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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#61: Blast from the Past

Ah, nostalgia. For some, it’s a fun excuse to revisit a few of the more comforting or exciting times of our past. For others, it’s a way of life: clinging to the memory of a simpler time, or at least a time when things felt simpler…

But whether the past is something you look back on fondly or would rather run as far from as possible, it’s safe to say that we’re all shaped by our early experiences. And the same should be true for your characters! Even if you never include their backstory, delving into it as the writer helps create someone that feels fully developed and real.

This week’s prompts are therefore all about the past, and the many ways we choose to remember it. So put on some throwback tunes and break out the photo albums — it’s time to take a trip down memory lane.

🥇 Winner

“Olive Bread” by Phoebe Barr

🏆 Winner of Contest #61

I caught a late flight from the west coast to the funeral. Landed in Pittsburgh at four in the morning, not early enough to check into my hotel and get any sleep, not late enough to have gotten any real rest on the plane. My eyes felt heavy and itchy as I went through the motions of picking up my bags, catching a cab to the dingy hotel I’d selected for affordability, dropping off my bags, and picking up a greasy Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast sandwich just as the sun was rising. It was mid-May, but it was cold in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania di...

128 comments 128

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Ginger Snap” by Rambling Beth

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #61

It’s time to visit my father again.I hate going there, hate visiting him when he’s no longer the man who raised me. The care home is only a fifteen-minute drive, but I avoid that route even when I need to go shopping. My mother phones me twice a day, always to check on how my father is, but never to check on me. I understand why. It’s hard for her, difficult to accept that her husband can’t remember the woman he married.I pull up into the car park, turn off the engine, and stare at the wheel for a good five minutes. The care home workers are...

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“They Talk Back To You” by Chris Wagner

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #61

The Googly Goose talking phone came out in the early eighties, a push button toy that 'dialed ' your favorite Googly Goose characters and piped their recorded voices through a tinny corded handset. Consumer complaints around that era said that the device was prohibitively expensive and the thin wire often broke so you could no longer hear the audio, but dad was obsessed. He took it everywhere when he was a kid. He swears that, unlike other talking phones of that era, it said something different every time. Most people know ...

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“Old Spice and Old Men” by Dave Bolin

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #61

Daniel pulled the house key he had carried since he was 12 from his pocket, and jiggled it into the defiant doorknob. Why hadn’t Dad just replaced this old knob years ago? “Doorknob is fine! Helps keep burglars out.” Burglars aren’t using keys, Dad. The lock lost the battle, and Daniel stepped into the foyer. Motes of dust floated in the afternoon sun streaming through the half closed blinds, tiny apparitions in a house that had always haunted Daniel. He threw his keys instinctively on the buffet, scratched in the one area from years of ...

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This week's prompts

Write about a character passing down their favorite childhood toy to a new generation.

Adults – 122 stories

Write about a character who goes to — or purposefully avoids — their high school reunion.

Adults – 139 stories

Write about a character who smells something familiar and is instantly taken back to the first moment they smelled it.

Short Story – 219 stories

Write about a character discovering something new about their past that changes how they remember an important moment.

Dramatic – 139 stories

Write about a character who’s obsessed with an era they never lived through.

Adults – 100 stories

Stories

“Olive Bread” by Phoebe Barr

🏆 Winner of Contest #61

I caught a late flight from the west coast to the funeral. Landed in Pittsburgh at four in the morning, not early enough to check into my hotel and get any sleep, not late enough to have gotten any real rest on the plane. My eyes felt heavy and itchy as I went through the motions of picking up my bags, catching a cab to the dingy hotel I’d selected for affordability, dropping off my bags, and picking up a greasy Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast sandwich just as the sun was rising. It was mid-May, but it was cold in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania di...

128 comments 128

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“Annabella” by Robert Grandstaff

Submitted to Contest #61

Annabella A small Victorian cottage sat on the shores of New Hampshire, the last one in the row, with nearly endless views of the ocean and it’s shores. Two brothers approached the house with an unending discussion about the conversation they needed to have with their father. “You know I can’t stand talking to him.” said Andrew. “Yes, but he’s Father, and you know how he is,” said Michael. “Well, you’ve known him longer than I have, why don’t you tell him?” said Andrew. The two men stopped at the top of the steps to the...

195 comments 195

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“The Breath of Night” by 🆇🅰🆅🅸🅴🆁 🅶.🆂. 🅵🅴🆁🅶🆄🆂🅾🅽

Submitted to Contest #61

“The narrow crescent moon rises And the bleak September sun sets The wind of the east rises once more The Breath of Night has fallen.” Clovis sighed and tossed the parchment down into his luggage. If he had any intimacy toward poetry whatsoever, he might have cared about it. Something in the words stood out. They made him almost want to care. Something was different about them. “I represent the legacy of France!” He growled to himself, “If I knew…” he picked up the paper whose words had been scrawled out upon it fiercely and tossed...

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“Of her return” by Batool Hussain

Submitted to Contest #61

The hospital corridor is stuffy and the air has an undertone of bleach. The walls are magnolia and are scraped in places from the hundreds of trolleys that have bumped into them. The pictures on the walls are cheap benign prints of uplifting scenes and above the double doors are large blue plastic signs with the areas of the hospital that lie ahead. I am a mother now. A mother to a beautiful little baby girl. Tiny fingers curl around my pinky. I watch the newborn peer through brand new eyes at what must be such a strange world after life in ...

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“For Your Safety” by Jade Young

Submitted to Contest #61

I raise my eyes to the woman reflected back at me. Every part of her has been prepared to look like the queen she was destined to be since the day she was born--from the crown atop her braided updo to the dress that hugs her waist and billows at her feet. Whenever I see myself in a mirror, I no longer see the girl who exchanged whispered I love yous in her mother’s secret alcove a month ago. The dark pools of the eyes reflected back at me seem like they belong to another person entirely. The spark that used to be present since the day I firs...

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“The Dollhouse” by Melissa Hassan

Submitted to Contest #61

Lisa loves spending time with her maternal grandmother. Almost all her holidays, be it Fourth of July, Labour Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas, she has spent with her doting grandma. It has always been a long standing Montgomery family tradition to gather at their grandmother's ancestral home for any occasion. She had always loved visiting her grandma Rose for three very important reasons. The first being, she, Lisa, was her favourite granddaughter, and second, she absolutely loved her grandmother's cooking. Especially her double cho...

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“Worst Luck” by ♡ ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝 ♡

Submitted to Contest #61

This reunion is going to suck. I wasn’t disappointed as I walked through the door. The room was filled with the lifeless bodies of deflated balloons, and the few stray ones were floating and clashing in bright hideous colors - lime green, neon pink, and mustard yellow. A slow song was on, but the dance floor was practically empty, occupied only by a few people who brought their dates to the reunion with them. It seemed that Eve Zimmer and Brent Johnson ended up together. Surprising, they hated each other. Eve had a sparkling diam...

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“An Isolated Incident” by BeInspiredAbstracts/Etsy SarahGreenwood

Submitted to Contest #61

Abby usually did the laundry, but on the rare occasion that John did, the smell of the detergent took him back. Back to a time they had both erased from their memory. A time they promised to never speak of again. But the detergent had been only the beginning. They had been so excited, after a year of trying it finally happened, they couldn’t believe their eyes. But there it was, two pink lines staring back at them. John grabbed Abby in an embrace, both crying. Their labra...

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“Reunion? No Thanks” by B. W.

Submitted to Contest #61

September 19th, 2021.Dear Diary, How have you been? I know the last time i wrote in this was probably back in my First Year of Middle school, or was it somewhere in Elementary? I just didn't really...like writing in you.I never really wanted a Diary anyway, why didn't i just throw you out when i first got you? Oh right, Rosie probably would have been upset and gotten me a new one.Jeez i probably look or sound Crazy! Here i am, acting like this thing is alive. Why am i even writing this bit down?? I guess i should try not to question this stu...

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“My older sister?” by B. W.

Submitted to Contest #61

October 4th, 2023. Hello there Diary! I'm Hero. Wait- okay i'm not an ACTUAL Hero, My name is Hero. It's kind of a strange name, don't you think? I like it but why wasn't my name Hector or something? I'm kind of home-schooled so i don't know a lot people, mom decided to give me this so i could talk to at least something. She said a diary was "Something to tell your secrets to and that it won't spill the bean's like a liar." My mother's name is Iris, at least i think. A lot of people come to visit and that's what they call her. Her frie...

164 comments 164

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“Birth Right” by Lynn Penny

Submitted to Contest #61

I loved my Mother.I laughed when she told me her many stories that took place somewhere in the sky. I sang sweet songs with her as we folded the never-ending pile of laundry. I cried harder than any raging storm while I watched her life leave her body, leaving behind nothing but a shell of lost memories.I will always love my Mother for all the blessings she gave me.But for this one moment, hatred burns through my body, and I read the words she could never tell me with her living voice, a secret that I am sure tore her apart with every waking...

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“The Almost Breakup, Reese's Pieces, and a Baseball Cap (Part 2)” by ♡ ℂ𝕣𝕪𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕝 ♡

Submitted to Contest #61

Author’s Note: All of the sections inside of the italicized parts are the memories. This is a flashback from one of their dates! Hope you enjoy it!I sniff the candy Henry presented me with. I gasp and I am suddenly brought back to a memory I vaguely remember - the first time Henry brought me this chocolate. I was sixteen at the time, and I thought that our sixth date was going to be awesome. I was deeply disappointed. We were at a theater, and we had purchased tickets to a romantic comedy titled, "That's My Wife!" We entered the theater...

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“Sherwood Affairs: Part 1” by Meggy House

Submitted to Contest #61

“Do you remember when Mr. Feldspar had that affair with Ms. Worthington?” Emmaline asked her twin sister Geraldine. Of course their names rhymed, because they were twins, and of course their clothes matched, because they were twins, and of course they kept on repeating that they were such connected twins, because, well, they were twins. They had learned to tone it down because large corporations don’t exactly appreciate their employees coming in as carbon-copies of each other—...

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“Witness Testimonies” by Meggy House

Submitted to Contest #61

Where there’s a will, there’s a bunch of jealous relatives all vying for said will. Opal had read that in a History textbook when she was 12. Or maybe it was a parody textbook, considering how the whole book just made fun of the Medieval Kings of England. Either way, it was right! Here Opal sat, in court—if it could even be called that, considering that there was no formal process or organization at all—with every other adult "witness" from the Norwalk Street block, all recoun...

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“I'm Not Okay” by Writer Maniac

Submitted to Contest #61

The wonder that is an alarm clock goes off beautifully, boasting of its ability to temporarily make you go deaf.Groaning as I push it violently, almost managing to break it, I push off the blanket and place my bare feet on the cold floor.As I’m blinded by the splitting headache that makes a breathtaking reappearance after last night, my mother’s voice echoes in my head.“Too much alcohol isn’t good for you.”She is absolutely correct, as she is always.I smile thinking of my mother, her eyes always as big as saucepans while screaming the house ...

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$50

Prize money

719

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 02, 2020 EST

Won by Phoebe Barr 🏆

Title: Olive Bread

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

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