Things I've Done That I'm Sure At Least One Other Person Out There Has Done...

[ksmith]

But One Has to Start Somewhere

1) Rode an elephant.
2) Been stalked in Berlin (ok, I was 15, part of a group of girls. But it sounds eerie.)
3) Had lunch at American Legion Post #1 in Paris (I've used this one before)
4) Had dinner with George Steinbrenner (He used to support my college, and came to the Homecoming Banquet one year. It's a stretch, but I'm sticking with it.)
5) Caused a lab explosion. (It was small. More a big sputter, actually)
6) Put out a lab fire. (not related to #5, and not mine)
7) saw Lauren Bacall play the starring role in "Applause" on the London stage
8) Had tea in a Berlin convent
9) Sold the first novel I wrote
10) Knew someone who was alive in the 1870s (her name was Fanny, and she lived a couple doors down from my grandparents in Florida, She wore long dresses and bonnets year 'round. I used to visit her after school--she served me homemade vegetable juice, which may well have been the secret of her longevity. She was in her 90s in the mid-60s, hence my estimate as to age.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

I've done none of these but 9, and even that only if you count a packager book contracted for before it was written.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I've ridden an elephant! A very bored elephant, at a very hot state fair, when I was a pre-teen.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I've ridden an elephant! A very bored elephant, at a very hot state fair, when I was a pre-teen.

Yep--pretty much the same circumstances. I was 6 or 7, at a small town VFW fair. I rode it over and over--most times, I was the only rider. I still remember the bristley feel of its neck and back.

Now, of course, I wonder if it was well-treated and cared for...

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I remember the ways its skin was like human skin, with the hairs and little triangles and pores, only magnified times ten--

--and I hope it wasn't starved and mistreated, and worry about it in retrospect.

They had a camel too, but I was only interested in the elephant.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

We Know my memory is no longer any good, but I have a strong memory of riding an elephant (a small elephant, but a real elephant.) A real memory? And I did sell my first novel, if not in its first incarnation. But it was first--

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

If you went to a fair as a youngster, you may have ridden an elephant.

The one I rode was small, too.

Yeah, CODE wasn't exactly first incarnation, but it was the first novel.