Matt Ward

“Where or When” by Matt Ward

Where or When The subway train riders in New York City often don’t have the courtesies of the earlier generations. Five days a week she still had to take the train back and forth to work, even at age 84 because she could not exist without that meager income from her sewing job in the coat factory. She was lucky they let her continue at her age. Was it because they felt sorry for her and knew she needed the job, or was it simply because she was one of the best seamstresses they had? At least, her eyesight had not failed her. Moderately stro...

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“Where or When” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #265

Where or When The subway train riders in New York City often don’t have the courtesies of the earlier generations. Five days a week she still had to take the train back and forth to work, even at age 84 because she could not exist without that meager income from her sewing job in the coat factory. She was lucky they let her continue at her age. Was it because they felt sorry for her and knew she needed the job, or was it simply because she was one of the best seamstresses they had? At least, her eyesight had not failed her. Moderately stro...

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“A Celebration of Life” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #255

Contains the sadness of death of a loved one. A Celebration of Life A Celebration of Life. That’s what they call it nowadays. Funeral service, Memorial, Wake, Requiem Mass, there’s lots of names for it. But, for the widow or widower who truly loved the spouse, they all mean the same thing . . . separation, loneliness, despair.          Such was the case for Mrs. Anna Kestler. She and Samuel had been married sixty years. Two daughters and six grandchildren had come from this union. It had been a b...

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“Ain't Genealogy Great” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #252

Ain’t Genealogy Great!(Based on a true story) Walter Hanson was from East Tennessee. He was a proud southern gentleman. Maybe not so proud of the south’s slavery history, but still loyal to the memory of his ancestors. Proud that his great-great-grandfather had fought in the Civil War for the South. Proud of the tombstone in the local cemetery that, while not marking the grave of his progenitor, it did commemorate the man’s loyalty to the south with the inscription, “Jacob L. Arbeiter, Cpl. CSA, 1834 – 1865.” Proud to be the great-great gran...

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“The Last Picnic” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #230

The Last Picnic            It was a beautiful day in early September. The kind of day his late father called a Glory Day, the requirements of which were a deep blue sky and, if there were any clouds at all, they had to be the soft, very white, billowy type. And the temperature neither too hot, nor too cool. Perfect picnic weather.            And a picnic was just what he had planned for himself and his sweetheart-wife of 47 years.&...

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“Flowers for a Place” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #212

Flowers for a Place To the current residents Upstairs Apartment 302 Locust St. Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee No doubt you wonder why a stranger has sent you flowers. It is, in this instance, not because of who you are, but because of where you are― a modest little upstairs apartment that has much significance for me. Please let me tell you a bit of its history. In 1941, a widow and one fresh-out-of-high-school daughter moved back to their hometown of Mt. Pleasant from Nashville. The mother, Annie Lou Hutcheson, was a seamstres...

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“Bully Teacher, Bully Kid” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #140

Bully Teacher, Bully Kid (Based on a true story) I am from Albuquerque, New Mexico and, yes, I’m Mexican American, born here but of Hispanic parents. But the story I’m about to tell you happened in a small town in California.  I was visiting my grandmother during the summer vacation from school.  It was 1989, I was 14 years old.  My grandmother lived just a block away from the local high school. During the summer, the school’s gym was kept open for the town’s teens to have something to do. There was also a small ...

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“The Last Picnic” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #138

The Last Picnic            It was a beautiful day in early September, the kind of day his late father called a Glory Day, the requirements of which were a deep blue sky, if there were any clouds at all they had to be the soft, very white, billowy type, and the temperature neither too hot, nor too cool. Perfect picnic weather.            And a picnic was just what he had planned for himself and his sweetheart-wife of 47 years.&nbs...

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“Ain't Genealogy Great!” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #124

Ain’t Genealogy Great! (Based on a true story) Walter Hanson was from East Tennessee. He was a proud southern gentleman. Maybe not so proud of the south’s slavery history, but still loyal to the memory of his ancestors. Proud that his great-great-grandfather had fought in the Civil War for the South. Proud of the tombstone in the local cemetery that, while not marking the grave of his progenitor, it did commemorate the man’s loyalty to the south with the inscription, “Jacob L. Arbeiter, Cpl. CSA, 1834 – 1865.” Proud to be the great-great...

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“Ain't Genealogy Great!” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #107

Ain’t Genealogy Great! (Based on a true story) Walter Hanson was from East Tennessee. He was a proud southern gentleman. Maybe not so proud of the south’s slavery history, but still loyal to the memory of his ancestors. Proud that his great-great-grandfather had fought in the Civil War for the South. Proud of the tombstone in the local cemetery that, while not marking the grave of his progenitor, it did commemorate the man’s loyalty to the south with the inscription, “Jacob L. Arbeiter, Cpl. CSA, 1834 – 1865.” Jacob Arbeiter was a Germ...

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“Ain't Genealogy Great!” by Matt Ward

Ain’t Genealogy Great! Walter Hanson was from East Tennessee. He was a proud southern gentleman. Maybe not so proud of the south’s slavery history, but still loyal to the memory of his ancestors. Proud that his great-great-grandfather had fought in the Civil War for the South. Proud of the tombstone in the local cemetery that, while not marking the grave of his progenitor, it did commemorate the man’s loyalty to the south with the inscription, “Jacob L. Arbeiter, Cpl. CSA, 1834 – 1865.” Jacob Arbeiter was a German immigrant who had lef...

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“Forsake Not the Entertainment of Strangers” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #96

Forsake Not the Entertainment of Strangers (A True Story) The year was 1981. My wife, Pat, and I had just checked out the vacant one-bedroom apartment on the back of our house, making sure that it was clean and ready to advertise for the next tenant. Little did we know that it was about to become a guest room with kitchen and bath. Before we got around to putting an advertisement in the paper as to its availability, an article in the paper caught our eye. A local lady who worked in a homeless shelter had been contacted by some Romanian e...

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“What I Wish I Had Said” by Matt Ward

Submitted to Contest #76

The following story is a true story. It probably will be rejected as non-complaint because it is reversing the #5 proposal. I wrote about what I said to a person as a child, which was too little; and then what I am always thinking I should have said now that I am an adult of nearly 78 years. Still, it is cathartic for me to express this if only one person reads it. What I Wish I Had Said When my mother was pregnant, expecting me, it was the height of the Second World War. My father had been drafted into the Army during and was ship...

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