A Collection of Carol’s Creations

By Carol Joan Campbell

Not enough time to read a book? How about just a short story or a few poems? Here's a book filled with just that! Find a Fictional story-Creative Non Fiction, Poetry, Silliness, Sentimental?
Read for an hour or just a few minutes. Flip through the pages and let your mind take a quick journey or a soothing rest - it's all up to you. ENJOY!!!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796064001

Carol Joan Campbell

In 1997, Carol Joan Campbell wrote songs for a Children’s CD, “Why Knot Play By the Rules”, teaching safety rules via music. “You Don’t Have Fins” won fourth place in John Lennon’s international song writers competition. In 2006 her book “Verses From A Garden, and Other Nature Things,” viewed nature through children’s eyes. In 2010, she wrote “Between Webster and Me.” Going through the dictionary, she chose words from A through Z and crafted stories expressing the different facets of each word and its range of definitions and usages. “The Devil On My Doorstep” written by she and her daughter, depicting two sides of a mental breakdown, was published in 2010. She has had many short stories published in a local magazine. Her last book on the market was “Death Speaks”, a suspense murder novel. Now a sampling of many more of my stories and poetry, hopefully for everyone to enjoy.

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Copyright © 2019 by Carol Joan Campbell.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2019915727

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-7960-6402-5

                Softcover        978-1-7960-6401-8

                eBook              978-1-7960-6400-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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 Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/10/2019

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CONTENTS

Writing

My Next Venture

Book Publishing

Her Voice

Reaching Larger Audiances

Family Matters And Stories

Fictional Stories

Creative Non-Fiction

Sounds Of A May Day

Dogs Have Memories Too

Poetry Children’s Poems

Poetry Adult

DEDICATED TO

MY BELOVED FAMILY

And Many Marvelous Friends

All of Whom Have Been Inspirations

For Many of The Writings In This Book.

Carol Joan Campbell

WRITING

Wanting to – doing it, and then what?

I STARTED WRITING when I was in high school – inspired by my creative writing class teacher. I found that I really enjoyed it. I wrote lots of things for many years, poems, stories, essays, etc. My mind kept coming up with so many things it seemed I just couldn’t write them fast enough. Occasionally I had something published in local papers which was fun. Nothing a writer loves more than to see their creations and their names written in a spot where it can be shared by hundreds of other people. An ego upper, and it makes you want to perhaps just do a little more.

The very first story I had published was when we lived in Lakeville, MN. I sent in a story to the local paper about our youngest son and two of his friends. It is titled Watching While Three Boys Grow Up. l received phone calls from strangers commenting on what a fantastic story it was. There was one gentleman who called and talked to me with such complimentary comments ending with All I know is that if I ever see anything written by Carol Joan Campbell, I will know it will be fantastic and I’ll be anxious to read it. What an ego upper that was and certainly Inspired me to write more.

At that point I never even dreamt of possibly writing a book – I was simply writing down ideas and expounding on them a bit more. I never actually thought of being published or entering contests. I had always kept journals, but mostly just thinking of them as history, but now I was beginning to look at them as possible story material. A perfect example of that will be seen as I insert that story at this point. It was published many years later in the Her Voice magazine in Brainerd, Minnesota and brought many wonderful comments my way.

WATCHING WHILE THREE BOYS GROW UP

There they sit eating – good old tuna fish sandwiches and bowls of chocolate ice cream.

They’re all young men now, getting ready to leave for college next week. They are a bit lost. Everyone else in the neighborhood went back to school. It’s a little strange. Sure, they had the summer off, but they were still just like everyone else, on vacation. Now they know it really is different, a chapter has definitely closed. The comfortable feel of the old familiar school, kids and teachers are no longer a part of them. A cord has been cut.

I look at these three faces. They’d been friends of my son since they were five years old and I picture those small faces in my mind just as clearly as when today I see these almost grown up faces. Comforting to know that they still enjoy their tuna sandwiches just as much as they always did.

They’re deeply discussing the possibility of joining ROTC and getting a taste of real military life. I remember them playing cops and robbers as little kids, celebrating the Fourth of July with their cap guns, seeing the thrill when they got their BB guns, then advanced to 22s, now they were real hunters.

They all went through the mixed emotions of their first downed bird -that subtle mixture of pride on actually hitting the mark and the horror of having taken the life of one of God’s creatures. They all had their personal struggle with that. They became hunters, apparently setting their priorities in the same manner – first birds and squirrels, then bigger birds pheasants, ducks and finally on to deer hunting. Two of them had attained their first deer by the time they were 17, truly becoming food providers. The other one will probably bag one this fall. They all share such a love of their environment and are concerned with keeping a clean, healthy world.

I saw all of them dress in their father’s service uniforms when it became the high school rage – fatigues and shirts. But now the idea of them in their own uniforms, marching to a strict cadence and carrying weapons sends currents of hesitating unbelief creeping into my thoughts. Are they really reaching manhood so quickly?

Yes, their peach fuzz is really turning into full-fledged whiskers. It’s been a long time since anyone has mistaken them for their sister over the phone. Now they get mixed up with their father’s voices. Somehow, I still hear their giggles and squeals, riding their skateboards down the hill.

I saw them shed tears as they took turns getting knees scraped as they wiped out on their two – wheeler bicycles. I’ve hugged them all at one time or another and talked gently to them to bring back smiles after small tiffs. I almost feel possessive of all of them. I’ve shared many special times in each of their lives, and they mean a lot to me. They have all been a big part of my son’s life and through him, a part of my life also.

I want to hear about all of their hopes and dreams, and if I could, I wish I could make them come true. I wish I could hover over all of them and protect them from hurts and temptations, but life must be challenged alone.

All of us as parents hope we have prepared them to face what may come. They’re not frightened, but we are. This is not their test to be off and on their own. This is our test. Have we brought them up with correct moral values? Have we taught them well to know right from wrong? Have we made them realize how important it is to study hard at college and not become fun-loving playboys? Ah yes, the right blend of work and play, that’s important too.

They have such responsibilities on their shoulders as they go on with their lives, for now they are an extension of us, open and vulnerable, to be judged not only for themselves, but showing the world what kind of upbringing they have had., We do pin great hopes on these young men.

Yes, these three dear souls I will always hope to have contact with and be concerned with, but I find less and less need to worry. My confidence builds that they are capable – they can do it! Okay world, I turn them over to you. Please balance them gently and carefully in your hands. They are most precious.

I know this piece was very meaningful because it wasn’t just words pulled from my head, but words written from my heart.

SOME MORE NFORMATION ABOUT ME

The next is a part of my autobiography, but I will put it down here just because it fits into this segment and informs you a little more about what kept me busy for several years.

When my husband Bill was hired by Sentry insurance, back then Hardware Mutual of Stevens Point, the stipulation was that the wife would not be employed. The reasoning behind it was that they felt if a wife had a job, the insurance employee would not work as hard to sell insurance – therefore providing well for his family. All we wives were made to feel that we were important and a part of the company. The sales people’s wives were trained to answer the phone properly knew what we should take down for information, if they got a new car and what we could tell them would be covered or when they should call the company directly and so forth. Therefore, we felt it was important. It also gave us opportunities to be stay-at-home wives and be there for our kids whenever they needed us. So be it – I was very content with that role and never felt that I was deprived by not being able to have a career along the way. That way of thinking certainly wouldn’t go over well in this day of age, but we felt we were privileged to have the opportunity to do it.

I was happy to be home with the kids and take care of things on the home front and became very absorbed in school activities. I served as PTA president several times. We lived across from Washburn elementary school in Bloomington, MN where both Brent and Laurie attended so it was easy for me to be a willing volunteer. At that time they asked for volunteers to come over and help in the kitchen – certainly a big no-no in this day of age, but back then we served a very important role. We helped to make sandwiches and in every other way to help with fixing whatever was being served that day. It was a lot of fun and a special bonus was the fact that the day we served in the kitchen, they always divided up leftover food and sent us home with big cans of good food. We had a ready-made dinner that evening and probably for a couple of evenings and it was fun working with the cooks and everyone else. Another thing that could never be done now.

I was also a room mother and got to know the staff quite well. As the kids were getting into the higher grades, I wasn’t quite as active in the school system but active enough to know what was going on and did what I could to be involved.

We lived in Bloomington until 1970 when we moved to Lakeville, MN. Laurie was in junior high, Bruce was in 11th grade attending Lincoln high school, and Brent would be entering kindergarten. When we moved into our new home there were many kids the same age as Brent so he had lots of playmates. This also started out new associations back into the school system and I found lots of fun things to do. This is when I met Carole – she had been active in the school system in Lakeville for her other daughter Becky, and now had another daughter Nancy (Muffin) who was Brent’s age. That began a wonderful friendship between she and I plus our husbands, Bill and Dale got along well, so we became best friends as couples. Carole and I worked together all through Brent and Muffin’s school years and made lots of fun things happen for the kids. Again, we each served as presidents of PTA co – presidents and always together on big productions of fun things to do for the kids. We both knew Bob Indihar, the principal at Orchard Lake school where the kids attended and all in all it was just lots of fun and games

In high school, Brent became a member of the Now and Then singers group and that was a marvelous time for both Bill and I. Bill decided to get his school bus driver’s license and we became chaperones and when he drove the school bus everywhere to take the Now and Then singers when they were performing and competing, he did not charge anything for his time put in. That meant we were able to see all of the productions, which was a fantastic opportunity. We felt as if we had 30 kids and became so attached to all of them. The grand finale was when school came to an end and our kids graduated in 1983, Carole, Dale and Bill and I were in charge of their all night party. A big undertaking but of course we knew what we were doing and we did it and it was a grand school function. When I first told Brent that we were going to be in charge of the party, he hesitated and then said I suppose that means you’ll be there all night long right? I of course said yes – then he continued, as much as you and Carole have always done for everything here, I know it’s going to be done well. It certainly made our day.

Now to get back to the reason of writing this right now – after Brent graduated, I wasn’t quite sure what new direction I might go with my volunteering. I had been very active at our church, Christ the King in Bloomington, we still attended there, and I served in several areas, playing the organ, playing the piano for choirs, helping with secretarial – most anywhere they needed me, but I still somehow felt I could do other things.

That was when they had been building a new hospital in Burnsville – Fairview Ridges, and that became my next quest. I started volunteering there as soon as it was opened. I told them specifically that I really did not want much to do with patients and so forth but that I really enjoyed helping out in any areas of secretarial services – answering telephones and so forth. They suggested I could work in Doc mail outs this was a job