Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Yeah, it’s one of those Saturdays. Ideas available, actually writing, as in typing and producing words and sentences, more elusive. Very reminiscent of Saturday mornings trying to reach the prize in the bottom of the box of Sugar Smacks. By unspoken rule, it was not permissible to pour every single, brown and light-brown football-shaped morsel out of the box and fish out the sought after item. You had to eat your way down to the bottom of the box. Given that breakfast cereal was available in the morning, and only in the morning, the process involved days, not hours. (Which, as we all know, to a child under 10 years old, means enduring what feels like weeks and months of waiting.) That it took a week or two before having the opportunity to get the ‘Prize Inside’, (and those in charge of marketing were, in no way ambiguous as to the character of the item; it was not a toy, it was not a tool, it was not even a gift…. it was a Prize! with all attendant emotional levy attached to any failure to be awarded the Prize), was not the worst part. The existence of siblings, was. Most, if not all siblings coveted ‘the Prize’ nearly as much as you did, which made the time between the arrival (‘hey ma! don’t forget!! Sugar Smacks!!”) and possession of the Prize, every bit the pre-adolescent version of Spassky-Fisher (1972) S4-B7 Casablanca B4-S5 to eat as much as possible or to watch and not eat, swooping in when the competing breakfasteer is in the bathroom, paying the price of over-confidence.
Oh man! It’s Saturday near-night, 6:23 pm and all I have is my intro (that I wrote this morning and thought was hilarious …then) lol
1) Josie and the effort she puts into the weekly TToT. There is a great deal of work and effort behind a bloghop and, the ironic thing about those who work the hardest, is that it usually doesn’t show. It’s all, ‘hey! look a bloghop and all that’s required is that I link a post that describes 10 things that cause gratitude to break out.’ cool
2) A good standby item is technology and I’ll put it here at number 2 simply because I’m still trying to decide if I’ll be using any of the photos or videos that I did today. That I can is a gift of the times, that I will, is another matter entirely.
3) Phyllis and Una are in my TToT each week because they form the central point of what I am here, in the ‘sphere.
4) the Wakefield Doctrine is way up at the top of most lists because it is the reason I’m here writing. Had I not come to the point that I felt the need to delve into the virtual world by writing a blog for the express purpose of promoting this rather fun and useful personality theory, I totally would not be here, writing, today.
5) ‘Home and Heart‘ specifically and writing, generally. Working on Chapter 3. This writing thing is all kinds of challenging. There’s a lesson I try to remember whenever I get bogged down. That is simply to remember to get out of my own way. The story is already there, my characters know the story, all I have to do is get them to tell lit to me, so I can write it down. Simple idea. Easily forgotten when I let my brain get involved.
6) The Graviteers over to the Gravity Challenge. val and lisa and joy and kristi and sarah and may
7) zoe’s Six Sentence Story.… if school had been as positive a learning/skill-developing experience as that which zoe’s created at her bloghop, one can only wonder where I might be today!
8) Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)
9) something something (left open for Sunday update!)
10) SR 1.3 the best of all Secret Rules!
About clarkscottroger
Loved you description of Saturday mornings in seasons past. I remember looking forward to the stories written on the cardboard separators between shredded wheat. I enjoyed reading those stories. I don’t remember my parents buying the cereal with the prizes, although I do recall the toys that came inside Crackerjack boxes. Your #2 with “That I can is a gift of the times, that I will is another matter entirely,” made me laugh. I also got a chuckle from #5 with your remembering to get out of your way as you write. I need to practice that.
shredded wheat! what a specialized cereal! everything about it was different, from the ‘sugaring technique’ to whether it was broken up before or after the milk! I’m running into the ‘getting in my own way’ with ‘Home and Heart’… I suppose recognizing the problem is the first step, but it should be the whole step! lol (actually one of the things I do to offset that is to give myself permission to write a ‘bad chapter’ lol
Really, how much did you have to pay/direct Phyllis to make that video? So didn’t you try reaching your entire arm into the box of Sugar Smacks, with the little puffed wheats, sugar coated, of course, (which is probably the beginning of the epidemic here) sticking to your arm as your fingers opened and closed and delved as deep as they had to? I have a pretty good memory of that and I was a huge fan of Sugar Smacks (not Sugar Pops) back in the day.
I think I tried, but, for whatever reason, only once. The cereal of those days were certainly different than whatever passes for breakfast food nowadays.
Sugar Smacks! The milk they made was exceptional and surely tied with Coco Puffs :)
#2 is a point well taken. A Good reminder.
there was the odd sugar and something overdose that happened from time to time
Always thankful I am for this here Doctrine. :) I am also enjoying your new story and hope that you have a great rest-of-your weekend. I’m grateful for family we have in town and for all the running around that goes with it. LOL. Not being sarcastic, but it is just a wee bit busy. Hehe. Sending hugs!
thats good, think I’m finding my head for writing ‘Home and Heart’… getting something down on paper, should be out by Tuesday.
Thanks and take it… ‘easy’ (misnomer most of the time… lol)
A trip to the past! My favorite prizes were in Cracker Jacks because there was no sharing with siblings, it took a few minutes to eat my way to the goodies, and, well, like you said, it was a PRIZE! Thanks for the journey down memory lane!
you’re welcome and speaking of welcome, ‘welcome to the TToT one of the top three bloghops in the whole damn ‘sphere’
In that second vid, Una’s voice is deeper than I expected. Lol
lol… especially in contrast to her orca voice that we normally hear on our walks!
Well, you’ve certainly sent your readers down memory lane, as we all seem to remember the excitement of the prizes in the cereal boxes!
funny which seemingly mundane elements of life have the (emotional) longevity.
Funny you should start off your post with that breakfast story. My nephew is almost five and he was at my house just yesterday, asking for some Lucky Charms. He only eats the marshmallows and leaves the rest. He makes me remember my childhood and I am glad you started things off the way you have.
It was fun. Being old, I will suggest that I lived in the Golden Age of Breakfast cereals. I was just stopping with the cereal eating about the time that Lucky Charms showed up, actually I was going to college and breakfast was not the preferred start to a good productive day. lol
I apologize for being such a late visitor to your TToT post! We are back from vacation now, and I am slowly getting back in gear and caught up!
I so enjoyed your trip down SugarSmacks memory lane. Those cereals tasted so much better then! Funny now when I recall that the “prizes” weren’t usually that amazing, and yet we couldn’t wait to be the one to find it. Having two siblings, that wasn’t always easy, and searching in the box or dumping it out was definitely not allowed by mom! Maybe Social Security should try to sell the “huge” annual cost of living increase as a “prize” and we would be more appreciative. :-)
Thank you for the shout out, I truly enjoy being part of the TToT magic each week. It is so uplifting to read each post and see all the good things in life in a world where people so often grumble. My tail is dragging this week (post vacation let down), and reading TToT posts this morning is the best remedy ever! I am grateful that Lizzi let me step in to help her keep it going.
I love my technology too, as in the ability to take pictures while on my trip and share them daily with friends and family. I love blogging from a tablet that goes along wherever I go, and remember years ago dreaming that such a thing would ever become possible.
Phyllis and Una are the best center to your world I can think of! What would we do without the significant others (furry and otherwise) in our lives to share the good times and hard times with? Your videos were super-cool, and I assume participants were duly compensated. :-)
Not surprisingly, I didn’t get any reading done on vacation, so now I have three chapters of your new book to read. I need to make time for that this week because I can’t wait to follow along! I know well you write, I often hit the same block you do, failing to stop and listen to the story that is already unfolding in my mind.
Zoe’s Six Sentence Stories… such an awesome weekly exercise, and now you’ve reminded me that there might be some late entries I missed last week, I need to go check that out!
It was fun ‘joining’ you on your roadtrip, even if only in photos…
funny, one of the horrible truths about life (like the legend of King Midas, its never what you’d hope) is that now that I am finally in a position to eat as much cereal as I want (and, yes, to open the box from the bottom), I just don’t seem to get around to it! what the heck!
TToT is a place that is very positive, in a world that sorely lacks an excess in places where people can converse and be silly and sincere and share what they would, all in the spirit of ‘ok, this not a contest or a judgement’
Finally have ‘Home and Heart’ on jukepop will be posting the link in tomorrow’s post