it free.

I will go to you and in a flash I will present a lilting refrain.

See, I must write, and I must write whether it is good or just vanity.

There is nothing I can do. My head keeps telling my fingers to write.

They have no story to tell. Nor do they have a poem to sell.

They can only be a slave to the story tonight.

The story is within my head, and my job is to get it out.

I have no choice. I am a slave, as are my hands.

We just wait and then I am told what to expand.

And when I am done, I pick up the paper and read the verse

That I have written as the robot that I have become.

What has happened, and when did it start?

This is a mystery to me as well as to you.

But there comes a time, whether early or late,

When I must write upon the slate.

Poet Enclosed

If I have a poet inside of me, would I be telling you a lie?

I cannot call the sky red, nor can I call it blue.

I must be honest with you.

I don’t know what to call it, oh my.

Could it be there really is a poet in me?

How can I find him and let him out?

How does one experience the glee

Of being able to say, I have a poet in me?

Yes, I know I must write and write as if my life is at stake.

I must write today and tomorrow and the day after that.

There is no shortcut, not a magic potion that I can take.

The only way to find a poet in me is to write and write to set him free.

Future Residence

My white rocking chair waits for me

In the gleaming morning sun and muted evening shadows.

It stands there in silent confidence that we will meet some tomorrow.

We are predestined to develop a special bond.

Yes, my white rocking chair waits for me.

It waits at the home with three others in a row.

It waits in pristine confidence just for me.

There seems to be one waiting for everyone I know.

Image%201.JPG

White rocking chairs

I hope it will wait a very long time …

And maybe even find another senior to support and rock.

I am in no hurry to give up and enter its waiting arms.

There is love and a life that I need to live.

There are mountains to climb and trips to take.

There are laughing friends still waiting for me.

Even meetings that I need to make.

There are morning dew and sunsets that I want to see.

I am not ready to