It’s time again for Friday Fictioneers which is brought to you each week by Rochelle at Addicted to Purple.
A special thank you to Marie Gail Stratford for the sharing of her photograph.
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From Boney Fingers to Chopsticks
Grandma had teased her from real young about her weight. Reachin’ down with her bony, sharp nailed fingers, she’d just grab onta the bulge hanging over her pants and twist. It always left a bruise.
As an adult weighing over 200 pounds she felt ashamed of her size 18 pants, and finally decided to do something about it. Making friends with Shiomi at work, she asked her for lessons on the use of chopsticks. She told her,
“Tryin’ta eat with them might slow me down some and I’ll lose some weight!”
She was dismayed at how quickly she’d become proficient.
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Words: 100
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For some really great takes on this weeks prompt, please look
~ HERE ~
Notes on today’s writing:
It is said that you should write from what you know. Taking that to heart in today’s story there are some kernels of what I know in this piece. The character’s voice is my attempt at recreating from memory the sound of my grandmother. She was a coal miner’s daughter from Virginia. Did it work?
Life on the Farmlet 
Your layout looks amazing!
Thank you! It was far more difficult to tweak than I ever imagined.
Ha ha, that’s funny, learn to use chopsticks so she will eat slower. If anything, she’ll eat faster. 😀 Great story. As for the voice, I can really detect a southern accent. Nicely done!
Thank you, Y. Zheng, I’m glad you liked it and the voice worked for you!
sad: kernels
They are indeed.
What a tactless Grandma.
Louise, you can cover up a bruised belly, but there is no hiding a bruised cheek. What is it about grandmothers and the need to pinch soft body parts? ‘-)
Tactless? You hit it on the head.
Excellent story! I think you nailed the voice. 🙂
Keep cheering me on, Pam… I think my head may explode!
Seriously, thank you for your comments.
Haha there are no shortcuts in life. loved the story.
Nope, there surely are not, Lelia. Glad you enjoyed the story!
Very funny! New layout looks and feels really lovely. Well done. Bet you all glad that’s over – once you start fiddling, you never seem to stop 😀
Thank you, Annie! And yes, the newness of a blog page redo does keep you fiddling… even when you know you have other things to get done! HA!
two chop sticks up on that story.
Ha. that was funny.
I guess you could say that a good pair of chop sticks will help you eat chop-chop!
Randy
You have a great sense of humor, Randy. Even your comments are fun! Thank you!
lol very funny 🙂 glad she’s not my grandma. in fact, my grandma’s always trying to make me fat. what is it about grandmothers always picking on their granddaughters’ weight.
I haven’t the foggiest, K.Z., but I suspect if I had been thin, that mine would still have picked on me! 😉
Glad you liked my efforts this week, and thank you!
Dear Lynda,
I use chopsticks as I can’t eat Asian food with a fork. It just feels wrong. I can tell you that it doesn’t slow me down. 😉
As for your story. Funny and at the same time poignant. Nicely done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
I know what you mean, Rochelle, it is odd! Thank you, I had hoped for that kind of response!
Funny, clever ending … with an undertone of sad.
What is it about Grandmas? Not only the pinching, but the brutal honesty.
Great job as always, Lynda!
Laurie, I haven’t the foggiest! The Virginia grandma was always sweet as pie, but the German grandma was the pincher! Perhaps they feel it is a right of passage? But, we lived though it, and in spite of it we have some really good memories; Yes? ‘-)
Lol…sounds like my luck.
Dawn, me too. Thanks for reading!
I’ve been anxious to get over here and see how it looks, and I completely approve. It’s far more easily readable. The light gray’s a little hard, but to be quite frank, none of the really important stuff is in the tags, etc. As long as the posts, comments and such are good, it’s all good.
There never was a tweaker or twister in our whole family. As a matter of fact, there wasn’t even a cheek-pincher. Of course, we were Scandinavian, so maybe that makes a difference.
I did have to smile at your remark about writing what we know. I’ve got a post on the back burner that I’m writing against that theory! One of these days I’ll get to it.
I did have to laugh at the chopsticks. I never could eat rice with them, and then, at last, I was introduced to Chinese rice, which is stickier. Tricks of the trade!
Linda, Shiomi said that when she was a child her parents made her and her brother transfer a pile of dry rice from one plate to another to gain dexterity in using the chopsticks. I got pretty good with them, but never good enough for that task!
Lynda, Good and well-written story. Good accent. My one grandmother never pinched, but was always after my mom to put me on a diet. My dad finally told her not to mention my weight. I had a pretty, blond, and delicate cousin, and that made it worse. Well done. 🙂 —Susan
Thank you, Susan! The pinching grandmother told my parents to put me on a diet, and they did. I think it might have made a difference if it wasn’t made into a big issue. If you want your children to do a thing (eat right, read, exercise, etc.) then you have to model it. For good or ill children most always want to be just like their parents.
Lovely! The dismay of “she” – love that you never gave her a name. Then boney fingers to chopsticks.
Thank you, Alicia! In this way “She” might be anyone. 😉
What is it with grandmas? My was also complaining about my weight, although she was always very subtle about it, no pinching…Good story, brings back many memories.
Lora, I will never know I guess. Never had children, ergo, will never know if I carried the trait. I do suspect it is a learned thing. 😉
Dear Lynda, I thought the same thing – chopsticks and a diet would work well together, but with desperation comes resolve and the great invention of a fork! Great story Lynda – really, really great! Nan 🙂
Thank you, Nan, but mine doesn’t hold a chopstick to yours this week! You really are a clever writer.
Hilarious, Lynda!! Well, done… that line, “She was dismayed at how quickly she’d become proficient.” completely cracked me up! I love your sense of humor Lynda. I also love the imagery you create with words. You describe each character and event so well that I see it all very clear in my mind. Great writing!
You almost make me believe in my ability to write. As the blue image above says, it’s a story in 100 words and every one must count! It is very hard to make 100 words exactly, but I have been on a roll these past few weeks and enjoying it immensely. Thank you, Lori!