Just one - when I was a depressed teenager boiling over with anger whenever being unable to control things scared me, I slammed open and broke a dishwasher.

The resultant cost to repair it bankrupted my family, which was already teetering on the precipice of astronomical unpaid hospital bills. I wound up unable to go to college, got fired from a shoelace factory and did a nickel for small-time burglary.

...

Okay, okay. None of that - except for the first paragraph - is true.

GREAT post Scott, two legends going at over the loading a dishwasher! Absurd -- the basis of a brand of comedy. Glad Jenny Lumet was able to tap into that.

Glad to read you went personal with the dishwasher for mom Christmass story too. I liked it.

I actually put A LOT of myself, and my experiences in my stories. The most personal story I've ever written is a tradjedy entitled, "The Judas Project." I worked with a very close shade of the vilians in that story. And I have extensive experience in its backdrop: a warehouse.

Interesting to learn you lived in North Dakota at one point. One of my more recent stories, a supernatural western thriller entitled, "Indians of the Ancient Plains," actually takes place in the Badlands of South Dakota -- all be it 1000 A.D. I've only been through the Badlands once, and that was when I was a kid. Would have loved to have tapped you as a resource when writting that story, but alas now we're talkin' a year too late...

Keep up with these rockin' posts!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA