8-30-17


Back in June 2016, I started a new "series" of posts... if you will... 
 And so on Wednesdays; I've been posting an old photograph to inspire your creativity.
Write a poem!   
 Plot out a short story.
 Have inspiration for a piece of art or composition.... let your artistic soul shine.
--and occasionally I write my own sordid story or poem. 
 (you can click on the photos in this post to make it larger to see).

~~~

Sometimes in the stack of photos that I find, there will be landscapes and travel photographs.
This is one. Judging by the age of the photo itself, this is from the 1950s... but I don't know where.

I imagine, this was a once in a lifetime trip for a young man named Arnie.
He had just finished with his military service oversees... and was taking his last day before returning home to Wichita, to see a few sights. He stumbled upon this local treasure, and decided to take a shot. He would have taken more photos, but it seems as though this was the last one on his roll, and he had no spare change to buy more film. And so he wandered around for the rest of the day... trying to memorize the sights, the sounds... the feel of this foreign land. It was as he sat humming a soft tune to the geese in the ponds, that he saw her. An Asian beauty of the likes he had never seen before.
Emboldened by the shortness of the remaining time he had, he asked her to walk with him.
She did. In fact, they walked all night... and into the dusky morning.
Her name was Dongfeng (Chinese for "East Wind")... her parents had named her after hopes of prosperity for their country,
 but Arnie just called her "Donna"... and she smiled.
In the wee hours of the morning, they contacted every agency possible... and made arrangements to not only get married
... but to get her travel arrangements back with him to Wichita.
28hours later, they were in Kansas... and Donna and Arnie were meeting his parents.
It was a great beginning ... and a very happy (and yes, prosperous) new life for them both.