Tag Archives: short stories

306X: Moldy/smelly/musty

I had a book, probably from somewhere around 1955? or before?

It was a compilation, or a bunch of children’s stories.
It was appx. 81/2 x 11, the book was blue, dark blue on edges, and light blue in the middle? and the spine was maybe 2 inches wide?
My mom had given it to me when I moved out, and I had a flood in my basement, and the book got moldy/smelly/musty, and I tossed it, and forgot to write down the name.
Some of the stories in it were: The little match girl, the owl and the pussycat, and a million more.
I would love to purchase a copy of the book.

306O: Crushed Toys (Solved)

Hello, I remember a set of books (we had 2 but there may have more to the set) they where hard back and about 2in thick. Plain cover with no illustrations, short stories with just a title on the cover. Each story was about 10-15 pages long and had a illustration at the beginning of the story. I remember one illustration with a car that was 1950’s looking. One story was about a kid leaving his toys (toy cars maybe) in the driveway and dad came home and ran them over. I really don’t remember any other stories from the books. I think the covers where dark blue or grey. The stories where life lessons and not really fantasy, no talking birds or stuff like that, as far as I remember.

305X: Man Uses PC to Compensate for Memory Loss – Ultimately Both Die in Suicide Pact

I read a short story in the late 1970’s or early 80’s. I think it was in a collection of award winners – maybe science fiction, and may have come from Scholastic or similar program. It is not Living Will.

A man is faced with progressive memory loss (Alzheimer’s?). He programs a personal computer to help him cope with his declining mental condition and keep up appearances of normality so that he can continue to live independently.

All scenes take place in the room the computer is in and are from its perspective. It talks the man through getting dressed and ready each day, then waits for him to return home and pieces together his day based on the contents of his pockets.

It monitors the progression of his deterioration and eventually concludes he is no longer able to function safely on his own. It initiates a euthanasia protocol per its programming and then begins deleting its files – apparently because its only purpose was to take care of the man and he is gone.

I remember it as not so much a science fiction story, but a tragic love story.

305Q: Happy & Hoppy

This paperback (actually more of a pamphlet) was available in the 1960s. It contained several short stories. I believe it was blue and white. One of the stories involved a lost dog (I think it was a large black dog).

Another of the stories involved woodland creatures and lanterns in the woods. I believe there were characters named Happy & Hoppy.

 

The title is 1960s blue stories pamphlet

 

304Z: Frosting was everywhere

I’m trying to find a book that I read in the 90’s. Not sure when it was published. It was a large hard cover book with pictures and several short stories. One of the stories was about a poor brother and sister who had to walk past a bakery every day. The owner was rude to them. One day as they walked by, they saw the frosting machine had tangled the owner, and frosting was everywhere. They helped her and she was nice and gave them baked goods. Another story was about a girl with 2 sisters who were trying to woo a prince. She baked him a pie, I think it was strawberry. And it won his heart. I hope this is enough info. Thanks!

304X: Volunteers for an experiment

This was the best story I ever read.  I was in maybe the fifth grade, in 1959(?) and it was in a collection of short stories that was in our classroom for when you had finished your work early.  It was not a brand-new book then, either.

But the story!  These two unemployed guys are looking through the want ads, and they find a doctor who wants volunteers for an experiment.  He has a diving board that faces a black window.  The volunteer is supposed to jump from the diving board into that unknown space.  Well, one of the guys does it, but he never comes back.  So his friend returns to the doctor’s office and jumps through it himself.  He describes what it was like:  dim and twilit, with backwards writing on can labels, a sort of wasteland with boulders, and here and there a glowing luminescent ultra-violet hint, not too bright, but noticeable.  Maybe two or three of these lights in the whole landscape.  He figures out that his friend fell in the rocks and was killed, because of the improper alignment of this other world with our own.  I mean, you can’t just jump into it and assume you will be all right.  So he thinks some more, and realizes that the glowing spots are places in our own world.  One of them is the University, and the other appears to be the doctor’s laboratory.  So with great effort he leaps in some way back into the doctor’s laboratory, and then throw the doctor himself through the window into the blackness.

So, does this sound at all familiar?  I’ve never been able to find it again.  I think of it as The Diving Board and the Black Window, but that’s probably not the name of it.

 

If you can find it, I would be so happy!

303B: The dead man’s childhood mementos

I am 66 years old, but when I was in elementary school in Mountain View, CA, I read a short story in some reading textbook (probably from the 1950s) that I have thought about ever since. It was a “Western”. I do not remember the story’s title, but there was an illustration showing a rough-looking man in black who was an outlaw and who was being hunted by a sheriff (I think for murder).

The outlaw made it to a place where he had buried what the reader was led to believe was a treasure box. When he was killed, and the authorities opened the box, it was filled with the dead man’s little childhood mementos.

There was an illustration of the open box as well.

It had a profound effect on me, and I would love to be able to read it again.

 

302M: Gray binding and Wild Swans

I am trying to identify and purchase a copy of a children’s lit anthology I had as a child. The copy I had was hardcover, gray binding with a bright green repeating motif on the cover. Among the stories included was HC Andersen’s “The Wild Swans.” There was another story about a princess sent to live with a family that had five girls whose last names ended in “-belle,” and a youngest sister Echo.

301X: Shoes that looked like ballet slippers and a string of pearls

The book that I have been unsuccessfully searching for is a book of short stories for girls that was published in the mid 1960’s.  I recall purchasing it at a school book fair, most likely in junior high.  The stories were mostly coming of age stories for teenage girls.  One story told of a girl who did not fit in in high school, and she wanted new clothes that she believed would help.  I remember she wanted to buy “shoes that look like ballet slippers and a string of pearls.  I seem to recall that she also played the piano.  Another story was about a girl who felt very unattractive and her dad said something to the effect of she was not a pretty girl but she was going to be a beautiful woman.  I have searched for this collection of short stories for many years and have found many collections, but not this particular one.  I would be very grateful if you might have any information about this elusive book.  Thank you for any suggestions you may have.

301V: Two girls and a worm monster

For years I’ve thought about a short story I read some time between 1997 and 2007.  I’d estimate 2000 – 2006.  I imagine it was in Harpers, Atlantic, or New Yorker.  I’ve never been able to find it.

In the story there are two girls.  I think English, maybe Canadian.  They are in the woods and they see some horrible creature.  I think a worm, a giant worm.

Then it’s 60 years later and the narrator sees the girl, now all grown up, at a sight-seeing visit.

The atmosphere really affected me.  I was reminded of Alice Munro and then I suppose later of “My Brilliant Friend” by Ferrante.

I can’t find it because googling ‘worm’ or ‘monster’ or ‘two girls’ gives too many silly hits.

Any sleuths out there?